It utterly amazes me all the nonsense posted in this thread by Apple fanatics and apologists that don't know the first thing about audio equipment. If you don't know anything, you shouldn't post, in my opinion, let alone ARGUE and ARGUE and ARGUE against such a basic feature that was present in the original AppleTV Generation 1. Ultimately, this is a simple limitation of the iOS programming of the AppleTV itself. The fact that the very same AppleTV can drive another Airplay device such as an Airport Express unit and have volume control (in the speakers menu when you hold down the select button) but NOT the AppleTV itself shows this is a simple oversight as the AppleTV *IS* an Airplay device. It's almost ludicrous they would offer volume control for other rooms in your house and not at your AppleTV as it's INCONSISTENT and Apple usually aims for uniformity of features, not inconsistencies. Thus, it's sad they don't appear to pay any attention to feedback, but I'm not surprised. I've been trying to get them to recognize UNIX networking protocols as a sleep token for years now (so my Mac Mini doesn't go to sleep while an XBMC or other unit is accessing media from it). OSX *IS* UNIX certified, so the networking is there and even up-to-date, but their own quality control people forgot all about it for the SLEEP mode. I tell them in feedback and they IGNORE it even though it's a 100% legitimate complaint. I simply think the people running feedback are INCOMPETENT and don't pass along important things they should pass along to the right people (that if reminded probably would fix it promptly since it's a very very simple fix).
The same is true with AppleTV. This is a SIMPLE fix. Somehow, someone overlooked it. The original AppleTV had this feature (it also supported deluxe album artwork from iTunes PLUS that has NEVER been added either so this feature isn't the only one overlooked). The REASON it's overlooked is that the original Gen1 AppleTV ran on OSX and was based on Front Row. To make an iOS device into an AppleTV (with a totally different CPU at that), they had to basically start from scratch. iOS has limitations that OSX does not have as well (e.g. iOS only outputs a 48kHz signal. This is a limitation of the iOS output driver. The original AppleTV could output 44.1 kHz since OSX already has that capability. This means if you try to play a DTS CD over the new AppleTV, it will get converted to 48kHz by the sample rate converter and that will destroy the encoding and you will get noise. The original AppleTV would output it untouched and thus if your receiver decoded DTS, it would then play back the music in DTS and your DTS Audio CD would play as normal. The newer AppleTVs COULD be fixed to do this, but that would mean the audio output driver would have to be "upgraded" to handle more than just 48kHz. It would need that to also handle "audiophile" audio formats like 24-bit 96kHz output, but so far Apple has shown ZERO interest in high-end audio. OSX DOES have such support (because Pros make music with OSX with Logic Pro and people make movies, etc. with Final Cut Pro and thus OSX NEEDS such support). This is pure laziness on the iOS people. They play everything at 48kHz and so instead of upgrading the output driver, they just convert everything to 48kHz. This is a modification of the signal and upsets audiophiles even for basic things like 16-bit CDs stored in iTunes. But like before, complaining in feedback (as I have done) gets NOWHERE. Maybe if enough people complained, the would bother, but one complaint every other month won't get noticed as there are more than one people working in feedback and they won't notice it as a major complaint.
We KNOW that the newer AppleTV's volume CAN be changed as an Airplay device before output as iTunes can control/change it thus AppleTV should be able to do it too. It's just a simple change in the digital signal to attenuate volume (how anything from your Mac's volume control to your cable box can control volume). Some "audiophiles" think this drops resolution and thus hate digital volume control, but they're ignorant also as they get their information from foolish sources like Stereophile magazine (won't even go into that subject here). A real audio engineer will tell you that analog volume controls also drop resolution (it's called the noise floor and rated the signal-to-noise ratio). The gist is that whatever is lost digitally would also be below the audible noise floor if an analog control were used (i.e. you can't hear below a certain threshold and turning down the volume drops the audible content as it goes down at the lower end of that noise floor. The gist is you can't hear it either way. If it were a real problem, digital audio wouldn't work correctly in the first place, but then these same people would have you believe that analog records sound "better" than CDs. I have a high-end LP deck and high-end speakers. A good LP deck can sound wonderful. It can sound every bit as good to a human as the CD version, but that's a limit of the album itself. If the LP sounds better, it's because it's from a better mix or you prefer the distortion (even order is often pleasant). No way is it more accurate, but that's another topic. My point is that there is NO reason to not offer volume control in the AppleTV as an OPTION as the 1st Gen player did. As long as you can turn it off or not use it, there's NO HARM in having it and some people obviously want it as this thread clearly shows. Fanatics/Apologists ARGUING that it's "not needed" is BESIDE THE POINT and shows that their EGO is telling them because THEY don't want it, NO ONE should (error of logic and ego).
Also, "someone" on here said the AppleTV is NOT an "audio source" and pointed to tv speakers or stereo speakers instead. This is utter NONSENSE. In the audio world, the "source" is the same as a river. It's where it originates from, not where it's sent to. An audio source would be something like a record player (vinyl), CD player, 8-track player, cassette player, AM/FM Radio, etc. and that includes the AppleTV. If it's streaming, one might argue that the "cloud" or your "computer" is the actual "source" since that's where the digital files are stored and the AppleTV is simply passing it along, but in NO CASE is the "source" your TV speaker or your stereo speakers. The speakers are the final stage of the output to convert the analog output voltage into an actual pressure waveform in the air we call "audio" (and yes all speakers are ANALOG devices; the signal is converted to an analog AC voltage in ALL stereo equipment, even if it's internal to a powered speaker. There is a DAC (digital to analog converter) chip somewhere in the chain. If you sent a digital signal to a speaker directly, it would sound like garble (a bunch of square waves) and could damage your equipment (try sending a DTS signal to an AppleTV in WAV format; it will sound like very objectionable NOISE). In any case, any digital device between the "source" and the output could modify the signal as long as it has access to that stream. It's harder to deal with things like movie audio formats (e.g. Dolby Digital) because it has to be decoded first and then re-encoded to adjust the volume level and THAT is why the original AppleTV didn't allow volume adjustment of video sources. Yes, it could easily handle stereo sources for movies, but they probably wanted consistency with all video sources, which is understandable, at least.
The bottom line is this and other features are something they developers of AppleTV *CAN* address. The problem is getting them to actually do it. But I, for one, am sick of the Apple Apologists spending so much time ARGUING against why people shouldn't WANT such a feature, partiuclarly if they had it before and would like it to continue. The newer AppleTVs are a clear DOWNGRADE in some areas and in my opinion, they should not be the case. There is still no iTunes Plus support for albums and they only recently added the bonus content for movies (that Gen1 had for years and years). The only recently let you BUY movies from AppleTV (due to the Cloud feature) whereas they could have simply had it stream to your computer if available (and only offer it if available). But people made excuses for that missing features as well. If YOU don't care, fine. Stop telling other people not to care about missing features. Your viewpoint is not their viewpoint. Your opinion is not their opinion.
