Can not get Apple TV 2 to output 5.1 Dolby audio

Drat the maintenance!

At any rate, as I intended to post, I found informaiton on my Sony receiver that may help others. When I have a compoent connected via HDMI, and the receiver connected to the TV via HDMI the sound will only be output to the TV speakers. So to get DD 5.1 I must use digital TOS link. This may apply to some other folks situations; the manuals should be consulted for specifics.

Not to drag it on Michael but what is the model of your receiver? I'd like to fill in holes in my own knowlege base.

If the information helps other folks on the board get their questions answered then its all good.

My receiver is a Sony STR-DG800. A few years ago it was a middle-of-the-road receiver.

Thankyou Ivan, your post helped me out.

Mine is connected through both the optical and hdmi. I had the same issue. I fixed it by changing the Dolby Digital setting from "Auto" to "On".

James, it's good to know!

I see everyone talking about handbrake, too.

I also saw someone say you can't connect optical and HDMI at the same time... I beg to differ. I have a toslink connection to my reciver AND an HDMI to my vizio tv. both work. at the same time. with DD5.1.

I haven't tried to turn the DD setting back to auto in 4.4.1 to see if the DD out issue ever got resolved when set to auto, but having it ON has caused no other issues.

regarding handbrake, I've had no trouble using the "apple TV2" preset that comes with handbrake, and I even delete the AC3 track and only use the AAC track (by default, handbrake will give you both AAC and AC3). works like a charm for me.

I noticed that audio seems to output through HDMI and optical at the same time; when I press mute on my remote, it mutes my receiver, which the Apple TV is connected to via optical, but audio keeps going through to my TV speakers, since it appears that the Apple TV outputs audio simultaneously through both the HDMI and optical ports.

This also means that when I adjust volume, I can't adjust the TV volume. Anyone else having similar issues?

I have my TV volume at 0 to work around this problem.

Same here; I was just hoping there was a setting I was missing. Seems kind of odd that there isn't a setting to choose where the audio goes if both HDMI and optical cables are plugged in. Or that it wouldn't default to optical for audio, since you have to have HDMI for video anyways, and the only reason you'd be plugging in optical audio is because you want the audio to utilize the optical connection.

Look, I need to chime in here. Here is my issue:

1. Before the latest update, 4.4.3, or whatever, my personal library that had Dolby digital 5.1 pass through WORKING now Does not. Let's not confuse this. I changed nothing But the Apple TV update and now I can't play Dolby digital content in anything But stereo no matter what I set the Auto/Dolby audio setting to.

This is a BUG in the latest Apple TV firmware. One of many. The other major ones are issues with Home Sharing dying And AirPlay quitting. The only workarounds are Reset of Apple TV and that's on Wired cat 6 networks.

So, let's be clear, when nothing changes but the firmware, and suddenly what used to work does not, the source of the bug is pretty clear - with the latest firmware. APPLE, give me a Christmas present - give me back stable home sharing and give me back my Dolby digital!

This is exactly what has happened to me. DD5.1 content from my iTunes library used to work fine. Now they don't. As of today, I have lastest s/w on both the ATV2 and iTunes and it still doesn't work. It's not a hardware fault as I have tried two ATV2's and it's not my amp as my Satellite Receiver into the same input works fine.

My specifics are HDMI and Optical into an Onkyo SR807 and HDMI back up to the TV. Music works fine (obviously stereo) but TV shows and movies provide no audio at all unless the Dolby Digital option in the ATV2 is set to Off and then I get Stereo (converted into Pro Logic 2x by my amp)

As you said, considering that it was working fine and dandy and now it's not and it's affecting multiple people it must me a bug. Quite a major one too. I have an Apple Express Lane thing booked on Monday evening. I'm interested in testing the legendary Apple Customer Support with a complicated issue.

similar problem. i am from Australia. I have itune 15.2 on a win 7computer. Apple TV connected via a/v receiver onkyo sr805 with a HDMI.no problems until i updated the s/w to ver4.4.4(3330). Now there is no sound but can see the player list and videos in the tv screen.Tried changing dolby options but none works

Apper to be a s/w issue.

Got it working. sw is ok. in the a/vreceiver i had to activate the digital output to HDMI 3 but the tv worked on HDMI1.

Thank you for all the iformation that is made available.

ColinFON wrote:

Those of you trying to use a speaker system via your new HDTV with HDMI. There is no TV on market that passes a 5.1 track THROUGH to another device. ALL of the TVs strip an incoming audio track from the HDMI input down to 2-ch PCM. Only content from on-board the TVs widgets (ex. Netflix) will output to the receiver in 5.1. Check the instructions, it's in there.

So this is key right here. Basically (and I just want to confirm so I can stop banging my head against the wall), there is no way to connect my iPad 2 to my HDTV and output a Dolby Digital signal to my AV receiver.

octafish wrote:

ColinFON wrote:

Those of you trying to use a speaker system via your new HDTV with HDMI. There is no TV on market that passes a 5.1 track THROUGH to another device. ALL of the TVs strip an incoming audio track from the HDMI input down to 2-ch PCM. Only content from on-board the TVs widgets (ex. Netflix) will output to the receiver in 5.1. Check the instructions, it's in there.

So this is key right here. Basically (and I just want to confirm so I can stop banging my head against the wall), there is no way to connect my iPad 2 to my HDTV and output a Dolby Digital signal to my AV receiver.

That's not the key at all, because it's complete nonsense. My Sony TV circa 2008 certainly passes DD5.1 from HDMI out its optical. It won't do it for DTS, though. So get back to banging your head. 😝