No sound on Multi-channel audio TV shows after 4.2 update

I have exactly the same issue with two movies that have multi-channel audio.

Does anyone actually test this software fully before releasing it?

i had that happen to me under 4.1.. flipping the setting for dolby digital off and then on fixed it..

I have the same problem too. Any video I have with 5.1 multi-channel AAC audio refuses to play any sound. For these videos it also doesn't seem to want play from the middle of the file - only from the very beginning.

I don't think this is limited to the AppleTV either, as both my iPhone 4 and iPad refuse to play the videos either!

Movies encoded with a 2 channel AAC track and an 5.1 AC3 (Dolby Digital) track seem to work perfectly fine though.

Same issue here, was watching a tv show with 5.1 aac track just fine last night. This morning I update my apple tv to 4.2 and no more audio, 2 channel stereo tracks work but no more multi-channel. To test this out I went out and bought another apple tv from my local apple store and sure enough the older firmware plays just fine. Spent over an hour with apple care trying to "fix" this but unfortunately I think we're going to have to wait for another update.

Ditto. I'm surprised they would release something that doesn't even work with their own content. You'd think they'd test this stuff.

Are the ones with the problems saying that movies with ONLY Dolby Digital (AC3) don't play audio? movies that have Dolby Digital + Stereo tracks work?

Officially.. Apple's video format must have at least one stereo track (allows playing anywhere). and then after that you can add more audio of whatever sort you want..

this sounds like it might be a little bit of history repeating itself... initially when they added Dolby Digital support they allowed for videos with DD as the only audio track.. then they defined the format, as needing at least one stereo audio track and then appleTV (gen.1) stopped playing videos with DD only.. then i guess there was an outcry and appleTV was updated to play these files again.. sounds like the same thing might be happening again as appleTV gen 2. software gets refined..

all my videos have both DD and stereo track and they work fine... i haven't tried a DD only one to see if it doesn't work..

if you have a video from iTunes (should have DD + a stereo tracks) or your own videos that have stereo and DD, it should definitely play fine.. that's another issue.. i'd try the toggling DD in setting off and on in that case.. that has worked for me in the past in 4.1..

tmartine wrote:
Are the ones with the problems saying that movies with ONLY Dolby Digital (AC3) don't play audio? movies that have Dolby Digital + Stereo tracks work?

i've come across 2 instances where movies with both digital and stereo tracks are silent.
i got the audio to play though by switching the audio track to stereo and then back to digital though.

this was with 1280x720 files, other HD files didn't have the problem.

I was able to get my 5.1 aac encoded video files to play on my updated AppleTV after a full restore. Not all my problems are fixed, but most seem to be. I'll investigate further and let you guys know what is still broke.

I was having the same problem with almost all my "home made" videos that had both, stereo and multi-channel audio tracks, but was finally able to fix it. Here is what I found:

I usually encode my "home made" Movies and TV-Shows with Handbrake ( http://handbrake.fr/) and then add iTunes-Store-like metadata with Subler ( http://code.google.com/p/subler/). I usually have a minimum of 3 tracks in the M4V Container:

- Video (H.264) as Track 1
- Stereo Sound (AAC) as Track 2
- Surround Sound (5.1 AC3) as Track 3

When comparing the "home made" videos to some original iTunes content I noticed, that Apple puts both Audio Tracks in a "Group" ("Alternate Group 1" in Subler for both Audio Tracks), but Handbrake doesn't. I changed that on a couple "home made" Videos and sure enough, I had my surround sound back.

Problem solved - at least for me.

Andreas Dobbertin wrote:
When comparing the "home made" videos to some original iTunes content I noticed, that Apple puts both Audio Tracks in a "Group" ("Alternate Group 1" in Subler for both Audio Tracks), but Handbrake doesn't. I changed that on a couple "home made" Videos and sure enough, I had my surround sound back.

interesting. can you show me a screengrab of itunes content in subler ?

I get the same problem.
I have 3 x Apple TV's. 2 without the update. They work like a dream still. The one I updated either (a) refuses to play a movie, or (b) plays with no sound. It will play movies I have purchased on itunes. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Message was edited by: grantos13

Chenks wrote:
interesting. can you show me a screengrab of itunes content in subler ?

Sure, here are screenshots of how the 3 standard tracks of an original iTunes TV Show looks like in Subler: http://img860.imageshack.us/g/subler1.png/

Notice how both Audio Tracks are in the same "Alternate Group: 1" while the Video Track is "Alternate Group: None"

I have the exact same issue. I have 2 Apple TV's. One I did the update and it has now the problem. Also my movie categories are all wrong on the Apple TV with the software Update.

doorsdown wrote:
I have the exact same issue. I have 2 Apple TV's. One I did the update and it has now the problem. Also my movie categories are all wrong on the Apple TV with the software Update.

Are you having these problems with original iTunes content or with "home made" movies and TV shows?
If it's with "home made" content, which program(s) did you use to create and meta-tag the movies?