Apple TV (2nd Generation) - No Audio on certain files

I ran the new update last night, but now I have issues playing video files from iTunes. Sticky playback with no audio. These are m4v files which I have previously played on Apple TV. Put it to sleep and the issue is no better today. After a power reset the problem is still present.
I'm connected to the TV with HDMI. Audio into a/v receiver with digital optical cable. All audio is good except through network from iTunes on my old Titanium Powerbook (used as a media server). Video playback from same source is "dodgy".
After digging through different forums today, I have learned that a reset within the ATV2 GUI will not work. It will force you to update to the newest version upon restart. The only, relatively easy option I found is to force the ATV2 into DFU mode.
Here's one link to a "How to": http://www.mydigitallife.info/2010/1...-restore-mode/

I have yet to attempt this fix. If anyone has any luck or discovers an alternate, please post.
' luck.

This is because they most likely have a Dolby Digital track and you have Dolby Digital passthru on. If you turn this off in the audio/video settings the ATV will use the first audio track which is aac and you will have audio.

Unfortunately this is not what is supposed to happen. A clear bug and missing QA on Apples part. In 4.2 this used to display an error until you played a file from itunes which has a DD track, then all was well. Now even if you play a file from iTunes with DD you still get no audio unless you tell it to ignore the DD track completely.

This really ***** since 95% of my content has multi channel DD and 2 channel AAC and I don't want to listen to movies in stereo.

I seriously doubt Apple will fix this soon though since they never bothered fixing the original bug. My guess is to just turn DD passthru to Auto and live with you ripped movies playing in stereo till iOS 5 and hopefully, hopefully they will have added a DD playback device playing a ripped movie with DD to their QA process.

Got to the "Settings" option on your ATV unit. Then select "General". Next "Audio". You'll find "Dolby" there.
However, mine is currently set to "Auto" a suggested above in this thread and I still have the problem.

Mistake in my last post.
"Settings"
"Audio & Video"
"Dolby Digital Out"
Sorry for any confusion.

I just tried the "Dolby fix"...no love there. I was already set to "Auto", but changed the setting to "Off". I still get a "burst of audio from the file every four seconds.

Does anyone from Apple monitor these threads? It would be nice to get some input from them, eh?
Maybe they're too busy with the release of iPad2 to deal with this.

The update, from what I have been able to figure out, has broken mp4 playback. M4v is fine, but mp4, will not play. Looks like this is the 3rd forum thread. Which is good, should make apple take notice.

Audio is clear for you on M4V?

Yes, it has no issues with playback..... Your post worries me a bit. My iTunes purchases are all M4V, but I rip to MP4. I have also converted wmv files to M4V files. Maybe it is the multi channels that is causing the issue. However, that would not explain my iTunes purchase, and playback in 5.1. How the eff, does this get missed in the two months of beta? Very frustrating.

This has happend since iOS 4.3!

I have some video content bought via iTunes and some which I have ripped from my own DVD's. The video content which was bought via iTunes works fine and it is the ripped content which doesn't.

The ripped content works fine if I sync it to an iPad or iPhone.

So is this Apple just protecting its content and stopping us stream our own ripped DVD's or is it a bug.......

There I was thinking all Apple need to do now is build a iTunes NAS and it would all work great, but now if this is how Apple are going to stop you steaming your own ripped DVD's then maybe you might have to look else where for a unit to stream.

If you all downgrade your iTunes to 10.1 it will work. You will lose airplay to your iPad and iPod though.

As I thought it is not the iOS 4.3 that is the issue, it is iTunes.

10.2 and 10.2.1 have the sound / unable to control your own ripped DVD's.

I downloaded 10.1.2 and restored my library.itl file from a backup from a month ago. It didn't fix this issue. It is the iOS update, not iTunes. I had 10.2 before the OS update, and it worked fine.

You also need iOS4.2 as well as the iTunes downgrade.

If you look at the ATV specification you will see the file types it supports and you will find the ones that don't work are not to that specification.

So you will need to encode your MP4's with the H.264 codec and then they will work. Or you will have to drop your resolution down for MPEG4 encoding.

Apple probably did this so that streaming would be compatible with their products and work without any problems.

Apple is aware of this issue and investigating a fix.

Brett L
Apple Discussions Host