Apple TV running 5.0, optical out not working, no sound

"I am certain that the Apple TV does not output on both HDMI and optical at the same time so it might be worth just checking the audio settings again"

this is false, you have output on both, hdmi and optical, at the same time

We just got one for Christmas, and I knew we would have an issue connecting it through the soundbar as the HDMI handshake is very unreliable on our Onkyo machine.

And then, after reading this thread I was even more worried that we would never be able to use our ATV propperly. However, turned out to be a non-issue:

I connected the ATV with the HDMI cable directly to the TV, and the ATV with an optical cable to the VCR optical in of the Onkyo. No further settings needed, works totally fine. All you have to do is mute your TV so you don't need two remotes to control the sound.

Good luck...

It was working fine... I don't understand. It was working fine on 5.1.1. I left it for a week and when I came back it wasn't working... Rolled back to 5.0.2, nothing changed.. So **** it. I'll take it to the repair since we don't have apple store in Russia...

What is Video 3 inputs? RGB? How do you put it in ATV? Via HDMI? I have a blu-ray player which has 2 optical inputs and 1 analog. They are working fine with other devices. It doesn't have an HDMI input though, only out. What do you I should do?

Mine has been running OK since my initial problems. It goes ATV2>Optical out>DAC>Phono inputs of amp. But I won't go this route again (I have two more rooms to sort out) without testing the Raspberry Pi running XMBC via Raspbmc OS. It is Airplay enabled.

Yeah, I understood it later :) I hook up ATV to the TV. I'll try differnt HDMI on TV. But I guess that's not the problem... There was some cliching in speakers for a little while, then it disappered. I haven't took it to repair service yet. So I can't tel if it's hardware problem. Did you plug in defferent optical in? How can it matter? Other devices work through same cable and same input... But I should probably get it also

My experience with 2 ATV(second and third generation) and 3 different DAC I own is that:

• With all the DAC it works with or without a TV connect to HDMI at the same time (with the exception of a firmware released about one year ago quickly fixed)
• With all the DAC it produce a digital loud noise, a kind of scratch, when is turned on for about 15 seconds (enough to burn tweeters) and after that it works correctly

Definitely get that noise, learned to live with that.

learn to live with that means that you have to start with volume setted to 0.

but you also have to remember that the box shut up after an hour (for most of us).

so if you forget it and play again on the device ... and the amp is on ... and volume is very loud .... the atv turn on ..... sccccrrrrratchhhhhh ... what's up ... why the music sound is so strange ? I can't ear high frequencies 🙂

Oh yes, my girlfriend really hates it. It's one of the reasons I am exploring the option I posted above....

Nice to hear it isn't just us suffering from it though 🙂

I'm not getting even this noise. I got no sound at all. Not even in the menu... No sound. No you tube, music, simple stereo. Could it be hardware, cuz it seems that there's no signal coming out from ATV at all through optical...

It works!!!!!!! So I was able to get it going again this morning through my reciever with optical!!!!!!! I was reading another thread about others running into different problems. Their fix was to connect to Mac and completely reset. I did a few resets on the device itself with the same outcome so I thought why not give it a shot.

First, I did not even know you could connect the device itself to an machine but you can.

1. I connected the ATV2 to my MacBook Pro using a mini USB (in back of device) to USB cable

2. Unplugged all other cables incuding the power

3. The device was then recognized in iTunes and it gave me the option to reset it, which I did.

4. Let that run and reconnected all cables once the rest was complete and wouldnt you know it, I have my optical back again!

In the other threads, others stated that Apple stores have been telling folks the new firmware update for some reason has been getting hung up and they have been doing this type of reset in the store with much success.

So, give this one a shot and see if it works for you too. I belive it will also work with a PC as well. In addition, I do not hear any noise in my feed (but there can be many different reasons for this; cable type, cables adjacent to optical, receiver type, etc...)

What do they say about ATV3? What firmware do you have? Cuz rolled back to 5.0.2 this way and it didn't help. Then I updated to 5.1.1 on the device normal way, nothing happened as well... Gotta try just to restore it through iTunes... Write back after