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

Hey Folks. Just wanted to add another bit of info. I lost my optical sound from my receiver from ATV by plugging in my PVR into the other optical output. Essentially the settings on my receiver needed to be adjusted.

I have an older Yamaha receiver with 3rd gen ATV with the latest upgrade.

Just one more thing to check.:)

So an update.

After I did the microusb update, my optical out if function all the the time! No problems there anymore.

But funny, after update, when the ATV tries to connect to the wireless, it will not.

It says the password is wrong, but it does not allow me to put in a new password!?

Keeps things interesting huh? The issue I'm having now is with digital signal. The sound is working through my receiver but only as two channel. It may be a setting on the receiver but not that I have found yet. My receiver says it can handle signals of 96kHz. I have no idea what the ATV signal is...yeehaw.

@Fixfinn did you try to connect to another wireless signal that is locked, let it ask for password, cancel that, then try and connect to the correct Wifi signal? See if that forgets yours for a moment until you try and add again.

@Brog198 did the update change your Dolby digital output setting to off maybe? If so, turn that to on or if on auto also set to on, see if that does anything. Glad to hear the optical is at least working.

I just bought an ATV 3.. easy set up and only need plug and go. My TV have optical output and i didn't have problem when i was trying to connect my ATV to my hometheater set via my TV. But when playing music i didn't want to switch on my TV so i switched the optical cable through my ATV unfortunately my hometeather didn't get signal.. it's a crap. I was hopeless for several days.. Today i buy new a new optical cable.. cheap and non branded though but i am surprise the good sound come up from my hometheater.. LOL.. so if your optical output not work just try another CABLE...

@ hemidave

Yes I already tried that, but it is still the same.

luckely I got both 2.4 and 5.0 ghz wifi, so I am connected it is funny

@HemiDave. The output is set to on for DD. I have been through everything a few times. I was on another thread with regards to stereo vs. DD and it seems it's another common issue. I haven't rented anything from itunes and will update the results. I did try a Netflix movie and only had 2 channel reception. For music from itunes it's really not a big deal to have full surround but it's really sweet watching movies. I'm hoping things work out!

Here's an update from my side. I have a Denon AVR-1802 receiver with 2 optical inputs. The receiver does this thing were is auto detects analog vs. digital for the inputs that the user has assigned the optical inputs to. So, this made testing a little tricky, but was never the source of the issue. Before my original post I'd tested the ATV on both inputs (never worked), tested a PS3 on both inputs (worked on both), and tested 2 different optical cables on both devices and both inputs. And the only consistent issue was with the ATV.

Seeing some of the later posts, I tried the ATV reset via connecting it to my Mac. The reset was smooth, I hooked everything back up, logged the ATV onto my network and Apple ID, and it didn't work. Bummer, but then, I decided to give swapping cables another try. And to my surprise it worked!

It would seem the cable was bad, however I had tested this on my PS3. So, I connected the "bad" cable to my PS3 and audio comes through on the PS3. Confused, I just left the setup as is and figured that the ATV was more sensitive that the PS3. But then I started using the PS3 for a longer duration and realized that after sometime the audio on the PS3 started skipping, which I hadn't detected in my tests since I was just playing a sound bite to see if anything came through.

So, in summary, it seems that a combo of the reset and a different cable are what solved the issue for me.

I ordered the ViewHD VHD-H2HSA (which has HDMI in / HDMI & Optical out) and plugged the ATV into this, and connected the HDMI out & optical out to my receiver. I am now getting sound out of my receiver. Looks like this component can be picked up for about $40 in the US (I am in the UK).

I have an NAD C390DD integrated amplifier. When I connected my Dish Network receiver and Apple TV to the optical inputs on the receiver, I got a similar result. No sound from the ATV when I tried to watch a purchased TV show and no TV sound from my Dish receiver. I got them both to work by doing the following two things:

1. In the Dish Network audio output menu, I changed the output from "Dolby Digital/PCM" to "PCM Only". TV sound instantly started working.

2. For the ATV, I turned OFF the "Dolby Digital" setting but left Audio Output set to "Auto". Sound immediately was being output from the ATV to my stereo amplifier.

These two steps got my 2-channel audio receiver picking up the signal from both of these devices. It may not apply to other receivers, but it may give people some ideas about what to change to get the signal flowing through their AV or 2-channel receivers.

Seems like an issue with DACs, decoding and bitrate. I'm not sure what Apple did, as I did not use ATV before this month, but you have to think it's an easy firmware fix coming soon.

Hey folks,

I did end up getting everything working like it shoud. The issue were the settings for my digital inputs on my receiver. They had to be set up properly...they weren't. Once that was done I got DD from ATV.

The other issue was with Netflix. Another post suggested changing the setiings on my Netflix account to "Best". This worked and now I get DD from Netflix as well.

Hope this helps.

had the same problem no sound through optical. even though had no problem before with equipment.

Discovered the problem to be not a perfect route for the optical through a switch. hold the two ends together get sound; put it through a switch no sound.

so it would appear that the audio out of the optical is so fine that if the route isn't perfect then its a 50/50 chance for the audio to get through. need to either use effort to switch now or buy a new optical switch or upgrade to a amp with 5 HDMI's

Well add me to the list. My Apple TV Optical out stopped working this weekend. It started to work intermittently and now it won't work at all. I read all the blogs. Tried the following: changed the optical cable, reset to factory settings, pulled the plug, restarted the ATV, plugged it into another receiver, plugged it into another input on the same receiver, changed the audio settings for Dolby, changed the Audio Output setting, switched to HDMI, and so on.... The video works but no sound. I recently updated to the latest software but everything I've read from Apple says that is not it. I don't get it. It was working great and then quit. Like i said, add me to the list.

Marcus - have you tried doing another install,by plugging the device into computer? I put a post about it (in this thread) and that resolved my issue. It uses a micro USB connector on the back. Plug into computer and install an update that way. Something about doing an over air update vs a hard update. Anyways, hope this helps or works!

Solved for me:

Make sure toslink connected to AV Receiver. On the ATV go to Settings > AirPlay > under speakers make sure their is a check on Apple TV. Now sound is going out of toslink into AV Receiver.

MY sound was not working cause my sound was sending to airport express.