Awful static on apple tv startup

Please fill out a bug report to Apple - otherwise they will not know of you having problems as well. This won't get fixed until enough people complain of the bug. And it is a bug. A sad, glaring omission.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

I'm having the same issue - loud static from optical output.

Just filled out a bug report. Hope it gets fixed.

having the exact same issue. same setup: hdmi into monitor, toslink optical to dac, into professional DI box, into preamp, into active speakers. the first time i turned it on (without a preamp in between) i blew a tweeter in my small but professional active studio speakers. don't even think about any other reason it is the apple tv's optical out transmitting noise at 0dBFS. it's a wonder i'm the only one who damaged his equipment. good news: some say it only started happening after an update - that means they can fix it whenever they fear bad reputation.... and yes i did fill out the support form FWIW.

Seems to me there's a decoding problem going on here with the digital audio. I would try changing settings one at a time through various options until all combinations were exhausted in case it's something like the bitrate, bit depth, etc.

After spending a good while on the phone to Apple, they admitted that it was a known issue. I went through and changed a multitude of settings (bitrate etc), upgraded firmware but nothing would fix it. I wouldn't have thought it would have been the bitrate anyway, as it disappears after about 5 seconds.

I ended up going back to the store and getting a refund for the ATV. I bought it purely to stream my digital music to my amp through its built in DAC but since discovering the static I've been too reluctant to use it as I have expensive speakers and I'm worried about damaging the tweeters.

It's unfortunate that Apple are aware of this but aren't doing anything about it. I'm guessing that not many Apple TV owners would actually use the optical autio output as the majority would be using HDMI.

When the issue is acknowledged and fixed I may buy another unit...

I Have the same trouble with my ATV3 hooked up to a FIIO D3. I really hope Apple does something to fix it.

I guess the problem does not happen Ith all DACS. Does anyone knows if some DACs manage this problem and skip the faulty startup 'noise'?

More specifically, does this problem happens with the GefenTV DAC (both Dolby Digital and L/R versions) ?

I wish I had seen this thread earlier. I just bought an AppleTV today and got this same problem. This is not what I've come to expect from an Apple product. Man, I hope it's not a culture change there. It's definitely the AppleTV device. No I will not do any of the voodoo tips. We shouldn't have to do any of that to band-aid this problem. I had a Roku and Logitech in the same inputs prior and have not had any problems. Zero. I'm returning this and going back to Roku. Even though it's basic at least it works. I hope they fix this because I think we all want the iPad integration/AirPlay feature.

guess we are too few people to even look into this for apple's moderators / support staff?

Same issue here... Atv 3 connected to van medevoort amp (2.0) through toslink. Reboot or wake up from sleep = horrible noise.

Samsung tv's digital audio out = no problem, I think it processes the signal somehow.

Scared to damage my lovely speakers!

Going to contact apple....

i have the static 'pops' as well. but unlike others, my noise does not go away after any length of time...it stays!

i run the ATV2 optical out to audiolab 8200cd player (DAC) for stereo listening and the hdmi out to a poineer AV amp then panasonic TV.

i get the problem with both wireless and ethernet connection.

i dont put the tv on when im listening to music.

as per smf78 and manugeek above , i have just found out that turning on the ATV first before the amp and DAC can stop the problem.

not great i admit, but still allows me to use the airplay feature from my iphone which i do really like.

hope this helps someone.

Sadly the new Apple TV software update (5.1) doesn't fix this.

I was also considering just using the ATV and making sure it was turned on BEFORE I turned my amp on, however I knew that sooner or later I would forget and I really can't risk damaging my speakers.

I'm wondering though, does this problem effect every apple TV in existence? Has anyone actually tried multiple ATV's?

I returned mine a few months ago as I though it was a problem across the board, but I'm thinking I might buy another one and see if I get the same problem (I can always return it and get a refund if there's a problem).

Hi!

I've got the excat same problem with pretty much the same setup as most of you've described.

This is what I found out, more or less by accident: If you unplug your digital audio converter from the Apple TV, while the DAC and your reciever is still on, you will hear this noice, just like you do when your Apple TV is turned of or in sleep-mode. So this noice seems to be some sort of "standard", when there is no "silent" signal från the Apple TV. That's why the noice dissapears a few seconds after the Apple TV wakes up.

So, the simple solution to this whole problem was just to set the Apple TV to never sleep. There´s an option for that in the preferences.

And a more permanent fix from Apple whould probably be to let the Apple TV never shout down the audio signal completely, even in sleep-mode, to always transmit this "silence-signal", or what ever it does.

But since I decided to pay for the little extra electricity needed to keep my Apple TV awake, whis is no longer an issue for me.

Good luck you all!

Update:

After returning my ATV3 months ago due to the static noise, I decided to buy another one today - just to satisfy my curiousity. As I expected, same static noise.

However this time, I had another home theatre receiver on hand. Plugged the ATV into the optical input of the second receiver (using the same optical cable), and... NO STATIC! Yep that's right. I put it to sleep, and powered it back up, powered the whole thing down, started it up again, and with this second receiver (Rotel RSX-1055) there was never any static. Plugged it back into my normal HT amp (Vincent SV-388) and the usual static was still there.

While one could argue now that it's not an issue with the ATV, rather with my amp, this is the only device which has ever caused this noise. I have connected many different devices to the optical input of my Vincent amp (various DVD & Blu Ray players, TV's etc) and none of them have ever done this.

To make matters worse, since the release of iTunes 10, Apple seem to have removed the "Disable airplay volume control" feature which used to bypass the digital volume control. Sound quality is notably worse than what it used to be, meaning that I'm going to return this unit too and look elsewhere for a music streaming device.

I just got a new home theater today... so will try it out to see if my static is gone with the new one.... Terrible static on my old system and never went away... After unplugin the cable and pulging it back in it would go away for a few minutes until there was silence coming from the movie, song or whatever you were listening to... then non stop static again.

will report =)