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Brand new AppleTV with static popping

I just bought my AppleTV and to my dismay it was s%$*t. Before I continue, I just want to say that I have everything Apple except AppleTV. I'm an engineer by background and I have set up all kinds of electronics you can imagine, so what I'm about to describe is not due to some noob screw-up


Here's what happened: After getting it earlier today from the Apple Store in Infinite Loop, I went home and set it up for the first time. It was a direct connect to my big screen 1080p LCD tv using HDMI. No genius required there. During the initial menu screen/start-up, I started hearing static popping sounds through my TV speakers. Audiophiles refer to it as audio clipping, but for the sake of forum tag searches I will call it "popping sounds". My LCD video signal also started clipping and I was worried that something could fry. I don't need to explain further. I continued with the setup (wifi, language, settings) until I finally got to the apps. The whole time it was clipping at random intervals. I have no doubt it's because of the AppleTV electronics. There are no other variables here. It's direct-connect (not through a receiver) and yes I tried different HDMI cables. No, it's not my HDMI cable, I have the best of them. This has to be some really bad electronics in the device that's sending this type of interference (or not filtering properly). I had two Rokus and a Logitech smarttv in the same inputs running for months prior to this purchase and have not once had any kind of audio clipping or popping or static signals. I searched the forum and it seems to be pretty common, with many remedies being offered here and there, such as turning the Dolby NR off, or seting the sound to 16-bit, or some other voodoo. The empirical evidence is already here in the forums that there's a problem with this device, so my device can't be an outlier or some busted-up instance. AppleCare, if you're reading this check your rate of return statistics and reason for returns of the for AppleTV, might give a clue. Tim Cook, please fix this AppleTV. This is so against the Apple user experience I have come to expect. I still admire your products.

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)

Posted on Sep 6, 2012 11:53 PM

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Posted on Sep 5, 2017 5:15 PM

Oh my gosh - it works! Sometimes it's the simple things. Thank you so much! I changed the surround sound, too, just for kicks. (Think where Apple consistently 'fails' is instructions.)

17 replies

Sep 7, 2012 11:18 AM in response to jcon2012

I got that after a month of having my ATV 3rd gen. I thought it was maybe the HDMI cord. Changed that and no fix. It wouldnt be all the time. It would happen at random moments. I restored the apple tv by going into settings, reset. You can either do it that way or connecting to to your computer with the micro usb. Once you connect it to a computer, make sure you plug it(wall socket) as well. After restoring it I have had ZERO issues since.

Sep 7, 2012 11:57 AM in response to Laxman25

I've tried that too. I reset the device and did a complete restore and it didn't go away. At this point most remedies are just trial and error. The fundamental problem is the digital audio signal coming out of the AppleTV device. Direct connect to the TV via HDMI seems to be the problem because of how the AppleTV device interprets the HDMI signal bidirectionally to the TV.


What I have finally done is connect the HDMI out of the AppleTV to my digital receiver. My receiver can scrub the HDMI signal and filter out whatever noise is clipping. My receiver connects all inputs to the TV. AppleTV <---> Digital Receiver <---> TV. The audio static popping clipping is gone.


The most basic connection is still direct connect. Not everyone can connect to a Receiver. My other settop boxes (Roku 1 and 2, Logitech, even laptops) can direct connect to my TV without any technical issues.

Nov 7, 2012 12:30 AM in response to jcon2012

Apple. Dropping the ball lately. Steve jobs passes and products go to ****.


My WDTVs are great. Not perfect, but better than this product. Play all formats. Great audio, and great sound.

AppleTV 3rd gen, well, not awesome. Sound is HORRIBLE. ***


Fix it already.


Do you not hear customers at all. THERE ARE ISSUES. BIG TIME. Super static sounds, even when volume SUPER low. same track on WDTV. Perfect.


So. Do your **** job. Fix the issue and get an update released. Us customers are spending thousands of dollars on your products, so get that s**t right.

Nov 8, 2012 1:59 PM in response to jcon2012

I have had my Apple TV for almost one year now and the audio problem started a few months in and has been getting progressively worse. Currently, I cannot stream 30 minutes of any sort of movie or TV show through airplay, netflix ect without the audio becoming distorted and having to restart the apple TV. I am using a Panasonic TV, which is beside the point, a lot of the conversations I have seen on here are people trying to say that the problem is specific to one brand of TV, but I have seen people complaining about the problem with a range of TV brand names, it is obvious the problem is with the Apple TV. While I enjoy apple TV, it is the worst Apple product I have ever owned, it could and does need vast improvement. I feel that it was a project they started and have sort of put on the back-burner. I am seriously looking for a real and permanent solution to this problem as opposed to just switching input and or restarting the device. I do not think that Apple really checks these message boards at all and that they are mainly pointless, but I am desperate for a solution to this problem so I am posting this as a sort of hail marry effort, any help or advice wold be nice.

Dec 7, 2012 11:58 AM in response to ginaben

This worked for me.

Thank you ginaben!


  • I have had my Apple TV3 for about a week. I use the optical output from my ATV3 to my speakers.
  • Rented Batman Rises last night and noticed the popping. Tried a few things ... nada. Music still flowed well as did content from my MBair without the popping sound. However, I noticed the popping again today when I tried watching an episode of American Horror Story (love that show!). Again, popping.
  • Did a search and found this thread and then tried the advice at the link provided by ginaben (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1236) and whollah. So far, so good.


It is a little disappointing that the latest and greatest from Apple with ATV3 has a glitch like this. Would love to see if the gurus therein can get this ATV back on track by getting this sound situation fixed. Love you guys .. let's get this worked out.


D

Apr 2, 2013 9:21 PM in response to jcon2012

Hi Guys,


I'm using my Apple TV 3 in Australia and have had the same problem. I took the original one back (the Mac rep thought it was faulty) and replaced it with a new one. Same problem. Luckily I fixed it. You may want to try the following:


Go to your Audio and Video settings and change the resolution to 50Hz (in Australia and U.K.) and 60Hz if you are in the U.S. This is obvioulsy to do with the refresh rate of the TV/Power grid, and I'm guessing the circuitry was tweaking out trying to send a signal that was an incompatible with my TV.


Good luck!

Apr 3, 2013 4:24 AM in response to Donnie619

Donnie619 wrote:


This worked for me.

Thank you ginaben!


  • I have had my Apple TV3 for about a week. I use the optical output from my ATV3 to my speakers.
  • Rented Batman Rises last night and noticed the popping. Tried a few things ... nada. Music still flowed well as did content from my MBair without the popping sound. However, I noticed the popping again today when I tried watching an episode of American Horror Story (love that show!). Again, popping.
  • Did a search and found this thread and then tried the advice at the link provided by ginaben (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1236) and whollah. So far, so good.


It is a little disappointing that the latest and greatest from Apple with ATV3 has a glitch like this. Would love to see if the gurus therein can get this ATV back on track by getting this sound situation fixed. Love you guys .. let's get this worked out.


D

Why on earth is this a glitch?


If your audio device can't handle the Dolby Digital 5.1 output you need to disable it.


Optical is a passive connection - AppleTV can't detect what the device at the other end can handle.


AC

Feb 18, 2014 5:03 PM in response to jcon2012

I have the Apple TV 1080p, 3rd Gen. I decided to reseach the whole white noise, static noise that happens to come out when I'm watching certain movies.


My setup:

Running audio out digital optical to a RCA converter to my Bose speakers:


User uploaded fileTo User uploaded file



Whenever watching Netflix movies, or HBO on demand, I get that noise.


To Fix the issue in this situation that I have,

found onApple's site: just go to your audio setup where it says, "dolby digital" and have it turned to off.


That fixed my issue. Since I'm only running stereo to a 2 speaker system why have the 5.1 surround sound on?

Keep in mind this is great to have on if you are running a surround sound system and or a amplifier that can handle a optical cable.


Hope this helps for some!

Brand new AppleTV with static popping

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