You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

appleiser Author

Level 1

8 points

ATV3 with external speakers via TV

Hi,

I have been using an Apple TV 3 for a fair while now with my TV and have had no issues. I am now sick of the low quality sound that my TV's internal speakers produce so I went and bought a cheap (but surprisngly good) set of 2.1 PC speakers and connected them via RCA cables to the TV.

Normal TV programs are now played through the external speakers but audio from my Apple TV (connected to the TV via HDMI) does not play through the external speakers, only through the crappy internal ones. Any ideas on how to fix this? I had a look through the TV settings (very limited) but nothing seemed to be wrong there, and nothing stood out to me in the ATV settings.

I was under the impression that if I plug external speakers into the TV via RCA any audio that the TV produces should be sent to the external speakers...

Apple TV, Other OS

Posted on Feb 12, 2014 10:28 PM

17 replies

appleiser Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 13, 2014 4:45 AM in response to Jeton

But am I going to have to use both the RCA and the optical outputs on my TV? The RCA for the actual TV and the optical for any digital signals (ATV and other HDMI)? Or can they be combined? Evidently, the TV cant convert the digital to analog but should the TV be able to convert the analog to digital so I can just use the optical output for everything?

appleiser Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 13, 2014 8:08 PM in response to appleiser

I dont want to have to buy expensive speakers with an optical input just to test this. I want some way of only using one input to the external speakers...

ATV3 with external speakers via TV