No Dolby Digital Apple TV 3 firmware 6.1 (6698.99.16)

Same problem.

It's not just the ATV 3's, after 6.1 update ATV 2's have same problem, no dolby digital with Netflix. Purchased files from the iTunes store have no problems. First real software problem I've ever had with the unit. Will await the fix.

I just spoke with someone at Netflix. They are trying to fix the issue themselves. It may take a while before Apple does anything about it. He also said that some people were able to get 5.1 surround sound buy using Apple's own cables...it was almost as if Apple did this on purpose to make people by their own cables.

Yea except for the fact that dd5.1 works for other apps on appletv

HBO Go works just fine

Aaron T. wrote:

I just spoke with someone at Netflix. They are trying to fix the issue themselves. It may take a while before Apple does anything about it. He also said that some people were able to get 5.1 surround sound buy using Apple's own cables...it was almost as if Apple did this on purpose to make people by their own cables.

...except that Apple doesn't make HDMI or optical audio cables.

...just repeating what Netflix said.

they actually do here,but how can a particular HDMI cable solve this? it's a standard interface... sounds like passing the buck to me..

...i agree. Although I'm almost half curious to try it anyway.

An optical fiber is an optical fiber, doesn't make sense to try another one.

DD 5.1 broken here too after updating from 6.0.2

Using Apple HDMI cable here and no dd5.1. Suspicious of netflix suggesting this as mentioned elsewhere no difference between HDMI cables!

The cable thing is complete nonsense, obviously.

I think the problem has something to do with the way the Dolby Digital is encoded in Netflix's streams. In a ATV compatible clip, there must always be two-channel AAC audio. This must be the first audio track in the stream, and this is what we all hear since we installed the 6.1 update.

Dolby Digital 5.1 has always been optional in ATV compatible clips, and if such a track is there, it must follow certain MPEG or ISO standards in order to get recognized and accepted by the ATV. We know that DD 5.1 has always been the second, optional track in Netflix streams, so that's certainly in order. But what if the DD 5.1 provided by Netflix doesn't comply with the standards and Apple only started checking with update 6.1?

This would explain why the ATV falls back to 2.0. It also explains why version 6.1 accepts all streams with properly encoded DD, such as the ones provided by Apple or HBOgo. And I'm afraid it could mean that either Netflix would have to re-encode everything or Apple would have to loosen the rules again. And guess who's certainly not gonna give in on this.

But hey, I'm just guessing wildly here.

For further reading:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA25199

Just adding that I'm having the same issue. I also noticed that the titles are no longer showing the Super HD logo when they all used to, totally weird. Definitely seems like someone mucked up the software this time.

Hi Sebastian,

I don't think that's the case because films that previously worked fine in 5.1 now are only stereo. I don't think Netflix would have re-encoded ALL the films with an incompatible audio stream.

Maybe ATV 6.1 is pickier than previous versions when it comes to 5.1 audio? Still doesn't sound right to me though.

Cheers

Chris, that the 6.1 update might be more picky about the DD encoding than earlier versions is exactly what I was assuming above. And I also said that if this was true Netflix might HAVE TO re-encode all Dolby Digital audio tracks in order to comply with the newly enforced standards. And this might simply take a while.

Maybe it's just some metadata or index files that need to be changed on Netflix's side, but solving the problem can't be easy or they would have done it already. Maybe they've been busy re-encoding during the last two weeks, who knows. And maybe they can even convince Apple to release another, less "picky" update after all.

Changing something in the Netflix app on the device probably won't help much. It's basically just a bunch of HTML code. All apps on the ATV use the same player. And other apps can play DD content via this player. So guess who's fault it is.

I highly doubt they are re-encoding everything. That makes little to no sense considering Airplaying from the Netfix app to the ATV yields DD. It wouldn't surprise me if Apple's update "broke" something and there's a bunch of internal finger-pointing going on between Apple and Netflix while we users suffer the loss of a feature - that's if each party has even received enough complains to even look into this. Certainly, however, there are Apple employees who have noticed the recent loss of DD on Netflix on ATV and have initiated an investigation. Or, maybe they all use Roku boxes at home? 🙂