Why does Apple remove the Audio Out with the new Apple TV? It is now useless for me

At the risk of swerving the conversation Apple has never thought twice about abandoning technology it considered to be obsolete or replaceable. Look at the new Macbook with its single USB-C port then remember the floppy disk drive, the RS-232 serial port, the iMac internal CD/DVD drive. Every time Apple does something like this they get pushback from outraged users with vested interests in the status quo. But they simply don’t care when it comes to their vision of the future. And we Apple fans follow along sometimes kicking and screaming, but we follow.

I will be buying the new ATV4 the day it is available and it will be an easy swap out with my current ATV3. Just two cords, power and HDMI and I’m good. I have a Yamaha AVR with six HDMI inputs.

I sympathise, but we are users here not Apple - they've made a commercial design decision - that will annoy some users admittedly but the design is committed/in production - they won't go back.

Send feedback if you like:

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

lkrupp wrote:

At the risk of swerving the conversation Apple has never thought twice about abandoning technology it considered to be obsolete or replaceable. Look at the new Macbook with its single USB-C port then remember the floppy disk drive, the RS-232 serial port, the iMac internal CD/DVD drive. Every time Apple does something like this they get pushback from outraged users with vested interests in the status quo. But they simply don’t care when it comes to their vision of the future.

Other good examples of precisely what I meant. Can't argue with that.

lkrupp wrote:

I will be buying the new ATV4 the day it is available and it will be an easy swap out with my current ATV3. Just two cords, power and HDMI and I’m good.

Same here almost certainly, though my older AppleTVs will still be used.

lkrupp wrote:

..... I have a Yamaha AVR with six HDMI inputs.

Pioneer with 8 HDMI inputs here - single HDMI out to projector. For a long time I resisted upgrading the old Yamaha DSP-E800 which decoded optical audio and powered surround channels with stereo L/R provided by my active stereo set up.

Are you incapable of answering a question without the smug and dismissive tone?

freediverx01 wrote:

Are you incapable of answering a question without the smug and dismissive tone?

Questions to which someone already knows the answer but wants to make it a ‘gotcha’ moment deserve a ‘smug and dismissive tone’ in my opinion. Why pat someone on the head and apologize when the whole purpose is to rant and rave about something they don’t like.

FACT: the new ATV4 lacks a port some users find essential because of their outdated (but perfectly useable) sound systems. Will their current ATVs suddenly stop working? Will they suddenly not be able to watch TV anymore? They have only one choice... don’t buy the new device. And as I’ve already pointed out almost all of the other products on the market don’t have the port anymore either. So the future stops and you stay in the past. Lots of people do it. There are tons of users still running old versions of OS X because they can’t or won’t update their version of Photoshop or other software packages.

You say "please do not tell me to buy an HDMI audio extractor".

But is that a possible solution? Do they work? Will it be possible to configure the ATV4 to output only audio formats that the extractor can handle?

If it isn't possible to get the audio onto optical or coax, I will take lkrupp's advice and not buy it. I haven't bought any of the previous ATVs, but this one started seeming interesting enough to consider. But not enough to justify replacing my receiver. If a $30 extractor would solve the problem I might do that though.

Here’s just one of many inexpensive converters/extractors/whatever you want to call it. Passes the HDMI signal through and outputs optical & analog audio. Note the formats it supports in the specifications, DD (Dolby Digital) and DTS 5.1. The Apple TV simply passes on what it receives in the stream from the source. Except for 7.1 digital (which optical does not support) it should work.

http://www.amazon.com/ViewHD-Premium-Extractor-Converter-VHD-H2HSAs/dp/B00KBHX07 2/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1441849563&sr=1-1&keywords=hdmi+to+toslin k+converter

Yes, that is the exact $30 extractor that I was looking at.

After some further research, I believe that you are incorrect when you say that the "Apple TV simply passes on what it receives in the stream from the source". And that is a good thing.

The extractor has a physical switch labeled "Audio EDID" with three positions: "Pass", "2CH", and "5.1CH". EDID is the code that the display end of an HDMI connection sends back to the source end to tell the source what its capabilities are. So if the ATV4 is connected to one of these boxes with its EDID switch set to "5.1CH", the ATV4 should "downshift" the audio in the HDMI output to 5.1 even if the source is 7.1.

So I believe that this is a viable solution regardless of the audio format of the source material.

I still would like to know why the OP dismissed this solution out of hand. Does he think it won't work, or is he just irked at having to spend an additional $30? If the audio output is used by only a small percentage of ATV owners then I understand why Apple would want to eliminate it to reduce the cost for everyone else. But there's a big difference between having to spend $30 for one of these extractor boxes and having to throw out my (good, but old) receiver and buy a new one. This is acceptable to me.

Thank you for the link, it did bother me that Apple ditch the Optical Audio also but I was going to buy the Apple TV 4 anyway. This small and cheap piece of hardware will solve my issue. I have 2 Apple TV already with 3 TVs so looking forward to the new model coming out.

Thank you
Thierry

Hi Perellos,

Could you explain why you cannot use an HDMI audio extractor? You specifically said "please do not tell me to buy an HDMI audio extractor", so you must have a reason. It sounds like a reasonable solution to me, so it would be very useful to me and others to know why you reject it. It couldn't be the cost if you have such a high end system. So it must be that you think it will not work or will work poorly (unless you just don't like it for aesthetic reasons?). Could you please share your reasoning? Thanks!

Yes Perellos, this was a sudden concern for me too. Luckily I found that my Tv has a "digital sound out", so because the AppleTV (new and old) connect to the Tv with HDMI, my sound system will connect through this. (I have tried it with my existing AppleTV and it works for me). Hope this helps.

I have the same problem in using ATV4.

I agree with your opinion.

I'm a fan of Apple but I don't throw away thirty years of high quality Hi-Fi system.

"Some People might not understand that there are people connecting the Apple TV to an high-end Music System + a projector, and we are not talking about outdated systems but the best you can buy today."

Just my case.