Voices not playing sometimes.

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Level 1

8 points

Voices not playing sometimes.

Just bought an Apple TV and it will intermittently not play the voice portions of audio. Restarting the Apple TV device seems to fix it temporarily but seems that the next day (about) it will do it all over again.

Also, it seems very sluggish at times compared to my previous Amazon Fire Stick (which seems shocking to me) like it will just not respond to any input for 10-30 seconds. Kind of trying to decide wether to bring it in for a replacement (possibly a faulty unit?) or just return and get a Fire TV but it seems odd as all my other Apple products work flawlessly without daily restarts.

I did a reset on it the day I bought it (a week ago) as I initially clicked the wrong language due to not being used to how sensitive the swipe thing is. I point this out to indicate that it also updated itself to the current OS etc.

Apple TV

Posted on May 2, 2016 5:35 PM

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Answer 1

May 3, 2016 3:48 AM in response to Jokin Jones

Sounds like you have Apple TV 4 with tvOS 9.2.

What app has trouble with the sound? Is it AirPlay from another device or computer, or an app on ATV?

You mention the "voice portion of the audio". Do you mean there is sound but no voices? You might check the region and language settings when it fails, to be sure nothing magical is happening with them.

The sluggishness you describe may be due to a network connection problem. Please confirm that you're using WiFi, with IP and DNS set to automatic. Also confirm that you're using a simple network configuration with a single router. If this is not the case, please describe your network setup.

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Answer 2

Jokin Jones Author

Level 1

8 points

May 3, 2016 4:00 PM in response to Diana.McCall

Hi Diana,

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. Yes, it's an apple TV 4 running 9.2.

The issue is happening in HBO Now primarily but also during airplay from my iphone 6S playing Amazon video. Haven't used netflix much. Region and language don't seem to be incorrect.

Network is on wifi with a N600 Dual Band Gigabit Netgear router. It's about 12 feet away with no obstructions and set up for auto. All other devices on the network work great with great speeds. We have 2x iPhone 6S, 2X iPads, 2x Laptops, and two PC's which hardwired to the router.

To clarify on the sluggish problem though, while sometimes it hangs trying to start or especially resume playback during a video the really weird sluggishness is like just randomly trying to navigate around. It acts like when you first restart the device and it won't accept any input until it's fully loaded or as if the controller is not connected like it won't move to a new icon but then all of a sudden it will jump as if it's qued up some of the inputs. I checked to make sure that I didn't have too many applications open at a given time but that didn't seem to be the problem either.

Thanks!

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Answer 3

May 4, 2016 4:07 AM in response to Jokin Jones

Regarding the sluggishness, it still sounds like ATV is having trouble connecting. Are you using a 5 GHz network? They usually have less interference. And have you checked for interference using a WiFi "stumbler" program? Since it does finally connect, it may just be having trouble getting through. You could look in the ATV network settings to be sure it is connecting to your network, not some neighbor's guest network. Are you using the best WPA2 security setting? Does it help if you Restart ATV from the System menu? This will reboot the system and might clean things out. You might also try a one-time power cycle; mine needed this after updating to 9.2.

Regarding your audio problem, is it just the voices or all the sound?

You should check that Reduce Loud Sounds is not enabled.

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Answer 4

May 4, 2016 4:53 AM in response to Diana.McCall

You should also check your audio language, see https://help.apple.com/appletv/#/atvba773c3c9

Language selection should also be available in the info pulldown, described here https://help.apple.com/appletv/#/atvbab8af9b3

For possible network issues, you could review these steps Get help with Wi-Fi networks on your Apple TV - Apple Support

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