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Movies App Won't Properly Play 5.1 Surround Sound Anymore

I have an Apple TV v4 connected directly via HDMI to a Yahama RX-V479 receiver, and have recently noticed that purchased & rented movies are no longer playing in 5.1 surround sound. All other apps play multichannel sound just fine (i.e. Netflix) - it seems to be only the Movies app that is having playback issues.


The ATV is configured properly to output uncompressed 5.1 LPCM:

Settings > Audio and Video > Surround Sound > Best Quality Available

Based on Apple's support article (About surround sound settings on your Apple TV (4th generation) - Apple Support) this should result in an uncompressed 5.1 LPCM signal, since I am connected via HDMI and my receiver supports this.

When playing surround sound content in any other app (like Netflix), this works as expected. The receiver detects the uncompressed 5.1 LPCM signal and plays the multitrack output just fine. The display on the receiver indicates it is receiving a 5.1 LPCM signal. I hear surround sound played thru all the speakers. All is well.

But when I play back any purchased or rented movies from the Movies app that have 5.1 surround sound, the output is limited to 2 channels. The receiver shows a 2.1 channel LPCM source and there is no sound from the rear speakers. I cannot get the Movies app to play any content in 5.1 surround, even though I have previously purchased movies that are clearly 5.1 and used to work just fine. This is even the case for trailers played on the Movies app, some of which I know are in 5.1 surround.

As an experiment, I tried setting the ATV to output 5.1 Dolby Digital to see the affect:

Settings > Audio and Video > Surround Sound > Dolby Digital 5.1

As expected, Netflix works just fine. The receiver detects, displays, and outputs a 5.1 Dolby Digital signal and it plays properly on all speakers. Playing movies thru the Movies app *still* only outputs 2.1 channel LPCM. It doesn't output Dolby Digital at all.

As I said, every other app on the ATV behaves properly, so I don't think it is an issue with the ATV settings or the receiver. It only occurs with the Movies app and content that is streaming from the iTunes store (either rented or purchased). It's as if the Movies app has suddenly lost the ability to properly output surround sound. Has anyone else seen this kind of behaviour lately? Could this be a bug introduced in a recent update or an issue with content streaming from Apple?

Apple TV, tvOS

Posted on Feb 18, 2017 7:06 AM

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Posted on Feb 18, 2017 9:43 PM

FYI, just read a solution over at AVSForum.


Turning off quick start fixes the problem. I don't know why this has started happening now even though I've never messed with this setting, maybe they changed something with how quick start works. Anyway, turn it off and you get 7.1/5.1 back on everything. Just tested it and it worked for Doctor Strange.


Settings-Apps-iTunes Movies and TV Shows


Even with it off, Doctor Strange started playing within a few seconds. YMMV depending on your internet speed. I have 60mbps down.

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Feb 18, 2017 9:43 PM in response to Ke7in10454

FYI, just read a solution over at AVSForum.


Turning off quick start fixes the problem. I don't know why this has started happening now even though I've never messed with this setting, maybe they changed something with how quick start works. Anyway, turn it off and you get 7.1/5.1 back on everything. Just tested it and it worked for Doctor Strange.


Settings-Apps-iTunes Movies and TV Shows


Even with it off, Doctor Strange started playing within a few seconds. YMMV depending on your internet speed. I have 60mbps down.

Feb 18, 2017 1:21 PM in response to navgs400

Same here.


I rented Dr. Strange last night and it would only come through in LPCM 2.0 @ 48kHz. I fiddled with the Apple TV forever, convinced I must have messed up a setting somewhere. I finally gave up and watched the movie this way.


I tried everything and nothing worked, examples:


  • performing a factory reset as reported by someone else above
  • changing the settings in the Apple TV (4th gen). I set its output to Dolby Digital which did not result in a Dolby Digital signal arriving at my Yamaha RX-A830 as expected. Instead the RX-A830 reported it was still receiving a LPCM 2.0 @ 48kHz signal.


Something is definitely wrong with the Apple TV software. My 4th generation Apple TV is running tvOS 10.1.1.

Feb 18, 2017 7:39 AM in response to sfrossi

I did a bit more experimenting and found some even weirder behaviour with the Movies app:


- if I open the Movies app and play a trailer that I know includes 5.1 surround (i.e. Star Trek Beyond), only 2.1 PCM is sent to the receiver

- if I search Siri for the exact same movie and open in from results page, the trailer plays in 5.1 surround!


This leads me to believe there is definitely an issue with the Movies app, as pretty much any other source of surround sound on the AT4 works just fine. For some reason, the Movies app either won't stream the right source or won't output in 5.1 surround.


I tried changing the region and language settings on the ATV from Canada to US, but there was no change.


Anyone else having this issue?

Feb 18, 2017 8:26 AM in response to sfrossi

I'm having the exact same problem. Nearly all movies from iTunes play in stereo (PCM) only. I've only found a few exceptions. Movies that have 7.1 audio will output that, though that could be because those movies also have multiple audio tracks.


I did notice that playing the preview for a movie from search plays in 5.1 audio, but opening it in iTunes and playing the preview there plays stereo. Something is definitely wrong.

Feb 18, 2017 11:36 AM in response to sfrossi

I tried contacting Apple and they had never heard of this issue, but forwarded it along to engineering.


I did a few more tests and found that using search opens the new TV app. Most (but not all) previews play there in 5.1 audio, while most previews play in stereo in the iTunes movie and trailers apps, though I found one or two that play 5.1 audio there.


iTunes movies and TV shows play in stereo whether in the iTunes or TV app, so there's something obviously with either the app or the iTunes encodings.


Do you know when this first started? I could swear it was working last month, but I can't be entirely sure.

Feb 18, 2017 2:20 PM in response to navgs400

That's odd since one of the many movies I tried was "The Avengers" and that came up as PCM (stereo) for me.


Here's a list of movies I tried and what the audio was:


Avengers - stereo

Zootopia - stereo

Guardians of the Galaxy - 7.1

Jaws - stereo

Jurassic World - stereo

Star Wars The Force Awakens - stereo

Wreck-it Ralph - 7.1

Captain America Civil War - stereo

Feb 18, 2017 6:56 PM in response to sfrossi

Yes... I am having this issue and its driving me bonkers. I am on the phone with apple as we speak and they said they haven't heard of this problem. Now I am on hold. Which is fine if they can tell me whats going on. I even went as far as buying another apple TV (which I will be returning). The funny part is, if you use a gen3 apple tv, everything is in surround sound. ???????

Feb 18, 2017 7:01 PM in response to Morac

I'm having the exact same problem and have been banging my head against the wall all day going through Apple TV settings, AVR settings and TV settings.


Others I've tried and only get stereo audio are


The BFG

Big Hero 6

Arrival

Doctor Strange

Star Trek II

Star Trek

Star Trek Into Darkness

Star Trek Beyond

Pete's Dragon 2016

Aliens

Deepwater Horizon

Sully

X-Men Apocalypse


The only other ones I have found so far that are working correctly are Alien, Captain America TWS, ET. I also noticed that there is only one language option for all the movies only playing in stereo, even when there should be French or Spanish options. That leads me to think it is a problem on Apple's end. Things were working just fine earlier in the week, I know I played Arrival in 7.1 a few days ago.

Feb 18, 2017 8:19 PM in response to RollTide1017

What's working for me is:


Dredd

The Hobbit-Desolation

Dawn of the planet of the Apes

Godzilla (2014)

The Incredible Hulk

Iron Man 3

Looper

The Lord of the Rings- Two Towers

Mad Max- Fury Road

Mission Impossible- Rouge Nation

Sherlock Holmes- Games of Shadows

Skyfall

Star Wars- Trilogy

World War Z

Wreck it Ralph


Every other film is Linear PCM. Hope Apple can fix this soon. Having this happen during the weekend is a bit of a bummer.

Feb 19, 2017 2:45 AM in response to RollTide1017

I've started a thread on Quick Start as I couldn't find much.


The most annoying thing is it being enabled by default, it shouldn't be. It could be suggested as an option when the 'movie will be ready to play in hours/minutes' appears due to buffering on slow connections.


I started watching a movie from the cloud the other day and quality was absolutely dire with excessive pixellation/blurred faces etc (until I turned QuickStart off) - 50-60 Mbps down via ethernet - I tried Home Sharing the downloaded copy and quality was much better, then I started delving in menus and found Quick Start option which is new in recent ATV 4 software, though not sure which.

Feb 20, 2017 12:16 AM in response to sfrossi

Glad I am not alone in this issue and experiencing the same issues reported.

I just spent an hour fiddling around trying to figure out what the **** was going on.

I even factory reset my receiver to no avail.


I have a Denon AVR-S920W with 5.1 speaker setup and latest gen Apple TV.


I went to watch Doctor Strange and noticed my receiver was set to Stereo. I started checking a whole bunch of other purchased movies. I went into Avengers (Stereo), then opened up Emprire Strikes back (5.1) and Phantom Menace (Stereo).


Apple must have really messed something up server-side as very few of my Movies and TV shows are getting the full 5.1 mix. Very frustrating.

Movies App Won't Properly Play 5.1 Surround Sound Anymore

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