Connecting Apple TV to Stereo without Optical Audio Compatibility

You do not need an optical connection, HDMI audio should work fine. Check your amps' settings, if the input is set to optical or analog instead of HDMI audio.
There are no settings on the ATV site as far as I know.

To what is your ATV connected directly, amp or TV?

No, there is no path from your ATV to your tv to your cable box to your stereo. You need an amplifier with a digital input.

im using gen 3 & can not connect

pslavish said:

Apple TV is connected via HDMI to my TV>TV is connected to Cable Box>Cable Box is connected to Amp

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Does the TV have an audio out connection, if so that should work to send sound to the amp

I use this: FiiO D3 Digital to Analog Audio Converter ($19.91 @ Amazon). It works well and plays through my receiver via RCA plugs.

If you order one, don't forget an optical cable!

Hope this helps!

Huh?

I use a converter for my headphones, which are analog only.

Digital audio to converter, analog to headphones.

Around $20-30 on Amazon.

See what ports you have available and then find a converter. Mine works great.

Could you tell us exactly what kind of input options are available on your reciever?

pslavish said:

Apple TV is connected via HDMI to my TV>TV is connected to Cable Box>Cable Box is connected to Amp

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Zhenya is right, if your amp is connected to your cable box, nothing is connecting you ATV to your amp.
So you need to make sure that there is a HDMI connection going from your TV (audio output) to your amp. Better would be to have everything run through your amp, and your amp to your TV, this would be the standard home-cinema set-up. If your amp has no digital intput, you still can use the analog output from your TV to the amp, this will give you some less quality audio.

pslavish said:

I have a Sony Stereo Receiver which doesn't have an optical audio port.

Currently my stereo is connected to the cable box, which is connected to the TV via HDMI. Apple TV is connected as well via HDMI, but I can't get stereo sound through my speakers.

Is there any way to configure the setup so I can get sound coming through my receiver/speakers when using the Apple TV (without optical audio)? I do have an optical audio chord though, which I can use if necessary.

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Does your receiver have a coaxial digital audio input? If you do, you can buy an optical to coaxial converter.

http://www.amazon.com/Cables-Go-400...id=1355905806&sr=8-2&keywords=toslink+to+coax

(Not sure about the quality of the item I linked, just a random pick to give you an idea.)

I just found an HDMI to RCA audio adapter. I'm gonna try to take ATV to TV (w/HDMI) and then audio out of the TV to stereo (HDMI to RCA audio). Will let you know if that works.

I bought a coax/optical digital to analog RCA converter at Radio Shack so I could hook up my daughter's Apple TV to her stereo receiver in her room. It worked great!

DaveVideo said:

I just found an HDMI to RCA audio adapter. I'm gonna try to take ATV to TV (w/HDMI) and then audio out of the TV to stereo (HDMI to RCA audio). Will let you know if that works.

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Why would your TV have audio out via HDMI?

It would be quite weird for the TV manufacturer to expect you to have video-out via HDMI, and equally weird to have audio-out via HDMI.

DaveVideo said:

I just found an HDMI to RCA audio adapter. I'm gonna try to take ATV to TV (w/HDMI) and then audio out of the TV to stereo (HDMI to RCA audio). Will let you know if that works.

Click to expand...

CocoaPuffs said:

Why would your TV have audio out via HDMI?

It would be quite weird for the TV manufacturer to expect you to have video-out via HDMI, and equally weird to have audio-out via HDMI.

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Well, Dave, that won't work the way you put it, you don't want to do all that messing around for nothing. But TVs can have audio out via HDMI. Here, what TVs should have:

Optical out. Send this back to your receiver for sound.

ARC. If both your TV and receiver have ARC on the HDMI connections (and BOTH must have this feature), the TV will send audio via the same HDMI wire that goes from receiver output to TV input. Note that it may only be one connection on each device that actually says "ARC".

I have HDMI to a Sony Bravia and then a simple mini-plug (headphoes jack) to RCA to a brand new stereo Denon amplifier (yes, after setting up many multi speakers systems I went back to the good-old-two-channel sound). After all, we have only two ears!

Optical out. Send this back to your receiver for sound.

ARC. If both your TV and receiver have ARC on the HDMI connections (and BOTH must have this feature), the TV will send audio via the same HDMI wire that goes from receiver output to TV input. Note that it may only be one connection on each device that actually says "ARC".