There is no HDMI connection for my older Yamaha receiver unfortunately and as was stated before I don't wish to upgrade my receiver. I will, in all probability, order the HDMI audio extractor mentioned before.
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Had to cancel my ATV4 because no optical audio, question...
- Thread starter SRLMJ23
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That they do and I sympathise with people who would still like an optical port, I certainly wouldn't mind if there was one. Really it's odd that they didn't include one.
But it's also typically Apple. We whinged and moaned when they removed floppy drives from the iMac G3, when they removed disc drives from iMacs and when they removed FireWire ports, when they only included one USB-C port on the MacBook Air and so on, but we survived and found alternative means if we needed any of them.
An unfortunate byproduct of constantly progressing technology is that older standards don't get supported forever. HDMI has been standard on most receivers for years now, I guess Apple just decided it was time, as they often do, to drop the older technology. Regardless of whether some of us still had good quality systems with various connections we still use.
The fact that the majority of an industry is quite happy to include optical (or whatever the standard Apple did/will decide to drop at any time) and continue supporting it, has never mattered to them.
Oh right WOW, sorry I must have missed that you don't have HDMI. What video connectors do you have on your Receiver?
Component, composite and I think coaxial. The sound for the TV is through the Charter cable box using digital coaxial audio cable. That works great. Digital audio out from ATV3 using Toslink works great.
Oh right, totally understand about Digital Optical now. Certainly the only way to get the best audio.
I know you don't want to spend money on a new receiver, but I think it is time to look into even a 2nd hand receiver with HDMI etc as you will struggle with connections from now on in.
My Cambridge Audio receiver from 2007 can only send video over HDMI not audio so that doesn't work.
I too have a separate optical connection running from my ATV to receiver. When I choose Apple TV on the receiver input selection, this lets me have 5.1 when I play movies.
I also have an optical audio connection running from my TV to my receiver. If I play a movie on the Apple TV but select TV for my sound on the receiver, I only get PCM, not 5.1. I don't understand why - i can't find any particular setting on my TV or receiver that would be causing the problem.
Interestingly enough, Roku brought back optical audio in the Roku 4, after having dropped it several years ago when the Roku XD came out. Reason? This is from a promotional email I received from them:
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I am not sure you even know what you are talking about.
Sound Systems (I.e. Audio HI-FI amplifiers) do not generally come with HDMI inputs.
Whereas modern AV Receivers (I.e. Audio Visual) rely entirely on HDMI.
They are not the same thing. From an audio point of view, dedicated HIFI Audio amplifiers are generally (though not always) far superior than AV receivers.
I would like to plug the ATV into my (very new) HIFI system, but to do so I will need an additional box to split the Audio from the HDMI signal.
By the way, people complain when their needs are not met, and you can find it "silly" as much as you want.
It ain't going to change.
...except that both many low-end (soundbars) and many high-end (stereo amps) setups simply don't have HDMI. I understand Apple wanting to maximize profits by focusing on the mainstream, but I find it annoying that they are ignoring both ends of the audio spectrum to focus on only the middle.
Audio Amplifiers generally don't come with Digital Optical Input/Output either unless you are going for an expensive model.
Seeing as we are talking about an Audio/Video device in AppleTV, I'm pretty sure he was talking about a "Home Cinema" type sound system, which generally includes and AV Receiver.
HiFi Systems sometimes come with Optical and don't come with HDMI because they are just Audio-based and HDMI both Audio and Video among other things.
Most people would be better off with an AV Receiver than just an Audio Amplifier if they are using an AppleTV, and it seems that if you use a Soundbar for your audio then you will generally need to buy extra stuff to get your sound through it, so in that case it's not that good that Apple got shot of it.
Yes, I agree, certainly for people with low-end soundbars, it's a no-no for them which is rubbish.
The middle of the market as you say will include AV receivers and standalone bluray players with attached speaker setups. High end stereo amp setups may have a problem too, but I'm not sure how many people who want an AppleTV will have these setups in the same room as an AppleTV alongside their main TV.
I think the difference here is two-channel audio music only vs home theater audio. Yes there is a difference. Most folks who are into two channel audio, do not have HDMI, heck some will even say digital whether optical or coaxial are horrible for the sound and will spend lots of money on analog cables to transport the signal.
The home theater side is pretty much all hdmi now.
Yeah, what a huge loss that I won't be able to play crappy little 99 cent games on my TV. Guess I'll just have to suffer through with the games on my PS4 instead. How awful! "iTunes movies". Hahaha, you mean those movies that are offered from Amazon for double the rental period time? Yeah, I guess I'll have to suffer there too.
Good luck playing decent games on any streaming device. Seriously, who buys these things for crappy little nothing games that people only play now because they're convenient on their phone?
iOS style games are fine for the small amount of money you pay for them. They are certainly not PS4 games, yet they aren't $60 and don't need you to play for an hour at a time.
Everything has their place
I expect to buy quite a few. I have 4 grandkids < 5 (oldest is 4). They LOVE playing simple games on the iPhone and iPad. I could be wrong but will be shocked if they do not like playing causal games on the TV. Especially since they have ZERO experience playing games on a the latest XBOX and PS4.
Clearly never played something like Real Racing 3 with an MFI controller then. There's more than crappy little nothing games available if you aren't close minded to anything that doesn't need a top of the range PC to run.
I always thought most TVs have an optical output. I guess not. My sound bar has an optical connection to the TV so it does not matter what device is hooked up.Is there any other way I can hook it up to sound system? I mean, what is the point of getting the new Apple TV when if there is no way to hook it up to my sound system, I would have to depend on my TV speakers not the sound system. To me that is a big downgrade!
I do not have a cheap sound-bar system as someone said before, it is a decent Sony system. Also, none of my equipment is more than 3-4 years old. It has multiple HDMI connection slots, however, my problem is the fact that my TV only has two HDMI Slots and they are both HDMI Inputs...so how can I hook my Sony System to the TV? It is impossible on my TV, no? I am not the best with audio, so if anyone can help me I thank you in advance!
If you want pictures of the back of my Subwoofer I will gladly post them, but I am pretty sure that it is the TV that is limiting what I can do. The Subwoofer has 4 HDMI Inputs, and an HDMI Output which would obviously go to the TV.
If you want pictures of the back of my Subwoofer I will gladly post them, but I am pretty sure that it is the TV that is limiting what I can do. The Subwoofer has 4 HDMI Inputs, and an HDMI Output which would obviously go to the TV.
I do not have a cheap sound-bar system as someone said before, it is a decent Sony system. Also, none of my equipment is more than 3-4 years old. It has multiple HDMI connection slots, however, my problem is the fact that my TV only has two HDMI Slots and they are both HDMI Inputs...so how can I hook my Sony System to the TV? It is impossible on my TV, no? I am not the best with audio, so if anyone can help me I thank you in advance!
If you want pictures of the back of my Subwoofer I will gladly post them, but I am pretty sure that it is the TV that is limiting what I can do. The Subwoofer has 4 HDMI Inputs, and an HDMI Output which would obviously go to the TV.
What's the model number of your Sony system? And your TV?
I still find it funny the high end audio people are whining because a streaming device won't have optical for their sound system. This is the wrong product for you guys/gals, plain and simple. This is a movie and TV device with lossy compressed audio.
It plays uncompressed audio just fine. It may not affect you (or me) but it definitely does cause issue for a few, unnecessarily in my opinion.
I agree that the Airport Express is the better music device. For the above reasons plus the fact that it doesn't need to be hooked to a TV for management. The AE also responds quicker to start playing in my experience.
Despite what I said above, what Apple may have missed is that there is a sizable contingent of users who have been using the optical connection for streaming to their High-end audio systems. The ATV is a perfectly good 'connector' for getting your digital music collection to your audio system wirelessly at high quality. Apple may save some money by leaving out the connection, but they may lose a lot of sales. I have 3 ATV's currently. I assumed I would eventually replace all 3. Now I'm questioning if I'll buy even one.
Yes there will be consumers out there that have "High-end" Audio Systems, although I'm sure they could just push the music through to the systems via Airplay. And all being said and done, AppleTV is a media player which encompasses both video and audio.
Don't get me wrong, it's not good that v4 doesn't come with an optical connection, but I'm pretty sure Apple has a good reason behing not giving one and I seriously doubt it anything to do with saving a few dollars per unit.