Apple TV 4K and movies sound great... apps not so much.

[shinseiromeo]

Hello all. I recently got a new Apple TV 4K and home theater setup, upgrading from an old Onkyo receiver to a new Denon X1400. Everything sounds fantastic, on my PS4 and Apple TV. Except one thing... VUDU. I have a very large UV collection and used to rely on my PS4 to run VUDU. Now that I have the 4K ATV I just installed VUDU on that. The problem is the audio is not just bad, it’s unbearable.

I demo’ed several movies now and all are the same... muffled center channel only audio. I can play a movie in the movies app and BAM, 5.1/7.1 clear audio. Open VUDU and play the same exact film, it’s a muffled mess. All channels are on and active in the AVR when the VUDU app is running as well.

Is there any kind of specific setup in app I should be doing? Clearly it isn’t the Apple TV nor my AVR.

 

[JWort93]

I believe audio is a known problem with the Vudu app unfortunately, they say they are working on it, but no fix yet. In the mean time, have you considered creating a MoviesAnywhere account, and linking it to your Vudu and iTunes accounts? It won't bring all your UV movies over into iTunes, because Paramount and Lionsgate don't support it yet, but it will let you watch a very large number of them directly in iTunes/the Apple TV movie app, which is much better on the Apple TV than Vudu is.

 

[shinseiromeo]

I believe audio is a known problem with the Vudu app unfortunately, they say they are working on it, but no fix yet. In the mean time, have you considered creating a MoviesAnywhere account, and linking it to your Vudu and iTunes accounts? It won't bring all your UV movies over into iTunes, because Paramount and Lionsgate don't support it yet, but it will let you watch a very large number of them directly in iTunes/the Apple TV movie app, which is much better on the Apple TV than Vudu is.

Yeah I signed up for MA day one. On VUDU I have almost 1,200 movies. On iTunes I own around 950 movies. Plus with the whole 4K hoopla I have difficulty choosing what app to watch movies from.

 

[Rigby]

Plus with the whole 4K hoopla I have difficulty choosing what app to watch movies from.

In any case you don't want to use the Vudu ATV app, since it can't play UHD right now and probably won't for a while (supposedly Vudu has to not only add it to the app, but also re-encode their movies into a format that is compatible with the ATV).

The audio issue mentioned above appears to be related to their Dolby Digital Plus decoder. It affects some movies but not all.

 

[shinseiromeo]

In any case you don't want to use the Vudu ATV app, since it can't play UHD right now and probably won't for a while (supposedly Vudu has to not only add it to the app, but also re-encode their movies into a format that is compatible with the ATV).

The audio issue mentioned above appears to be related to their Dolby Digital Plus decoder. It affects some movies but not all.

I did not know this. So how is it best to watch a 4K UV through VUDU? I can through my LG B7 OLED though if I’m not mistaken I lose HD audio since the TV doesn’t stream that out through ARC, just standard Dolby digital.

I used to use my PS4 for VUDU streaming though I can’t get 4K through that. Audio always worked well though.

It seems to me I can’t have both 4K and HD audio together through VUDU no matter what I do.

If it helps, my current setup is LG B7 OLED, Denon X1400, Apple TV 4K, and a PS4.

 

[tjwilliams25]

I did not know this. So how is it best to watch a 4K UV through VUDU? I can through my LG B7 OLED though if I’m not mistaken I lose HD audio since the TV doesn’t stream that out through ARC, just standard Dolby digital.

I used to use my PS4 for VUDU streaming though I can’t get 4K through that. Audio always worked well though.

It seems to me I can’t have both 4K and HD audio together through VUDU no matter what I do.

If it helps, my current setup is LG B7 OLED, Denon X1400, Apple TV 4K, and a PS4.

You don't get HD audio from VUDU, no matter which device you use. They only use Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 (including for Dolby ATMOS films), so the sound will be the same as most recent movies in iTunes (excluding ATMOS, for the time being). Your best viewing experience for VUDU will most likely be from the built-in app on your TV, provided your TV outputs the DD+ bitstream. Some TVs support this through ARC, so I would check to see if yours does in the sound settings.

I've been a fan of VUDU for a while now, ever since it released on the PS3, and I've been using it pretty heavily since the updated app launched on the Xbox One. I feel as if I've been spoiled on the Xbox, as the app supports UHD, HDR, and ATMOS, so it's been kind of a culture shock using the Apple TV version. Overall, I like the app flow, but I wish the audio didn't suck so much.

 

[Rigby]

I did not know this. So how is it best to watch a 4K UV through VUDU? I can through my LG B7 OLED though if I’m not mistaken I lose HD audio since the TV doesn’t stream that out through ARC, just standard Dolby digital.

I wouldn't worry too much about the audio unless you need Dolby Atmos positioning. Last I checked Vudu streams audio in Dolby Digital Plus at relatively low bitrates anyway, so in terms of sound quality it shouldn't matter much if the TV transcodes to DD (or requests a DD stream from Vudu) for output on the ARC.

 

[shinseiromeo]

You don't get HD audio from VUDU, no matter which device you use. They only use Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 (including for Dolby ATMOS films), so the sound will be the same as most recent movies in iTunes (excluding ATMOS, for the time being). Your best viewing experience for VUDU will most likely be from the built-in app on your TV, provided your TV outputs the DD+ bitstream. Some TVs support this through ARC, so I would check to see if yours does in the sound settings.

I've been a fan of VUDU for a while now, ever since it released on the PS3, and I've been using it pretty heavily since the updated app launched on the Xbox One. I feel as if I've been spoiled on the Xbox, as the app supports UHD, HDR, and ATMOS, so it's been kind of a culture shock using the Apple TV version. Overall, I like the app flow, but I wish the audio didn't suck so much.

I wouldn't worry too much about the audio unless you need Dolby Atmos positioning. Last I checked Vudu streams audio in Dolby Digital Plus at relatively low bitrates anyway, so in terms of sound quality it shouldn't matter much if the TV transcodes to DD (or requests a DD stream from Vudu) for output on the ARC.

Thank you for the heads up guys. I own. 2017 LG B7 set up through a Denon X1400. My options for streaming are a PS4, Apple TV 4K, and the TV itself. Since I’m missing a few hundred movies from iTunes that are only on VUDU, where would you suggest I watch VUDU movies from?

At the moment I continually have TV source audio hidden as it seems to create some strange handshake issue, that whenever I turn my TV on, it turns on the Apple TV as well. I’m constantly having to go to the source on the AVR and put the Apple tv back to sleep. In research I have reading hiding the source TV audio from the receiver fixes that issue.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

I get the impression that we'll get DOLBY ATMOS on ATV 4K and iTunes very soon. I have this feeling that we are going to see it when the HomePod launches. Apple have real love for ATV 4K AND the HomePod just HAS to play well with ATV. The fact that HomePod adjusts to the room and has 360degree sound makes me feel that this HomePod will work with Dolby Atmos to produce a pseudo effect. I truly get the impression that Apple want you to have the complete experience here.

 

[Rigby]

Thank you for the heads up guys. I own. 2017 LG B7 set up through a Denon X1400. My options for streaming are a PS4, Apple TV 4K, and the TV itself. Since I’m missing a few hundred movies from iTunes that are only on VUDU, where would you suggest I watch VUDU movies from?

You don't really have a choice, since there are currently no apps other than the Vudu app on the ATV that can play Ultraviolet movies. You could play Movies Anywhere movies with the MA app, but those same movies can of course also be played via iTunes. If your TV has a Vudu app you can of course use that.