Apple TV 4K Not Streaming Surround Sound

[jjudson]

This is infuriating. I switched from my Roku Ultra because it was experiencing the screen blackout problem. So I replaced it with an Apple TV 4K 3rd gen. The picture looks fantastic, but if the content isn’t Dolby Atmos, no other content will stream Dolby 5.1 or 7.1. It just puts out stereo. It doesn’t matter what streaming app I use. Atmos works fine, 5.1 and 7.1 don’t. This is one thing that worked fine on the Roku. I’m about at my wit’s end here.

Any thoughts? Apple doesn’t seem to know what to do — even though I did a search online and found numerous other similar issues (all without fixes).

HOW HARD IS IT TO MAKE A STREAMING BOX THAT WORKS?!?

 

[AL2TEACH]

Just curious but ever get it all working?

 

[jjudson]

Just curious but ever get it all working?

Yes, come to find out, my wife was right -- I'm an idiot.

The output from the Apple TV 4K is multi-channel PCM, which feeds the separate channels to the proper speakers in surround mode. Dolby Atmos gets processed differently. I'm not fully educated on the full technical details of how this works, but it does.