About the pull the trigger on the ATV 4K, but I was wondering if an iTunes library plays in 5.1 surround sound, especially music purchased directly from the iTunes store or Amazon music.
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iTunes plays in 5.1 surround?
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Most music is 2.0, ifaik its very seldom recorded in 5.1. Your receiver can often upscale, or as I prefer just map the front left/right directly to rear left/right.
Movies are all 5.1. But not previews, not trailers, not hulu, not youtube. Apple has issues with their 5.1 surround API and implementing themselves and getting third parties to implement.
Darn. Any way to tell if music you have/want to purchase will play in 5.1? Please excuse my ignorance.
No purchased music will play in 5.1 on aTV.
Unless it is a music video. Only video files (mp4, m4v) can play surround sound on aTV. All music files (aac, mp3, m4a) will only play in stereo.
iTunes currently does not sell multichannel music.
You can play your own 5.1 music files on the Apple TV, e.g. by streaming them from a network volume using MrMC.
Additionally, 99% of music is only produced for 2.0 anyway.
Most receivers will have "faux surround" DSP or speaker settings for those wishing to push their 2.0 music to their surround speakers.