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Some Apple TV Users Complain of Dolby Atmos Audio Issues
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I can confirm that my newest gen Apple TV 4K has this issue: both of them. Most commonly, it happens with Netflix. Watching something... sounds great... then boom... no audio at all. Maybe it'll come back in 5 seconds, maybe not. I thought it was something with my system, but it happens in the other room as well. Disabling atmos on both Apple TV devices completely solved the issue. Hopefully it's fixed soon!
A lot of speculation here, but I can confirm that, at least for me, the problem IS the Apple TV (or the Apple TV's Netflix app). How do I know? When I use Netflix on my Apple TV, I get zero sound for Dolby Atmos. When I use the pre-installed Netflix app on my TV, I get full Dolby Atmos. Interestingly, at different stages of this process, I could get Atmos sound from Disney and HBO Max, but Netflix just wouldn't crank out sound.
I've lost a LOT of free time (and money) trying to debug and fix this, and for now, I think I've found a solution that works for me. For the record, I have a 2021 Samsung Frame, Sonos Arc, and the latest Apple TV. Here is what I have done to get things working for me (none of which I can say are a silver bullet, but all of which, I believe, helped me solve this problem):
I've lost a LOT of free time (and money) trying to debug and fix this, and for now, I think I've found a solution that works for me. For the record, I have a 2021 Samsung Frame, Sonos Arc, and the latest Apple TV. Here is what I have done to get things working for me (none of which I can say are a silver bullet, but all of which, I believe, helped me solve this problem):
- Upgrade your HDMI cables. All of them. I went with the Zeskit 8k cables from Amazon. Trust no other HDMI cable: even the HDMI cable that came with my Sonos Arc seemed to have bandwidth issues carrying Dolby Atmos content.
- If possible, hardwire EVERYTHING with ethernet.
- Ensure your TV is in pass-through mode. The "Auto" setting on my TV seems to be working correctly, but pass-through should guarantee it's in the right format.
- Restart EVERYTHING (TV, Apple TV, sound system).
- As a last resort, reset everything. Reset your TV, reset Apple TV, reset sound bar/system.
- Finally, if the sound is getting flaky again, go into Apple TV settings > Video and Audio > Audio Format. Toggle through the options there, and return to Auto. This seems to be a "soft reset' which can get things back up and running.
Sadly, my surround sound system is Logic 7 and my sound bar is plain Dolby Digital. Haven’t moved to Atmos equipment yet, although I should since Logic and Atmos don’t play nice with each other.
How is Yamaha hardware? My Logic receiver is a 2009 Harmon Kardon AVR1600. Looking for some ideas for Atmos.
been having this issue constantly with my Sonos and have been thinking it was my system. i dont even think it's limited to Atmos because it's impacting my Playbar + 2 Sonos One SL's and Sonos five setup. I've been alternating between disabling and enabling wifi on my playbar to try to resolve it but it continues to reoccur.
I have a Yamaha RX-V6A. Sound is great. Control is a bit strange, you need to use the web interface to get all controls in a good view. But as I mentioned I have to reset it from time to time (less than once a month).
I’ve been having cut out issues for months. I have a Sony sound bar with wireless rear speakers. I definitely think it’s two issues. My rear speakers I need to recalibrate the Wi-Fi channel they are on. That helped but I still have the cut out issue some what
Yes. I'm so disappointed with Apple and how they show a lack of caring towards the Apple TV. Apple TV+ isn't that great and Apple TV never seems to get good updates, folders would be nice for all the movies and TV shows I have purchased over the years. But it Apple and they love to control everything.
Yes, I have for a while now. Exiting the app and restarting solves the problem for a short term. I am using the SONOs bar.
A cluster of Apple TV owners over the last several months have been complaining about several issues when using external speakers with the Apple TV and attempting to listen to Dolby Atmos audio.
A thread on Apple's support forums, which started in September 2021 and has over 25 pages of users sharing complaints, chronicles how users are experiencing issues with their Apple TV and Dolby Atmos. According to users, when listening to Dolby Atmos content, audio will sometimes either completely cut out and go silent, goes out of sync with the videos on the screen, or is choppy and stutters.
While there are some users who are experiencing the issue across Apple TV apps, a large portion of the complaints come from when users use the Netflix app. Some users have found that changing audio settings and disabling Dolby Atmos entirely solves the issues. Apple released tvOS 15.4.1 last month and that update does not seem to have addressed the bugs. Are you experiencing similar issues? Let us know down in the comments.
Article Link: Some Apple TV Users Complain of Dolby Atmos Audio Issues
I have been having audio cut out issues for like a year with my Sonos Arc with latest ATV! I talked to Sonos, sent them a log, but couldn't really get any useful answers.
I've had the same issue across two different TVs (TCL and LG). FYI, I tried turning off Atmos on ATV, and still had same issue.
It's so bad that sometimes on an Apple Music playlist, from song to song I'll lose audio. The fix is that I back out to the main menu, scroll around on the home screen, and eventually audio will come back. Incredibly frustrating.
I've had the same issue across two different TVs (TCL and LG). FYI, I tried turning off Atmos on ATV, and still had same issue.
It's so bad that sometimes on an Apple Music playlist, from song to song I'll lose audio. The fix is that I back out to the main menu, scroll around on the home screen, and eventually audio will come back. Incredibly frustrating.
No problems with ATV (latest) to Hisense U8G to Vizio 5.1.4 soundbar via optical cable. But if I try to eARC from ATV to Vizio soundbar, the sound will stop and I will have to turn the Vizio soundbar back on.
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Yeah we constantly have to turn Dolby Atmos off in ATV settings to use 5.1 surround instead in order to 'fix' the sound. We turn it on when watching movies in our Apple TV library (and the sound works fine and shows as Atmos in our Sonos iOS app), but switching in between apps causes the audio to go completely silent. This sometimes happens even when switching movies in our Apple TV library...
We have a Sonos Arc with a 2021 $3K 4K Samsung TV with eARC support + full Dolby Atmos support - the issue is a bug with the Apple TV OS 100%... it's not even usable for us on Apple TV. We have zero issues when using Dolby Atmos on other streaming devices.
We have a Sonos Arc with a 2021 $3K 4K Samsung TV with eARC support + full Dolby Atmos support - the issue is a bug with the Apple TV OS 100%... it's not even usable for us on Apple TV. We have zero issues when using Dolby Atmos on other streaming devices.
turn off match content settings. hardset it as 4K HDR (or SDR if your TV isn't OLED or doesn't have local dimming), and hard set the frame rate. That fixes the syncing issues for me.
Same problem here. Sound cuts out for about 6 seconds while watching shows on Netflix with Dolby Atmos
A cluster of Apple TV owners over the last several months have been complaining about several issues when using external speakers with the Apple TV and attempting to listen to Dolby Atmos audio.
A thread on Apple's support forums, which started in September 2021 and has over 25 pages of users sharing complaints, chronicles how users are experiencing issues with their Apple TV and Dolby Atmos. According to users, when listening to Dolby Atmos content, audio will sometimes either completely cut out and go silent, goes out of sync with the videos on the screen, or is choppy and stutters.
While there are some users who are experiencing the issue across Apple TV apps, a large portion of the complaints come from when users use the Netflix app. Some users have found that changing audio settings and disabling Dolby Atmos entirely solves the issues. Apple released tvOS 15.4.1 last month and that update does not seem to have addressed the bugs. Are you experiencing similar issues? Let us know down in the comments.
Article Link: Some Apple TV Users Complain of Dolby Atmos Audio Issues
it seems to me that, whenever the ATV goes to sleep, something is greatly amiss, if it goes to sleep, I pretty much have to restart it to get it to work well... for one thing, I don't have the best internet where I live, and, sometimes the ATV will act like it's even slower than it is, giving me pixelated video, restart the ATV, and then it plays just fine. It's almost as if it's trying to upload while I'm downloading or something, it just makes no sense, whatever it is. I'm constantly having to restart apps or the ATV it seems. When it works, it's great, better than Roku if you ask me, but, why bother with sleep mode if it can't wake and work properly? (...maybe it's the screensaver app??? I haven't tried turning the screensaver off, I like a lot of the visuals.)
I’ve had issues with the AirPods max not properly using Dolby when the content supports it. At least you can change to fixed spatial audio now.
Glad there is finally some mainstream Apple news traction on this issue. I’ve been dealing with the choppy/stuttering Dolby Atmos performance for months. I experience this Dolby Atmos sound issue with Netflix, Disney+, AppleTV+, and Apple Music (just a few hours ago) on a daily basis!
A cluster of Apple TV owners over the last several months have been complaining about several issues when using external speakers with the Apple TV and attempting to listen to Dolby Atmos audio.
A thread on Apple's support forums, which started in September 2021 and has over 25 pages of users sharing complaints, chronicles how users are experiencing issues with their Apple TV and Dolby Atmos. According to users, when listening to Dolby Atmos content, audio will sometimes either completely cut out and go silent, goes out of sync with the videos on the screen, or is choppy and stutters.
While there are some users who are experiencing the issue across Apple TV apps, a large portion of the complaints come from when users use the Netflix app. Some users have found that changing audio settings and disabling Dolby Atmos entirely solves the issues. Apple released tvOS 15.4.1 last month and that update does not seem to have addressed the bugs. Are you experiencing similar issues? Let us know down in the comments.
Article Link: Some Apple TV Users Complain of Dolby Atmos Audio Issues
This past Dec/Jan I purchased an all new home theater setup. I have a hard line +300Mbps internet connection to my 2021 AppleTV 4k, a certified hdmi cable (48gbps) from ATV to a Denon AVR x4700h, and then sound to a 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos setup (+$7k between TV, AVR, speakers, wires, etc. No video issues (thankfully) (LG OLED C1).
Not sure what it’s worth these days, but also sent Mr. Cook an email about this yesterday.
I’ve seen others suggest an audio pass through option for users with capable AVRs to take advantage of. That seems like an appropriate solution. The current one offered (to disable Dolby Atmos) is ridiculous and should come with a full refund of the $199 I spent on the weakest link in my home theater setup.
Maybe more articles like this one in MRs will help push a solution out of Cupertino. Fingers crossed
Same here. When on their own, not paired with the Apple TV, sound quality playing Apple Music lossless is excellent, balanced and detailed (with "reduce bass" on, but that is a personal preference). With the apple tv, all this issues will happen.
I will try turning off headtracking in the apple tv settings like @OhMyMy suggest. Do it yourself and see in that fixes it for you.
Will report.