Some Apple TV Users Complain of Dolby Atmos Audio Issues

[Biglethal69]

One of the biggest things is I only buy movies with atmos when on sale now Apple are removing the atmos from the movies I have 10 movies that no longer have Atmos. If you buy it with it it should stay with it or refund my money Apple. Talked to a senior advisor he tried to tell me that they didn’t have Atmos to start with. Funny how I was able to show him screen shots. He had nothing to say then.
Ripped of by a trillion dollar company again.

 

[Skeith]

So what's everyone's setup like~?

Apple TV -> Soundbar -> TV

or

Apple TV -> TV -> Soundbar

I ordered a Soundbar recently, I am looking forward to experience Atmos at home for the first time.. this article is rather timely. LOL.

 

[bleomycin]

+1 I have this issue its annoying as ****! I thought it was my receivers fault, turns out I was blaming the wrong device!

 

[veterpee]

Been dealing with this issue since tvOS15. Already received a replacement device. It is not bandwidth, HDMI cables, AVRs, or TVs; it is clearly the AppleTV. So many experiencing this issue have tried everything; new receivers, TVs, cables, etc. Lucky are those without the problem. Anyone in here blaming users (many of us engineers) is an Apple apologist. It is ridiculous this problem still exists. It is widely discussed across the internet. Netflix always seemed like the worst offender (until the recent update that uses the native tvOS 15 player), but it happens with Atmos on all streaming services, including AppleTV+. Since the Netflix update, the frequency does seem to have decreased, however is still present. Glad to finally see a post about this issue.

 

[veterpee]

Have the same issues with my 2nd gen APTV 4K but not 1st gen.

Same.

 

[veterpee]

sounds exactly like wifi issues, low signal, too many devices, interference. Not experiencing it here at all

Wrong.

 

[jctevere]

I’m currently using the embedded Apple TV functionality on my Sony 77” A80J OLED to watch Apple TV content. Also have it paired up with the new Sony HT-A9 atmos speakers.

I was debating taking one of the Apple TV 4Ks I have in another bedroom so I could use the Siri remote and functionality and full HomeKit features like doorbell ring on screen, as well as getting Apple Music without needing to use airplay from phone to the TV, but this makes me second think doing that until fixed are in place.

Alternatively, it would be great if the embedded Apple TV app provided the above functions like the Apple Tv itself so I wouldn’t have to do any of that.

 

[veterpee]

I’ve seen others suggest an audio pass through option for users with capable AVRs to take advantage of.

Amen. Give me a bitstream option. IDGAF about Siri integration.

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.

100%. This is ridiculous.

 

[veterpee]

I've had this problem since TVOS 15.1, I've done five or six diagnostics with a head tech from Apple, and they stopped talking to me after the fifth-time testing with them. They know about this and don't want to fix it.

Denon AVRX4400H 5.4.3 DSP on the subs

HELP!!!

Google Chromecast, Fire TV, and Roku work fine in Atmos

Same. Gave me a replacement device, had me run some diagnostics, apparently was backchanneling with engineers, etc. Was going to send me a new HDMI cable to try (had already bought plenty of my own to test). Never received cable and haven't heard a peep on the ticket since about January. I ping the support ticket every couple weeks asking about my refund.

Also, similar setup. Marantz SR7013 5.2.2 (also subs w/DSP, but that's irrelevant here). Tried an Onkyo Atmos AVR, different TV's, etc. No wifi. Funny thing, it doesnt happen with my gen1 ATV 4k, just gen2.

 

[AL2TEACH]

So what's everyone's setup like~?

Apple TV -> Soundbar -> TV

or

Apple TV -> TV -> Soundbar

I ordered a Soundbar recently, I am looking forward to experience Atmos at home for the first time.. this article is rather timely. LOL.

Your TV might have something to do with this also like can it passthrough DTS, etc...
I have a CX that's a word salad 2.1 lol. It can't passthrough uncompressed Dolby Atmos and neither can the Apple TV. I have everything into the TV except the Blu-Ray player, it's in the A9. In short, for the best sound connect your Blu-Ray player into the soundbar depending on the soundbar. Just curious, what soundbar you getting.

 

[canyonlight]

Yes. Experienced this while watching Bloomberg on Apple TV last night. Changed to Bloomberg on satellite TV and no issues with sound.

 

[veterpee]

So what's everyone's setup like~?

Apple TV -> Soundbar -> TV

or

Apple TV -> TV -> Soundbar

I ordered a Soundbar recently, I am looking forward to experience Atmos at home for the first time.. this article is rather timely. LOL.

ATV 4k gen2 --> Marantz SR7013 --> TV

 

[veterpee]

One of the biggest things is I only buy movies with atmos when on sale now Apple are removing the atmos from the movies I have 10 movies that no longer have Atmos. If you buy it with it it should stay with it or refund my money Apple. Talked to a senior advisor he tried to tell me that they didn’t have Atmos to start with. Funny how I was able to show him screen shots. He had nothing to say then.
Ripped of by a trillion dollar company again.

Maybe that is Apple's answer to the Atmos problem. I would be furious if this happened/happens to me.

 

[Skeith]

Your TV might have something to do with this also like can it passthrough DTS, etc...
I have a CX that's a word salad 2.1 lol. It can't passthrough uncompressed Dolby Atmos and neither can the Apple TV. I have everything into the TV except the Blu-Ray player, it's in the A9. In short, for the best sound connect your Blu-Ray player into the soundbar depending on the soundbar. Just curious, what soundbar you getting.

Uh. Samsung HW-Q990B. LG C1.

I did read some issues were experienced by Q950A users, some said you shouldn't enable eARC, some said you should connect Apple TV through the soundbar. Atmos MAT also came up a couple of times.

Oh well. Fun times ahead.

 

[Mike_313]

Lately apple makes too often things more complicated than they need to be. The butterfly keyboard, Studio Display and AppleTV audio.
They really need to get focused on the products again not on profits alone.

 

[RoadRunner505]

Yes! I thought it was something going wrong with my Sonos 5.1 surround setup but after seeing this post, I’m now convinced the problem is with tvOS on my first gen ATV 4K. It began sometime in January, so perhaps with 15.3.

I have to restart my ATV each time after it goes to sleep in order to get any sound. Very annoying! Glad there is media attention on this so hopefully Apple will fix it soon.

 

[mattpker]

Thank you so much for reporting on this! I created an account just so I could also report in that this has been a big problem for me as well and started last year.

I have the issue where the sound drops out with Atmos content, mostly on Netflix, but it has happened on other apps as well.

I have a Vizio PQX 75” tv and the Vizio Elevate soundbar. Issue happens with both the ATV plugged directly into the soundbar, and plugged into the TV with eARC on. With eARC off, it sends Atmos to the Elevate as “Dolby Atmos Digital Plus” instead of “Dolby Atmos MAT”. So I think the issue has something to do with the full quality “MAT” container.

Only resolution I can find is to disable Atmos in the ATV audio settings, cause I have to run my Apple TV directly to the soundbar to fix a volume CEC issue.

I thought it was just cause I had buggy Vizio products, but glad to hear other people with different hardware are having the same issue. Hopefully Apple and Netflix can figure this issue out and get it fixed soon.

 

[MacConvert07]

Same here. Had to turn off Dolby Atmos on my AppleTV 4K.

 

[Flood4]

Yes I have.

 

[Flood4]

There is a ******** of posts about this there. (34 pages…)

2021 new gen Apple tv 4k Dolby Atmos Problems

I posted on the forum back in June/July about this. I called Apple and have a case with them now, and plan on calling them back tomorrow. The problem is only sound, and only occurs when watching shows in dolby atmos. This happened to be after I got it new this year, so it's always been there...

www.martinloganowners.com

 

[Flood4]

There is a ******** of posts about this there. (34 pages…)

2021 new gen Apple tv 4k Dolby Atmos Problems

I posted on the forum back in June/July about this. I called Apple and have a case with them now, and plan on calling them back tomorrow. The problem is only sound, and only occurs when watching shows in dolby atmos. This happened to be after I got it new this year, so it's always been there...

www.martinloganowners.com

Lol the system remove the word s**t!!!

 

[rpe33]

no issues here with my ATV4K. Dolby Atmos sounds amazing.

 

[Canadian Cat]

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 thought it was just me. I just bought the JBL 9.1 soundbar and the audio responses the same. Seems better after I monkeyed around with some settings in the AppleTV and my tv sound settings

 

[svish]

Hopefully Apple fixes it real soon.

 

[Apleeseed84]

Just a friendly reminder that High Speed HDMI 1.8 and above will 9/10 use or require your ARC HDMI port, which usally in most cases be the first input, you can see it also Labeled but the Manual should clarify it.

Another thing is that just because your receiver has Dolby atmos labeled all over it, does not mean your speakers are Dolby atmos capable, just watch out for these small things and you will have zero problems!

I’ve been using Dolby Atmos since the Apple tv rollout in 2018 and I have never ever ever had any problems on any platform, the only problem I had was on my receiver just because I had to manually enable Dolby Atmos usage and also switch the Chroma settings for HDR output!