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User profile for user: dingo!
dingo! Author
User level: Level 1
7 points

Only 'background' music - no voice on some programs

This is weird. I have multiple AppleTV's devices and they are all the same generation.


Tonight my daughter started to watch Stranger Things on one of the TV's; we could hear the background music but no dialog. When it was clear that there was to be dialog, the 'background music' would get a little softer. We tried several shows on Prime, and had mixed results. Some were just like this (background music but no dialog at all) and some where just fine.


On another Apple TV device, these same shows played just fine...dialog was audible.


So it seems to be device specific, which is odd. Both are up to date on updates.


Any tips for me to try?

Apple TV 4K

Posted on Aug 20, 2022 6:16 PM

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User profile for user: Urquhart1244
Urquhart1244
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
142,650 points

Posted on Aug 21, 2022 2:58 AM

The issue is most likely that the Apple TV is set to “Auto” output surround sound, and the TV or audio system doesn’t have a Center speaker connected, nor does it perform a downmix to stereo. For surround sound with discrete speaker channels, most of the dialog is for the (missing) Center speaker. The solution is to set the Apple TV Audio Format to stereo.

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User profile for user: Urquhart1244
Urquhart1244
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
142,650 points

Aug 21, 2022 2:58 AM in response to dingo!

The issue is most likely that the Apple TV is set to “Auto” output surround sound, and the TV or audio system doesn’t have a Center speaker connected, nor does it perform a downmix to stereo. For surround sound with discrete speaker channels, most of the dialog is for the (missing) Center speaker. The solution is to set the Apple TV Audio Format to stereo.

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Only 'background' music - no voice on some programs

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