Apple Broke Dolby Digital 5.1 Output on Apple TV 4K

Apple TV 4th 2nd gen to AVR onkyo 5.1 Dolby decoding no longer available, just 2.1 PCM since the 17.04 iOS software update. I’m a french customer, for what it’s worth. Apple Tech support, please do something soon

Thank you.

Ah yes, I did see that post. Assuming I read the post correctly the method did not fix the issue for me.

Assuming they meant press and hold the TV button on the remote, swipe to Audio, select a different speaker and deselect TV speakers, then deselect the other speaker and re-select TV Speakers.

Correct Payton. So far it continues to work for me. Not the best solution, but works until an actual fix is released.

For instance, i go into netflix and choose a movie (not play it yet). Choose both tv speaker and homepod. Play a bit of the movie in stereo only. Get out of the movie back into the movie menu. Change the audio to turn off the homepod audio leaving only the tv speaker. Play the movie again and dolby comes on. It stays on as long as I dont leave netflix app. If i change to any other app like apple library or Max or Amazon movies, dolby goes away but just repeat the same process of switching speakers and comes right back.

The only option I have here is to remove user from Apple 4KTV.

Problem is, I have 2FA turned on and an iPad that isn’t up-to-date (and can’t be updated anymore. I have no way to log back in again as I can’t remember my password.

I updates to the latest “B” version today and now I am getting Dolby Atmos on streaming services like Disney plus. However I am still getting stereo pcm on YouTube videos that are suppose to be Dolby Atmos. Sometimes i get multichannel PCM 5.1 on the exact same video, it seems a bit random.

Using a Sonos system

Oh my god, I am so glad I found this forum. Currently I have a slightly older Sony TV (75x900f)with only Arc (no eArc), Apple TV 4k, and a Bose 900 sounbar with woofer. Since the TV only passes through up to DD 5.1 and can't pass through Dolby Atmos, I had learned to be content with that for the past year or so. Then I noticed last week that the soundbar suddenly only output LPCM 2.0 on all Apple TV content. The Sony TV's native apps output DDP 5.1 no problem, so I knew it wasn't the cords or ports fault. I spent hours last night troubleshooting, swapping wires/configurations, resetting devices, etc, until a couple google searches in this forum popped up. Glad to know it's at least not a hardware issue and to finally have an answer.

For reference, it's an older 4k Apple TV (maybe 2020?). I have it connected to the Sony TV and passed through to the Bose 900 soundbar via Optical (I had used the Arc HDMI channel for awhile, but it was unreliable, and wouldn't pass through Dolby Atmos anyways since it wasn't eArc so there was no real advantage). While troubleshooting I used an older HDMI audio splitter from HDfury/Arcana and was able to get the Apple TV to send Dolby Atmos to the Bose 900. BUT the HDfury has always been temperamental so is not a long term solution.

At least no I know the issue is Apple's OS. I have hope they'll figure it out in the near future now that they're aware.

The newer Apple TV downstairs in the movie room is on version 17.6 and is working fine with the receiver and outputting Dolby Atmos and multi channel fine. So I turned off auto updates just in case.

I was getting my hopes up, after reading posts that the latest b version works regarding 5.1 dolby digital.

As far as I can tell I have also updated to the latest b version. But unfortunately for me it still does not work. My Logitech z906 does not receive an encoded doldy digital 5.1 signal. This is very frustrating, because when I bought the apple tv, it did work. I just don't understand why this is still not working. I have to use my old Xbox One machine to watch Apple TV on in dolby digital. How crazy is that.

I updated to the not named and 5.1 only works if I choose Change Format in 5.1. But if I do that, I lose Atmos.

If I turn Change Format off, it seems like it "sticks" for a bit but only on the thing I was watching. If I choose another movie or show from the same app, it's back in stereo. And I don't think it even "sticks" permanently to the thing I originally "unstuck." If that makes sense.

To me, it's still not resolved. I only get Atmos or stereo on a 1st gen 4k.

So the b update did help but I notice things still revert to stereo.

if I force change format for a second to 5.1 then go and turn it off it will stay in 5.1 for a while.

But it seems it will revert to stereo at some point. Before 18, it would get stuck in stereo sometimes especially after watching something that was in stereo. I found restarting my tv, not the Apple TV, would solve it.

This is so frustrating I have been on the same iOS 18 broke two of my ATV audio as everyone else, but now my issues are nuanced even between the two!!!

ATV1 in living room, has finally been solved with an update. It uses eARC on an OLED with a 7.1.2 Atmos setup and everything works great… for now…

ATV2 in the bedroom had the same pcm/5.1 issues but now is fixed…. On the 5.1 side with movies ONLY lol. Wth?!?! Music app only sends 2.0 PCM stereo to my AVR.

ugh. Ticket created. The “it just works” tagline is now in jeopardy to me.

No solution on the radar yet from Apple as far as I can see. I have updated one of my Apple TV from 18.0 to version 18.1. Dolby Digital 5.1 does not seem to work using this version either although some people has written in this forum that it works. My second Apple TV has version 17.6.3 I think. Need to test this one.

I’ve noticed with 18.1 it seems to work sometimes it only with certain apps. Just now, things in Apple+ and Disney were 5.1 but Prime and Peacock were not. I had to force Change Format to get it (though and I can turn it off and it “sticks”).

I called Apple and they said they had no tickets about the issue according to the Senior Engineer I spoke to. He also believes it’s related to Sonos (which I have), though I told him this thread disputes that.

either way he told me to bring it up with Sonos so that when they said it’s an Apple issue, I could come back and force a ticket by saying I went through Sonos already and Sonos would file a ticket with Apple.

I have a 1st gen 4K and I never got 5.1 audio unless I had change format on. Then when I updated to 18, I lost all ability to get 5.1 even with change format on except for YouTube. Then after updating to an 18.1 (but not the first version which didn't fix it), it is back to working like it did before where I get 5.1 if I have change format on.

This happened to me too. I found my fix, but it's not ideal, and it's not going to work with all audio setups.

First, we need to understand how Apple TV handles audio output. By default, Apple TV decodes Dolby Digital (Plus) 5.1 or 7.1, and send the signal out as Multichannel PCM. It does the same thing for Dolby Atmos as well, but when it's Atmos, it also sends out the Atmos metadata so our Atmos capable device will recognize it and process it accordingly. If you change the "audio format" setting on Apple TV, then it will re-encode the PCM audio back into Dolby Digital 5.1 only, hence Dolby Atmos is no longer available in that case.

My set up prior to TVOS 18 was connecting Apple TV directly to my eArc capable TCL TV, and the TV is connected to Samsung soundbar via eArc. Before the update, Apple TV was able to detect my TV's passthrough ability, so it will actually only re-encode multichannel PCM into Dolby Digital when Atmos isn't available even when Apple TV's audio output setting was at default! Then, when Atmos is available my TV will pass it through to the soundbar as it is.

Nevertheless, that smart detection is no longer there after TVOS 18. Now, with the old setup, Apple TV can only send multichannel PCM to my TV, while my TV can't passthrough multichannel PCM, so the soundbar will only receive stereo PCM.

My fix is that I now connect the Apple TV to one of my Samsung soundbar's HDMI inputs, as my soundbar has no problem processing multichannel PCM directly, but it's not ideal because my soundbar tends to process multichannel PCM at a much lower volume. This fix won't work for everybody either, because a lot of sound systems on the market today are meant for you to use your TV's eArc ability. For example, if you have the latest Bose or Sonos soundbar, it only has a single eArc HDMI input.