Does the new Apple TV 4k support lossless passthrough?

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Does the new Apple TV 4k support lossless passthrough?

Long time AppleTV owner, and my ONLY complaint has been the lack of lossless audio passthrough for high definition audio content (DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD, etc). People who buy AppleTV 4K hardware are looking for a better experience than what comes in just about every smart TV for no additional cost. High Definition Audio is one of the things that these same customers would take advantage of.

Does this new version support lossless audio passthrough? Are their ANY plans whatsoever to add this capability?

I really don't want to buy an android device (Nvidia Shield) and it seems there are plenty of Shield owners who would buy an AppleTV 4K today if it supported lossless audio passthrough...so there is a market of folks that this feature would capture whom you haven't been able to reach yet.

Apple TV 4K, tvOS 16

Posted on Nov 2, 2022 03:59 PM

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Answer 1

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Urquhart1244

Level 10

145,704 points

Nov 2, 2022 05:18 PM in response to EliteM3

Does this new version support lossless audio passthrough?

No [1].

Are their ANY plans whatsoever to add this capability?

There are no signs to that. It would be mostly useful for Blu-ray rips, which is not the focus to Apple for Apple TV boxes. Streaming services are the focus, which use different, more compressed, formats.

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Answer 2

EliteM3 Author

Level 1

15 points

Nov 2, 2022 05:51 PM in response to Urquhart1244

Understandable to a degree (if the sole focus was streaming). But if they support applications like Plex, Kodi, Infuse, and any other media server software, why not support the ability to simply pass through the audio as encoded? The hardware is capable, and the software can support it. Again, if the sole focus of the consumer was to be able to stream netflix, hulu, disney and hbo, smart tv's do it at no extra cost. The AppleTV is a premium product for discerning consumers looking to take advantage of higher quality content and played through more than just TV speakers.

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Answer 3

Rudegar

Level 10

178,872 points

Nov 3, 2022 09:29 AM in response to EliteM3

they don't "support" Plex, Kodi, Infuse, vlc....

they just don't ban them from the app store, it's not the same thing to not block third party apps to

invest in R&D to bring features to their core platform.

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Answer 4

lkrupp

Level 7

21,243 points

Nov 3, 2022 06:38 AM in response to EliteM3

Of course you are conversing with fellow users in these forums, not Apple employees. For the record, a lot of us agree with you but it’s not up to us.

Feedback - Apple TV - Apple

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Does the new Apple TV 4k support lossless passthrough?

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