Apple TV Sound Output TV vs Receiver

Hi everyone,

I saw some posts in the past about sound output cycling between receiver and TV speakers when using Apple TV. This was happening to me exactly every other time I switched power on/off. Unfortunately there was never a solution posted.

After doing a ton of research and many failed attempts of adjusting my Apple TV, Samsung tv, and receiver settings, I finally found the only option that is consistent. Changing TV settings and using optical did not help.

The solution is making sure your TV is connected to the receiver via ARC (TV) to HDMI out (receiver). THEN, plugging your Apple TV directly to another HDMI port on your TV. NOT ON THE RECEIVER.

Unfortunately, I’ve read that you may lose some audio quality doing it this way, but I did not notice a difference compared to when it was running through the receiver 50% of the time. Much less of a headache this way. Hopes this helps someone and prevents lost hours of researching and fiddling.

I do think this is an issue with my Samsung TV as I noticed in the settings that the sound output was cycling there. Changing the output in the TV settings was the only way I could change it to receiver other than turning everything off/on. Unfortunately you cannot set a default sound output on my Samsung TV. Or Apple TV for that matter.