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Chris252583
Contributor I
May 23, 2021

Apple tv 4k

  • May 23, 2021
  • 13 replies
  • 1645 views

So I have the newest sony oled tv a90j hooked up to my sonos arc surround sound via earc hdmi 2.1. When I play any streaming app Hulu,Netflix,ESPN,YouTube and Disney plus from the google tv that comes with the tv already I get Dolby digital 2.0 or Dolby digital plus 5.0 or Dolby atmos which is great. Now I bought the newest Apple TV 4K and when I play any other app other than Netflix (I get Dolby vision 5.0 if set to Dolby vision or Dolby atmos if set to atmos only on Netflix)all I get is stereo pcm no matter what setting I put on the Apple TV in. Tried Dolby atmos setting on Apple TV or Dolby digital setting on Apple TV and nothing all I get is stereo pcm no matter what app I play Even Apple Music on the Apple TV all I get is stereo pcm. Any ideas as to why or how I can fix it? Or is Apple newest 4K Apple TV can’t pass any Dolby content unless the app actually has it like Netflix for example.appreciate any suggestions or inputs.

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13 replies

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owenzelig
Contributor I
August 3, 2021

To be perfectly honest, I don’t understand a lot of what was just tossed around in the above back and forth, but I THINK this explains what I’m experiencing, which is:

 

I have an Apple TV 4K connected to a 2017 Samsung television.  I have a Beam connected to the Samsung and a pair of Play:1s set up as a surround sound pair with the Beam.  Works great for whatever is playing on the television and also works great when I play music via the Sonos app.

 

What I just realized, however, is that the two Play:1s are silent when I use the Apple Music app on the Apple TV to play music.

 

The Beam is connected to the one HDMI ARC port on the Samsung (as it should be).  The Apple TV is connected to a “regular” HDMI port.

 

Does this setup explain why the Play:1s don’t function as surround sound when playing Apple Music from the Apple TV?  Not a huge deal for me, but I was perplexed.

Airgetlam
Airgetlam
August 3, 2021

When you play music, the signal being fed to the Beam is stereo, not a 5.1 signal. So the surround speakers would not be getting any channel information. Because you’re using the AppleTV to play the music, you can’t use the ‘music’ settings for the surrounds, as the Sonos only is aware it is receiving a signal via HDMI ARC, and has no idea what kind of signal is being passed to it. 

If, rather than using the Apple TV as a source for your music, you were to use the features in the Sonos controller to access the music, then you could use those additional features.

Bruce
    lesnla
    Lyricist I
    March 5, 2023

    It’s 1 year later and I have had this problem all along too. Beam + 2 Sonos One’s connected. HDMI-A connection to sony, and Apple TV 4K to HDMI 1. TV set to use “audio system” instead of TV Speakers.

    for Apple TV I have to manually select my Sonos named system because the default is the TV direct connection, which only plays from the beam. If I change apps, I have to do it again. If I walk away and come back 15 mins later, I have to do it again. It drives me batsh*t but I have yet to figure out how to change it no matter settings I try on both the tv and Apple.
     

    What would be most convenient is If I could just set the default Apple audio output to my sonos system instead of the tv but it won’t allow me to do that for some reason! 
     

    is there a solution for this because I have tried the above- but btw, isn’t a beam + 2 speakers a 3.0 system and not 5.1? 

    Champagne Sonos Lover, Vizio wallet
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