I have a Bose Soundbar 700 with the sub and the rear speakers connected to a Sony XF9005 TV. What audio settings should I use on the ATV to ensure that I get surround sound all the time? Is it possible to force surround sound somehow? Sadly the ATV apparently only supports Dolby and not DTS and my current audio setting is Auto which is recommended. Is it better to change it to Dolby Digital 5.1 or does it not make a difference? If I chose Dolby Digital will it automatically decode everything to 5.1 sound?
Depends on what your TV can handle. When aTV is set to auto, the audio stream from infuse is passed through the TV. So if the Movie is DTS, the TV will receive a DTS stream.
Next question would be how the TV will passover the audio to the soundbar and what the soundbar is able to handle
If the sound bar supports multichannel PCM through HDMI then use auto settings. If the sound bar is connected via optical or through ARC on your TV then you’re going to be stuck using the Dolby digital 5.1 setting.
Thank you for the replies. The soundbar is connected to the TV via HDMI ARC and the soundbar supports multichannel PCM as well as Dolby and DTS surround. The TV can passthrough both Dolby and DTS via HDMI ARC. I guess I should stick to auto then? If I chose Dolby Digital 5.1 will everything then play in 5.1? Sorry for my stupid questions.
Multi-channel LPCM isn’t supported over ARC, so the chances are high the Apple TV recognizes this and is already sending DD 5.1 on its own when set to Auto. You can of course force DD 5.1 by switching the Apple TV from Auto to Dolby Digital in Apple TV > Settings > Video and Audio > Audio Format. This will avoid issues with 2.0 stereo being sent instead of DD 5.1.
eARC is a newer spec which is able pass multi-channel uncompressed formats like LPCM, but this is just starting to be available on newer TVs.
My TV supports DTS passthrough so if I understand you correctly then I should leave it at auto and infuse and ATV will pass the DTS signal to the TV and the TV will pass it on to the soundbar?
No. The Apple TV does not do pass through. You have two options 1. Multichannel PCM (requires a direct HDMI connection or a tv and sound bar that do eARC) 2. Dolby Digital 5.1 (all audio is converted to Dolby Digital 5.1. And sent to the audio device).
Set the option in Apple TV settings for your supported hardware.
Thank you for clarifying. Dolby Digtital 5.1 it is 
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