[solved] ATV audio output not switching

Platforms Apple TV
1

Sat down to watch a remux of The Departed tonight. I thought it was just a bad rip as it didn’t sound very good through my Denon. After a few glasses of vino I realised that although the ATV was showing it as DTS-HD MA 5.1 and the Denon was showing an input of LPCM multi channel with all channels output, all of the sound was coming solely through the centre channel. I found another file I have that is also DTS-HD MA 5.1 (Dunkirk) and thought sounded correct with all channels working. Running both files through media info the only difference I can see is that Dunkirk is 16 bit and The Departed (that didn’t play correctly) is 24 bit. Is 24 bit lossless supported or have I just got a dodgy file? Thanks.

PS. Yeah I know…how could I watch half a movie before realising the sound was from one speaker only :laughing:

2

Do you know what the sample rate is. I think Apple TV limited to 24/48 and doesn’t support 24/192

3

Sampling rate on both files is 48. There’s only one audio track on the file; here is the output:

Audio
ID : 2
Format : DTS XLL
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Commercial name : DTS-HD Master Audio
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 2 h 31 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 2 780 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel layout : C L R Ls Rs LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 93.750 FPS (512 SPF)
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossless
Stream size : 2.94 GiB (4%)
Title : DTS-HD MA 5.1
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

4

What happens if you force dolby digital?

1 Like
5

Hmm very strange. So if I go into the ATV audio settings and set ‘New Format’ to Dolby Digital 5.1 it plays correctly (all channels in use). Then I’ve stopped playback, gone back to that same setting and set it back to ‘Change Format’ off and it’s still playing correctly when I go back to the file.

6

Pretty sure the ATV supports up to 24 bit @ 48 kHz, there is a setting to force 16 bit which would not make much sense if 16 bit was the limit anyway.

7

Is your Apple TV connected directly to the Denon, or are you going through a TV? There are some cases where the TV can be changing (or limiting) the audio format, and this can lead to issues. Some discussion on this can be found here.

Also, there are some cases where the Apple TV can get ‘stuck’ in certain output mode, so audio would then be forced into 2.0 (or 5.1) regardless of the original format. This is a bug on the system level, so there isn’t much apps like Infuse can do to workaround this. However, adjusting the Apple TV’s audio setting or restarting the device will resolve the issue.

1 Like
8

ATV to Denon to TV.

That’s good to know it’s not necessarily specific to my setup.

Yes this did immediately resolve it after @munpip214 suggested it, so I’ll remember that next time. :+1:

Thanks everyone

9

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