Apple TV 4 with tvOS 14.3 no longer able to passthrough AC3 Audio

in previous tvOS I can enjoy my movie from HomeSharing with AC3 passthrough

on my AV Receiver I saw Dolby Digital logo light up.

but until recently I found all my movie become stereo. no more AC3

I checked audio option

Change Audio format set to off =>

System sound is stereo

Apple TV+ content is Multichannel LPCM (Means decoded by Apple TV which I don't want!!!!)

HomeSharing content can't even detect AC3 track, only play 2channel AAC.

HomeSharing content can't detect E-AC3 track

Change Audio format set to on with AC3 5.1 =>

system sound is stereo

Apple TV+ content is AC3 (but according to the description, it say encoding everything into AC3, which means, the AC3 is not pure! but encoded again! which is double encoded!)

HomeSharing content can't even detect AC3 track, only play 2channel AAC.

HomeSharing content can detect E-AC3 track, but freeze when you play it.

Please Bring back the passthrough, a TV box without passthrough is meaningless.

Posted on Dec 23, 2020 8:10 PM

Top-ranking reply

Wurzel666

Level 1

9 points

Posted on Jan 10, 2021 2:22 AM

Hi folks. I too can confirm this is a bug introduced in tvOS 14.0, and still exists in 14.3.

The more people can report the bug using the feedback tool below, the more likely it will get fixed since Apple don’t monitor these community forums.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/appletv.html

As others here have already mentioned, it mainly affects the Computers app but also some third party apps like “Surround Sound Check” app which the dev himself confirmed here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/tvos-14-3-apple-tv-4k-home-sharing-surround-sound-broken.2278178/

Very frustrating for those of us who use Home Sharing extensively :(

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60 replies

Feb 6, 2021 10:43 PM in response to davidosus

For me the channels are well (if not totally) separated, in stark contrast to how I used to get nothing at all from the surround channels at all. So for me the 5 channels are finally working again. But the LFE is still silent during that test video. I need to do some more trial and error to decide if it's ever working (it certainly works during my surround system's speaker test tho).

Dec 28, 2020 12:50 AM in response to Urquhart1244

I also recently observed failure to retain multichannel audio from Home Sharing media through the Computers app in tvOS 14.3. I'm not sure whether the change occurred with the 14.3 update or earlier. I first suspected something was wrong when I failed to hear output from my rear speakers for media I was sure had surround sound. The issue is for Home Sharing sources, and has certainly arisen since tvOS 14 was released. There was no problem with throughput of multichannel audio for these sources with the original release of tvOS 14. I'm fairly confident the problem occurred with 14.3, might have been 14.1 or 14.2, AFAIK. I posted this with my perspective.

TeeTw0

Level 1

39 points

Dec 29, 2020 12:37 PM in response to Beterhans Pan

Just to second that I'm seeing this issue with tvOS 14.3 as well. Media file playback via Home Sharing worked fine in previous versions of tvOS.

Jan 3, 2021 5:12 PM in response to kra_ste

You are right!

TeeTw0

Level 1

39 points

Jan 4, 2021 9:21 AM in response to kra_ste

I've also submitted a bug report via Feedback Assistant.

Jan 10, 2021 1:48 PM in response to Wurzel666

Great. I do I use subler. What do you mean about fallback? Where is this setting?

Jan 10, 2021 2:06 PM in response to Chris Newbold

Once your file contains both an AC3 track and a stereo AAC track, highlight the AC3 track and you’ll see a Fallback drop-down. In that drop-down, select the AAC track as the fallback :)

Jan 10, 2021 2:38 PM in response to Community User

What does this mean? Homemade video files meaning any kind of streaming media that isn’t bought from apple?!

Jan 10, 2021 2:40 PM in response to Chris Newbold

Sorry, Ilee, presuming you mean this isn’t how it’s supposed to be.. a bug? Otherwise, fairly crap

Jan 10, 2021 3:07 PM in response to Community User

Until the latest update, surround sound worked.

All my ripped Blu-Ray files have looked like this in Subler since the Apple TV HD was released in 2015. I upgraded to the Apple TV 4K in 2017.

Jan 10, 2021 3:25 PM in response to kra_ste

May I ask where are you seeing that there are no other reports? ( I, and others I know, have reported this a number of times in all tvOS 14.x versions)

kra_ste

Level 1

42 points

Jan 10, 2021 3:32 PM in response to Wurzel666

That's what Feedback Assistant shows to me.

But great to see that there are other reports, too. Hopefully this gets fixed soon.

Jan 10, 2021 3:37 PM in response to Wurzel666

let me try this when got time

Jan 10, 2021 4:12 PM in response to Wurzel666

they do make money, i wont buy apple tv if it only can play apple tv+ or netflix

Jan 13, 2021 5:25 PM in response to kra_ste

I have a sneaking suspicion that because this was broken in a major release, that it may not be fixed (if at all) until the next one: tvOS 15 :(

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Apple TV 4 with tvOS 14.3 no longer able to passthrough AC3 Audio