Apple Broke Dolby Digital 5.1 Output on Apple TV 4K

Having the same issue with first gen ATV 4K, a Sony TV and Sonos beam connected via ARC. Everything worked fine before tvOS 18.

3rd gen ATV 4K connected through Samsung tv and a Sonos Arc not having this issue.

outputting to the Beam via the TV’s apps nets 5.1 again so clearly it’s the ATV.

Now I am really confused. I was playing a movie that was supposed to be Dolby Atmos (on Netflix) but was reporting on the Netflix banner as "Spacial Audio" ...but going in and out of the movie did something.

Now all of a sudden - it said Dolby Atmos again and when I hit play, the upper right said Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision.

I did the same in Prime and I once again got Atmos there.

Seems there is a handshake that is not correct initially but eventually kicks in correctly.

Just to be safe, I rebooted the ATV and rechecked Netflix.....it was still reading Dolby Atmos and playing Atmos correctly.

I'm not sure what happened but it is working again.

I would be interested in knowing whether your Audio Format line in the AUDIO area of Video and Audio settings is displayed as "Auto" or "Dolby Digital 5.1". I'm betting that it's "Auto". Is that right?

My problem with this approach (please correct me if I'm wrong), is that because you can't provide feedback directly from an ATV, you must enroll another device in the program to report. I won't do that.

@llee: I'm not sure that's true? You fill out the feedback form and then on your Apple TV you hold down play/pause and volume down for 6 seconds, the ATV generates a debug file and then you just airdrop it to your Mac or iPhone (I think, might be Mac only). The Mac doesn't need to be enrolled; I know mine isn't.

That is certainly contrary to the pattern I’ve observed from my own experience with the issue.

Is that the most recent available ATV model?

If so, I think it might help explain how so many of us using older models were affected only through the upgrade to tvOS 18.

Also, it’s been noted here that Home Sharing player, YouTube player, VLC, and perhaps others may not be affected by the issue. Are you able to test using Max, Prime Video, Paramount+, or another multi channel audio capable player?

If I disable Charge Format I lose 5.1.

Re-enable it and 5.1 comes back.

This was the way it had always been with my 1st Gen 4K until tvOS 18 came along. However, the 3rd Gen doesn’t seem to be affected by the Stereo PCM problem.

Just to cover all the bases, this is a 3rd Gen Ethernet model.

I have a Sonos Arc with a eArc TV and the latest Gen Apple TV 4K. I had always received and played Atmos from several TV streaming services and I recently lost Atmos on Netflix, Prime, and Disney. On some it was gone and on some it showed as "Spacial Audio." However, some services (Max, Paramount Plus) were still working OK with Atmos (TVOS 18.1).

After checking all settings I ended up going nuclear and returning the Apple TV to factory settings. That didn't work either. But I later found that if I waited a day, the "Spacial Audio" changed correctly to "Dolby Atmos." I have no idea what fixed it other than time. And it seems to work fine now.

This only happened on Video apps and music apps such as Tidal, continued to correctly sense the Dolby Atmos.

PS: I didn't check for changes the TV firmware but when it updates, it gives me a whirly bird on start-up so it probably is the same.

I have Prime Video, Disney+, Paramount+, Netflix, Sky Go and YouTube installed on the box. All were affected by the issue on the 1st Gen box. They all work correctly outputting 5.1 on the 3rd Gen.

Although the issue seems to be gone for me for now I utterly, utterly regret not spending the bit extra an eARC TV when I bought my last one.

So far the beta bug report I made says that there are less than 10 similar reports. I think the threshold needs to be 'more than 10' before apple really starts to take it seriously, but I could be wrong.

@llee: you might be able to either skip that, or enroll and just not download beta updates. I have them turned off on my iPhone and iPad. Either way, no worries, just trying to get this issue resolved as quick as possible.

Same here since tvOS 18

I have sonos beam 2 (eARC)+ Lg g1

Passtrough setting on the tv give me LPCM 7.1 (wich is not sound good)

Auto setting on tv give me stereo instead of digital 5.1 before the update

Please Apple fix this that working properly

Sadly, I couldn't get this to work on my 1st gen 4K, but I don't have HomePod so it may've worked if I did. I paired a bluetooth speaker instead and it doesn't show an option to play from both at the same time and switching back and forth between them doesn't work.