Apple Broke Dolby Digital 5.1 Output on Apple TV 4K
Not sure why nobody else is mentioning this, but figured I'd post to help others. One of these last few tvOS updates has completely broken Dolby Digital output (on Apple TV 4K, it seems).
I have a 2nd gen 4K model that had been fine until a recent update. I change the audio output in Settings to force Dolby Digital 5.1 for my speakers (Logitech Z906), but this suddenly no longer works! My speakers do not light the proper "Decode" light to indicate a true 5.1 signal, and the voices clearly come from left and right channels instead of just the center.
This was easy to confirm. I purchased a brand new 3rd gen Apple TV 4K (128GB) and it shipped with tvOS 17.1. I configured the audio output to force DD 5.1 and tested a movie... and everything worked perfectly. The "Decode" light indicated a 5.1 signal and voices, etc, clearly only came through the center channel. Then I upgraded to tvOS 17.4 and immediately tested the same movie, and it's broken! Nothing else changed.
Strangely enough, I have an old 1080p Apple TV running tvOS 17.4 (latest) and it still outputs Dolby Digital just fine.
I have provided this information to AppleCare as well as Apple.com/feedback. Kind of a ridiculous bug to go unpatched still. Hopefully someone will notice while we all sit here with broken audio.
