-
WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!
Just spoke with Apple about the 3rd gen Apple TV 4k and sending pass-through audio to a receiver
- Thread starter FriedChicken
- Start date
OP
FriedChicken
Active Member
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2021
- Messages
- 128
- Likes
- 53
- Thread Starter
- #22
Join me in hating all of tech.
The AppleTV would be legitimately good if it didn't require logging in to do anything, and supported native pass-through (or even non-native, except apple drew up a berlin wall around their precious devices, so you're stuck with what you're force-fed).
AppleTV does not do great with bitstream. On the other hand, no mainstream streaming service sends TrueHD anyway.
Best Streaming Provider for 4K VIDEO Quality? - Blu-ray Forum
Best Streaming Provider for 4K VIDEO Quality? Streaming Movies
I have the Shield TV Pro and Apple TV. The nice thing about Apple TV is that over time, Google kept forcing more and more advertisements whereas AppleTV has a much less intrusive ad
OP
FriedChicken
Active Member
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2021
- Messages
- 128
- Likes
- 53
- Thread Starter
- #25
Google is Spyware. Everything google "offers" is spyware. Fuck google, fuck the surveillance capitalist business model; the dystopian hydra.
I just did an update on the AppleTV, and it still only sends PCM and not pass-through audio. Apple's Airplay should be lossless, although its 48kHz sampled.
Except it gets a tad annoying when you purchase an app; MRMC (very well priced); only to find it's limited by my Apple TV to 5.1. Oh well back to the PCH and Zidoo for real Atmos and TrueHD films. Maybe one day my Apple TV will do all I need... I was so hopeful today, I thought xmas had come a day early. Still impressed by the app though.
Pretty much all other devices do bitstream audio... or build your own device, if Apple doesn't suit your need.
I for one am very, VERY glad that at least Apple is doing the LPCM conversion. Reason I ordered one. No other device on the market can do it properly. Shield and Fire TV can using Kodi, but you're limited to Kodi. Which can be extended to support some streaming services, but it's not guaranteed, the user experience is crap and depending on the device you'll lose stuff like resolutions above 720p.
Now would it be nice if Apple gave the option? Sure. But I'm still glad that Apple, for whatever reason, decided LPCM was the way to go. Otherwise I'd be pretty screwed.
I for one am very, VERY glad that at least Apple is doing the LPCM conversion. Reason I ordered one. No other device on the market can do it properly. Shield and Fire TV can using Kodi, but you're limited to Kodi. Which can be extended to support some streaming services, but it's not guaranteed, the user experience is crap and depending on the device you'll lose stuff like resolutions above 720p.
Now would it be nice if Apple gave the option? Sure. But I'm still glad that Apple, for whatever reason, decided LPCM was the way to go. Otherwise I'd be pretty screwed.
No need to build anything, and I already have three devices in different rooms capable of decoding the movies and music from my NAS. I dont do streaming apart from Spotify/Netflix/Prime so all good on that front. Just seems a shame the Apple TV doesnt support some of the modern apps fully. And to be honest if the next version supports it I'll buy it.. (I'd upgrade right now if I had that option, but no reason to do so)
OP
FriedChicken
Active Member
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2021
- Messages
- 128
- Likes
- 53
- Thread Starter
- #29
I think I'm going to chuck the 4th gen AppleTV and return to my 3rd gen.
The WDTV media player is still the best media player ever made, and as I'm only on a 1080p TV, I should be fine
The WDTV media player is still the best media player ever made, and as I'm only on a 1080p TV, I should be fine
I too am waiting for Apple TV to allow apps to use passthrough audio. I primarily use PLEX on Apple TV and it’s great except for playing object oriented audio like Dolby X or Dolby Atmos. For those movies I use PLEX on my Xbox Series X that allows passthrough.
Apple, like all other streamers can only stream what they're supplied with.
No streamer wants to offer files that only a percentage of the population has enough internet bandwidth for..
Same with video, the only service I'm aware of that offers uncompressed video/audio streams is Kaleidescape and even that's not done in real time, you have to record on their proprietary DVR and watch later.
All in all I've very pleased with my Apple 4k box, IMHO it's the best service out there along with having the largest catalog of Atmos/Immersive music. I recently upgraded from an older A1842 32gb build (1st or 2sdGen?) to an A2169 64gb box which was a big improvement in UI, remote control, just about everything. It's not the very newest but I did get it on the info supplied in the below video. Video author is a subjective fringe type but the info on build quality shown is factual.
As I said before, TrueHD Atmos works just fine with Infuse, it’s just not bitstreamed, but who cares, the result is exactly the same..
So, if the Apple TV decodes Atmos to PCM (7.1 I believe) what happens if your AVR is setup with front wides?
I'd much rather get the Atmos bitstream to the AVR so that it can do the decoding appropriately for the speakers that are attached. I guess the Apple TV doesn't have any way of knowing which speakers are attached to the AVR.
What happens with Surround Heights vs Rear Heights?
What happens if there are no Surround Backs? Are sounds redirected to the surrounds?
Have Apple fanboys who think "it just works" actually tested all such scenarios?
I'd much rather get the Atmos bitstream to the AVR so that it can do the decoding appropriately for the speakers that are attached. I guess the Apple TV doesn't have any way of knowing which speakers are attached to the AVR.
What happens with Surround Heights vs Rear Heights?
What happens if there are no Surround Backs? Are sounds redirected to the surrounds?
Have Apple fanboys who think "it just works" actually tested all such scenarios?
Last edited:
It doesn’t matter. The bed channels are decoded and sent as PCM.
Does to work? Yes, my gear reports 10 channels (5.1.4) when playing Atmos, either In DD+
Edit: I may have botched some of the facts, see below
Last edited:
RTFM
Ok!RTFM
This is the bit I was missing:
I'm pretty sure that previous generations of AVR that I've owned (pre-Atmos ones) were not able to do any form of upmixing when fed with PCM. Glad that is no longer the case.
So, if one is entertaining the possibility of getting an Apple TV might it be worth waiting for the new one that is supposed to be coming in the first half of 2024? What improvements might be expected? Any idea of release date?
Edit: Nevermind, apparently the current one still can't even do BBC iplayer in UHD so pointless as it wouldn't be able to completely replace TV apps.
Last edited:
That is a BBC problem, not an Apple issue, so complain to the former.
Not sure if that is accurate... Yes TrueHD Atmos will play in Apple TV Infuse, and Apple TV Plex for that matter but both lose the object based audio Dolbe Atmos provides. Plex software engineers say that Plex on Apple TV wont play Dolby Atmos as intended unless it can passthrough to your AV receiver. My receiver always plays audio with LPCM so all the object based sound is not played as intended. From what I can hear all the ceiling sounds are directed to front or rear speakers. When I play via Plex on Xbox Series X receiver plays audio as Dolby Atmos as xbox does allow passthrough audio. (A game console has that option!)
If your interested in trying demo tone sounds with Dolby Atmos there are some really cool demos that can be downloaded here...
My favorite
Sure... all streaming services are going to send audio in lossy form like Dolby Digital 5.1 but dont most of the people here have our own media and would like their Apple TV to unlock the simplest of options?
I completed this petition but dont know how much that will help.
Hmm, you may be right
I’ll double check the next time I get the chance. I edited my previous comment accordingly.
I don't get what this petition is asking for?
"True Lossless Dolby Atmos support on the Apple TV 4K"
I don't see Apple offering a full lossless TrueHD Atmos stream for the fairly near future,
it would be too demanding of their bandwidth.
For that we thankfully have BluRay or mkv downloads in many cases.
Similar threads
