Apple TV....no center channel?

C

Chuck Willems

Enthusiast
So this has been a weird event and wondering if others have experienced this. I have a bunch of m4v movies ripped on my Mac...5.1 / digital Dts audio. That I play to my home theatre downstairs via my Apple TV 4. The Apple TV is eathernet connected to a eathernet switch and hdmi out to my amp.

The issue I am having (started a few months ago) is the amp reads the audio files as 5.1 digital and digital ex. But it will not play dialog to center channel? It just plays the audio to the side and other speakers...dialog and all..

I checked setting on Apple TV because Apple sends updates all the time...did not notice anything.

I use the DVDfab software Apple TV 4 preset setting to rip my blue ray DVDs to my Mac.

I just don't know if it is my amp that is having the issue decoding the file or if it is my Apple TV or if the eve fab software is ripping wrong.

Any advice?
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
So this has been a weird event and wondering if others have experienced this. I have a bunch of m4v movies ripped on my Mac...5.1 / digital Dts audio. That I play to my home theatre downstairs via my Apple TV 4. The Apple TV is eathernet connected to a eathernet switch and hdmi out to my amp.

The issue I am having (started a few months ago) is the amp reads the audio files as 5.1 digital and digital ex. But it will not play dialog to center channel? It just plays the audio to the side and other speakers...dialog and all..

I checked setting on Apple TV because Apple sends updates all the time...did not notice anything.

I use the DVDfab software Apple TV 4 preset setting to rip my blue ray DVDs to my Mac.

I just don't know if it is my amp that is having the issue decoding the file or if it is my Apple TV or if the eve fab software is ripping wrong.

Any advice?
Have you looked at the audio settings for the AppleTV?
 
C

Chuck Willems

Enthusiast
Yes....will double check again. For claritys sake. On the Apple TV 4 I want Dolby digital set to on and the audio output set to ???

The reason for the ? On the Apple TV audio output setting is that I read that I believe you need to specify the audio output to Dolby digital because if you use the "auto" setting it will default to the AAC stereo setting (assuming you have two audio tracks recorded)
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
Yes....will double check again. For claritys sake. On the Apple TV 4 I want Dolby digital set to on and the audio output set to ???

The reason for the ? On the Apple TV audio output setting is that I read that I believe you need to specify the audio output to Dolby digital because if you use the "auto" setting it will default to the AAC stereo setting (assuming you have two audio tracks recorded)
Set to "not stereo". Also, re-check the AVR's audio settings for the AppleTV- most don't have one setting for all sources, so you need to set it when the AVR is set to receive the signal fro each source.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Yes....will double check again. For claritys sake. On the Apple TV 4 I want Dolby digital set to on and the audio output set to ???

The reason for the ? On the Apple TV audio output setting is that I read that I believe you need to specify the audio output to Dolby digital because if you use the "auto" setting it will default to the AAC stereo setting (assuming you have two audio tracks recorded)
I was about to say - make sure the audio set to passthrough, but then I saw this forum:
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/191534/dts-pass-through

My suggestion? Get new htpc client, like nvidia shield-tv
 
C

Chuck Willems

Enthusiast
I was about to say - make sure the audio set to passthrough, but then I saw this forum:
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/191534/dts-pass-through

My suggestion? Get new htpc client, like nvidia shield-tv
ok...so you are saying the Apple tv4 does not play well with Dts....but I am experiencing the "center channel not playing issue" with 5.1 or Dts audio tracks.

So on the Apple TV 4..set Dolby digital set to "on" and the audio output set to "non stereo".

What exactly do I need to check on the AVR? I will be testing this with a new marantz unit. Sr6o11 with atmos. When checking the AVR settings....what do I check for? If it shows Dolby digital or Dts signal....should it not automatically be playing out of the correct speakers?

With the nvidia shield tv...can I play my movies that I ripped in m4v and have in iTunes? Assuming I can't resolve issue with Apple TV 4. They should not have DRM as the movies were not downloaded / purchased from iTunes.

Apologies for questions and thanks so much for the help!!
 
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C

Chuck Willems

Enthusiast
Ok..assume you mean this section (see pic) in the input mode on the AVR... It is likely set to "auto" for all the hdmi inputs. perhaps I will manually change the input mode and see if that helps (assuming when I try the new amp..I experience the same issue).
 

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BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
ok...so you are saying the Apple tv4 does not play well with Dts....but I am experiencing the "center channel not playing issue" with 5.1 or Dts audio tracks.
So on the Apple TV 4..set Dolby digital set to "on" and the audio output set to "non stereo".
Sorry, I don't have atv nor I am expert in using it, but from what I gather is it's cannot passthrough dts at all. what is does is re-encodes it back to dolby digital (losing some of quality in process)
What you could try to do is to send multichannel pcm to your avr instead of re-encoding it to DD.

But my main point is - to get best possible sound you need a media player which doesn't muck with sound, but passthroughs it - straight to your new nice Sr6o11 avr. Let it process and decode it. It's the best place to do it.
 
afterlife2

afterlife2

Audioholic Warlord
I was about to say - make sure the audio set to passthrough, but then I saw this forum:
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/191534/dts-pass-through

My suggestion? Get new htpc client, like nvidia shield-tv
I was wondering why my ripped from my collection Xmen did not decode DTS. Also when I put it in regular Dolby it has audio comments from the director and now it won't decode Dolby, weird.:mad: Anything similar like Plex that works? Plex sucks.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
I was wondering why my ripped from my collection Xmen did not decode DTS. Also when I put it in regular Dolby it has audio comments from the director and now it won't decode Dolby, weird.:mad: Anything similar like Plex that works? Plex sucks.
Plex doesn't suck silly :) Just not best choice for surround sound. Use native Kodi - it supports everything correctly.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Yes it does. You and your FAST internet. :D
AF, if I remember correctly, you live in Brooklyn NY. We both probably even use same ISP - Cablevision :) even though I moved to Jersey suburbs two years ago.
 
afterlife2

afterlife2

Audioholic Warlord
Yeah, but I'm on a budget, so 5mbs only($30 bucks). Does ok for streaming. I can't wait till Google Internet gets here, although it won't be soon enough. They say 3-5 yrs. :(
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Yeah, but I'm on a budget, so 5mbs only($30 bucks). Does ok for streaming. I can't wait till Google Internet gets here, although it won't be soon enough. They say 3-5 yrs. :(
Fair enough - for $30 it's hard to get anything faster, though you might do a bit better if you offer your neighbors with faster cablevision internet $20/month and get better speeds.
Wow, just googled CV's new internet packages - "basic" internet is now only 5mbps down???? Wow, it doesn't even meet FCC defined broadband requirement. I smell Altice had something to do with this nonsense.

re:google internet You and me both.

p.s.s: What internet speed has anything to do with local HD files playback by Kodi?
 
C

Chuck Willems

Enthusiast
Ok...did some more testing with the new amp. Still experiencing the same issues with the media playing showing Dolby digital but not playing dialog out of center channel.

However...some additional testing yielded the following.

- changing to Apple TV audio output 5.1 to "best available" really did not help.

- I found some of my blue ray movies I had ripped (using DVDfab) do play out of center speaker just fine....and some don't. So that tells me that perhaps Apple TV does not like the way some of the audio tracks were ripped....(though I am not sure why...I always pick AC3 and 5.1-DVDfab default Apple TV)

- so how do I look at the exact profile of the movies I ripped that work great and make sure I can replicate these profiles going forward as Apple TV 4 seems to like what I did.

(Caveat....I know DVDfab does updates to software periodically....so if they did something behind the scenes I would have no idea what chqned in the ripping process)
 
C

Chuck Willems

Enthusiast
Well figured it out.did Some research and testing.. Works now.

- need to make sure you rip tracks with AC3 to get 5.1 audio.
-If you rip DVDs with audio tracks using AAC 5.1 Apple TV will not play back as 5.1...it will play back as stereo.
- Apple TV also does not play Dts as mentioned above.

Thus many of my movies must have been ripped in 5.1 AAC VS. 5.1 AC3.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Well figured it out.did Some research and testing.. Works now.

- need to make sure you rip tracks with AC3 to get 5.1 audio.
-If you rip DVDs with audio tracks using AAC 5.1 Apple TV will not play back as 5.1...it will play back as stereo.
- Apple TV also does not play Dts as mentioned above.

Thus many of my movies must have been ripped in 5.1 AAC VS. 5.1 AC3.
That makes sense. willing to bet though, that kodi supported hardware (i do on ancient Atom/Nvidia thin pc) would support proper passthrough of all of these audio codec to your new 6011 to be played properly.
Stupid ATV.
 
C

Chuck Willems

Enthusiast
Agree!! Stupid atv....Join the modem world and passthrough more digital sound fields. So if I ditch the atv by my home theater...what other device can I get that will let me steam movies from my mac iTunes?
 
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