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Apple TV 2 and 5.1 surround

Bye Bye Baby

Bye Bye Baby

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 15, 2004
1,152
0
i(am in the)cloud
Hey guys- just a few queries about the new :apple:TV.

1. Does it output 5.1 surround? I have a receiver that produces surround sound from a stereo input, but does the ATV do it natively on 5.1 encoded material?

2. Do any of the iTunes movies have surround sound? The ones I have certainly don't.

3. Anyway of checking how the audio is encoded on iTunes purchases?
 
1. It will do Dolby Digital 5.1 over HDMI or optical.

2. HD movies from iTunes often do, SD ones never do.

3. It should say so before you purchase -- if you've already bought them, MediaInfo should do it.
 
It certainly does output 5.1. I've put Dts and DD through it.

Not so sure about the Apple store media...I would have thought those would be 5.1...but don't use those myself
 
Jusnogood said:
It certainly does output 5.1. I've put Dts and DD through it.

Not so sure about the Apple store media...I would have thought those would be 5.1...but don't use those myself
Click to expand...

DTS? Are you sure about that?
 
You'd have to jailbreak to get DTS... at the moment DTS in an MP4/M4V container isn't possible, and that's the only container an unjailbroken Apple TV can use.
 
The HD movies from iTunes (both rentals and purchases) have surround sound and it works on both the old and new Apple TV.
 
I've noticed quite a few SD films with 5.1 on iTunes, it says in the movie info before you order.

Certainly every HD film I've downloaded from there + al of my handbrake DVD + BD rips have 5.1 audio.
 
peterjcat said:
You'd have to jailbreak to get DTS... at the moment DTS in an MP4/M4V container isn't possible, and that's the only container an unjailbroken Apple TV can use.
Click to expand...

I am jailbroken. Does a file need to be played in a player other than LowTide?
 
Netflix has been making a lot of their content available with 5.1, too…not everything (especially SD), but most recent TV shows and some non-Starz Play movies have it. I have my receiver set to use Dolby Pro Logic (analog surround), since most of the other movies are carried this way. If there's 5.1 Digital, that overrides any analog setting I use.
 
Bye Bye Baby said:
7.1 requires HDMI and a receiver. I think you will find that it really is limited to Dolby HD (I think).
Click to expand...

That's not entirely true.

I do 7.1 just fine with 7.1 output from my Blu Ray into the 7.1 input on my receiver, a configuration that uses separate RCA cables for each channel.
 
Bye Bye Baby said:
That is analogical and not digital, correct?
Click to expand...

The industry calls them analog outputs/inputs but the audio stream is still digital.

Same as with DVD a coax audio cable carries the same sound as a tos-link (optical cable).

The 5.1 or 7.1 out/in carry the same audio as an HDMI cable would pass (DTS-MA/DD Lossless).

Anyone using a blu ray player and outputting their sound via an optical cable is not getting the full capability of audio from the blu ray player when watching blu ray movies as optical cannot carry the new blu ray audio streams.
 
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