Apple TV music with TV off

[mankar4]

I'm thinking about picking up an apple tv. I'll connect it directly to my TV with hdmi and connect it directly to my audio receiver using the optical out. Will I be able to stream music from my mac/iphone/ipad to the apple tv and hear it on my stereo without having the TV on?

 

[marzer]

I'm thinking about picking up an apple tv. I'll connect it directly to my TV with hdmi and connect it directly to my audio receiver using the optical out. Will I be able to stream music from my mac/iphone/ipad to the apple tv and hear it on my stereo without having the TV on?

Yup.

 

[warvanov]

Yes, you can. The Apple TV outputs audio to both the HDMI port and the optical port simultaneously, so you don't have to chose one or the other. You can send the HDMI to the TV and the optical to your stereo and still use the stereo even when the TV is off.

 

[JoeBlow74]

I'm thinking about picking up an apple tv. I'll connect it directly to my TV with hdmi and connect it directly to my audio receiver using the optical out. Will I be able to stream music from my mac/iphone/ipad to the apple tv and hear it on my stereo without having the TV on?

Apple has an app on the app store called Apple remote just for this purpose. It works better on the Ipad, since you are able to see album art and have better search options.

 

[msans]

The only minor drawback is when the Apple TV has a dialogue box pop up, the remote becomes unresponsive. When this happens you have to turn on the tv to figure out what it wants - usually asking about an update.