Bluetooth Headphones and Apple TV 4K audio dropouts

[syrcular]

Hi all,

I've been trying to find any information in regards to resolving an issue I've been having with my Apple TV 4K with Bluetooth connected headphones.

When I first bought the Apple TB 4K, I mounted it right behind my LG Smart TV, and whenever I connected my Bluetooth headphones to the Apple TV, I would get audio drop outs. It was random but happened very frequently.
After combing through the forums, I read that some people had discovered that interference from Smart TV's were possibly causing this issue, and that mounting or setting the Apple TV 4K unit away from the TV, was a possible fix. This issue didn't seem to occur with the original HD Apple TV.

When I moved the Apple TV 4K, the audio performance improved slightly however, again whenever I connected Bluetooth Headphones, I would experience random audio dropouts. I've tried two different kinds of headphones: AirPods and Bose Quietcomfort QC35 II's. Both exhibit the same issue.

Has anyone run into this??? I often times use Bluetooth headphones with this Apple TV, and I can't seem to get this Apple TV to consistently play audio without dropouts. My Amazon Firestick 4K doesn't exhibit this, and I've considered just using that for now, but I like the Apple TV experience better, so I'd love to fix this issues, short of getting an HD version of the Apple TV, and avoiding the 4K version, which I think would be silly.

Anyone have any tips, or do I have a malfunctioning Apple TV 4K?

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

Hi buddy!
I have an LG OLED B7, the Apple TV 4K and AirPods and i've never experienced drop outs.
Do you have bluetooth switched off on the LG TV?
I keep my Apple TV in front of the TV at the left hand side as being honest, it's a thing of beauty. Also, we DO NOT have the LG TV connected to the internet. WiFi is switched off on it. We treat it purely as a OLED screen. The Apple TV does EVERYTHING.
I'm not a fan of putting the Apple TV behind a television. I guess TVs including LG do not have the super high quality components that the Apple TV does and it's possible the TV is not shielded / has cheap components which can cause interference. Also a 2.4ghz WiFi going to your LG TV operates in the same frequency as Bluetooth, again this could cause the problem - 2.4 is unusable in my area - so much interference whereas 5ghz is great.

 

[syrcular]

Thanks for the insight and it's good to know that you are not running into the same issue. My LG doesn't have bluetooth and I turned off all the wifi settings on the TV, but I still run into this issue. Now one thing I hadn't thought about but tried, just now to see if it would work is putting the Apple TV on a wired connection. Sure enough that seems to have "fixed" the issue. So when connected via wired connection, my Bluetooth headphones play audio without any issues.

But I would ideally like to have it connected via wifi if at all possible, as I like to keep my setup as clean as possible.

As far as placement goes, it is next to my Eero Wifi Router, and my Philips Hue Bridge. Could either of those devices be interfering with my Apple TV 4K. It's also worth noting that previously I had the same configuration with my older Apple TV HD and no issues.

Anyone have any additional thoughts?

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

Thanks for the insight and it's good to know that you are not running into the same issue. My LG doesn't have bluetooth and I turned off all the wifi settings on the TV, but I still run into this issue. Now one thing I hadn't thought about but tried, just now to see if it would work is putting the Apple TV on a wired connection. Sure enough that seems to have "fixed" the issue. So when connected via wired connection, my Bluetooth headphones play audio without any issues.

But I would ideally like to have it connected via wifi if at all possible, as I like to keep my setup as clean as possible.

As far as placement goes, it is next to my Eero Wifi Router, and my Philips Hue Bridge. Could either of those devices be interfering with my Apple TV 4K. It's also worth noting that previously I had the same configuration with my older Apple TV HD and no issues.

Anyone have any additional thoughts?

Interesting and that sounds like a 2.4ghz issue. If you have access to your WiFi router can you do what we have done and turn off the 2.4ghz signal. Try running your Apple TV on the 5ghz setting. Sounds as though your room is getting WiFi interference from neighbours. In our house, we have over 30 WiFi signals coming in from neighbours houses!!! When I do a test on my MacBook, it reports that we have 'significant interference'!!!!!!
5G setting have proved 100% reliable - it doesn't travel so far, is faster and doesn't share the same spectrum as bluetooth, baby monitors, cordless phones etc.