No 5.1 via HDMI

Question

I can get 5.1 out of the optical out of the appleTV but I only get stereo audio out of the HDMI. If I have a movie with 2 audio tracks: One with AC3 and one with AAC, the HDMI will play the AAC. If the movie only has an AC3 track it will not play any audio out of the HDMI. I've checked the intro movie on the appleTV as well and it plays in 5.1 thru the optical but only stereo thru HDMI. Any ideas as to solving my problem?

Answer 1

Hi James,
I have the same problem and concluded that AppleTV does not stream 5.1 from HDMI, only optical. I recently posted to another topic and am cutting and pasting below:
==============
Hi bkenney1,
While I've had my AppleTV for a few months now, I just recently started to play around with the 5.1 output settings. Here's what I found using my AppleTV connected to my Sony HT-SS2000 receiver:
1. Dolby Digital is NOT present via the HDMI
2. I only get Dolby Digital 5.1 via the optical output
My setup is as follows:
1. My AppleTV is connected to the Sony via HDMI (input port)
2. My AppleTV's optical cable is connected to the Sony's input optical cable
3. My 1080p TV is connected to the Sony via HDMI (output port)
On my receiver, I have the option of specifying where the audio should come from. When I select the AppleTV HDMI, I get no 5.1 sound, the best I get is Dolby Pro Logic II. When I set my receiver to use the optical cable as the audio input source, I immediately get 5.1 sound.
This is puzzling since HDMI should be able to carry the pass-through 5.1 stream to the receiver. I guess Apple isn't making 5.1 available via the HDMI port.
===================
While I am concluding that AppleTV does not stream 5.1 over the HDMI port, I can't be 100% certain. I will post to the general audience to see if anyone has any opinions.
Regards,
Carlos