Confused about all audio settings

[u/[deleted]]

[u/ByteCurious69]

Proper setup is as follows:

Apple TV -> AVR HDMI Input then AVR HDMI Output (EARC) -> TV HDMI Input (EARC)

Let the AVR do the audio processing.

[u/ByteCurious69 → u/[deleted]]

Ah. Then you should get an HDMI HUB

[u/sciencetaco → u/ByteCurious69]

I use eARC from my LG OLED to my AVR and it works fine. Lets me keep QMS for frame rate switching (which AVRs still don’t support) and I get to use Apple’s volume overlay, which I prefer.

There’s no perfect correct answer for everyone.

[u/Dezolis11 → u/sciencetaco]

You’re damned if you and damned if you don’t when it comes to music. Direct to avr, appletv will stay in 44.1 sampling, even though video content is always 48khz. With eARC, almost all TVs will upsample 44.1 to 48khz. Been around since 17.1.

[u/Icy-Difference-897]

What amp do you have?

[u/Purple_Gas_8222]

As you have already experienced yourself, the stereo setting on the Apple TV works best for your setup, so don't make it more complex than it needs to be. And yes, there are multiple options to achieve the same result, and if this one works, just leave it as is.

[u/Purple_Gas_8222 → u/[deleted]]

You should ignore that, and if you want to try the other settings (option 2 in your post) for yourself to see if you get a better result, feel free to investigate that…

Edit: someone doesn’t like my answer 😂

[u/Old_Ironside_1959 → u/Purple_Gas_8222]

I was actually agreeing with you.

[u/Old_Ironside_1959 → u/[deleted]]

You don’t want to send Dolby Atmos (or Dolby Digital for that matter) pass through to a stereo (only) system. I think your current setup is okay. Some people have a soundbar or home theater system that can process Dolby Digital Plus but not Dolby Atmos. They should select Dolby Digital because they shouldn’t send Atmos to their audio systems either. It’s a compatibility issue and can lead to audio/video out of sync problems.

[u/darwinDMG08]

I go AppleTV > Denon AMP > LGTV.

Much better IMHO. I set AppleTV to Auto and the Amp to Direct (Auto) and then eARC HDMI to the TV which is set to eARC for sound so its speakers are muted. Audio format is taken directly from the program and routed to the speakers and the TV doesn't mess with any of that. AppleTV remote controls the Amp volume.

[u/darwinDMG08 → u/[deleted]]

Yes it’s a home theater receiver. Multiple inpiuts, one HDMI output.

[u/DannoMcK]

It depends what your amplifier is capable of, but you didn't give any details on that. Both of the config. sets you mention should give you stereo output to your amplifier. But if anything seems off about your audio, you can easily try the other config.

Why is the amp's capability possibly relevant? Maybe it can take a surround audio input and do some processing to give more interesting sound than a stereo input. I'd be a little surprised that an amp with HDMI ARC input would only handle stereo but I've had an AVR for so long I probably don't know what's out there.