The lack of 5.1 (or better) on purchased movies/shows is one of the major deal breakers for me. Fortunately I have Minis on 3 of my TVs and they work amazingly well with VLC and optical out. But I am in the process of putting together a major upgrade for my parents who have finally decided to go HD. I was looking seriously at an AppleTV for them, but even my relitivly novice father said “whats the point if I the downloaded stuff doesnt do surround?”… I think he’s right. Whats frustrating is that it really shouldn’t require any extra hardware, just encode the media with 5.1 Apple! I’ve got a nice 30mbs FiOS pipe coming into my house, so the day they make HD content with surround sound available, I’ll be all over it, until then, its a bit like getting a porche with a honda engine.

What’s 5.1 good for anyway, other than for playback of my Dad’s awesome Michael McDonald DVD. “Takin’ It to the Streets” is da fashizzle. ?… Um… yo.

Just make sure the volume in iTunes or the QuickTime Player is set the 100%. If it is just one tick below, the Receicer will stay silent.

I don’t have a Apple TV here, but with the optical out of Mac mini or Mac book pro it is very similar. The receiver picks up normal iTunes music as “PCM 44.1 kHz”. When you play dts or DD5-7.1 content like the wav files that are linked above, it goes to multi channel beauty and you really really really hear the difference. There are some albums on amazon in SACD or 5.1 DVD-Audio, which sound great, too. I can only recommend it.

I didn’t know about all that when I bought the home cinema sound setup for movies from DVD. Hence now I enjoy it even more with music.

I never thought about sending it a raw dolby digital signal. I’ll try that out today.

Given that the device has an optical jack, I can’t imagine that it would be anything more than a firmware update to do Dolby Digital 5.1 but it may even be less than that.

Okay so here’s the deal.

People do want 5.1 audio. DTS or DD. There are even some great tracks in 7 channel DD and DTS that are incredible.

I am not especially interested in AppleTV but that’s mainly because I have a hacked Xbox running the freeware Xbox Media Center, which supports like a gazillion audio/video formats and photos as well. And it upconverts video into 1080i for me making everything look oh-so-sweet.

My only complaint is that the Xbox can’t playback HD, but in all seriousness, a software-modded Xbox and XBMC is still lightyears ahead of what you’ll pay 3-400$ for.

AppleTV is awesome for people that would also like to use an AirPort Express. I don’t want to drive my media from a computer, I want to have media on my computers end up in my livingroom.

yes, the lack of 5.1 sound makes the apple TV a toy as far as I’m concerned and iTS not supporting it just confirms that.

When I’m sure it can actual play with sound capabilities the cheapest DVD players has then I’ll consider it.

I’m with Emory.

GOOOOOOOO XBMC!!!

Seriously, I cannot think of ANY reason why I would want to replace it within the next 5 years. It just does everything I want, and lots lots more.

I will try to test this out this weekend. I heard Scott Bourne on the MacBreak podcast and I couldn’t understand what he was saying. He said something like “there is no connections for surround sound”. What? the optical digital out is the same toslink that is on most DVD players and has been for 10 years. It should be able to pass the signal with no problem. Interesting that Mr. Bourne has $100,000 speakers and doesn’t understand this…

Well my basement flooded so I’m not trying anything this weekend except hooking up a wireless router next to two huge fans (at $25 a day).

Some say its all in the speakers. To me a TV isnt supposed to provide the audio support…. but thats just me.

Lack of any iTS content whatsoever is the deal breaker for me. I think it’s a bit rich of Apple to sell this outside the US, but as has been proved time and again, people will buy anything.

I downloaded the DTS .wav and streamed it to the apple tv. My 5.1 reciever recognized it as an actual DTS signal via TOSlink. It sounds great!

Is it good for HD TV?

You can also stream the multichannel audio files to an old school Airport Express - just run a toslink cable from the Airport Express to your 5.1 receiver. (And do make sure the volume in iTunes is at 100% - it matters.)

iTunes store is convenient, too much so at times, but the model works because you can pander to those impulses and maybe its just me but I very rarely get an impulse to watch a movie and when I do get an urge to watch Jules Et Jim or American Splendour say I am not thinking about 5.1 surround sound or video resolution

File size, quality and immediacy are held in balance, my Apple TV represents one balance point which is great for serving up some smart playlists, podcasts and video podcasts and I am sure will suffice should I get an urge to watch The Prestige; my DVD player represents the other balance point where I will be in a frame of my mind to watch a movie or something I’ve rented and I will appreciated the quality of the audio and video

Merlin, The only reason I have ordered an ¢?§¶••ªºº–¡™£¢??§§¶œ?´®†¥¥¥¨¨ˆ¨ˆˆøøø?ø?“?““‘“??øøˆˆ¨¨¥¥††®®´´?œåßåß?ß??ƒƒ©©?????????¬¬…¬……æææ…¬¬???????©©ƒƒƒ??ß?ß???ç?????˜˜µµµ??????÷÷÷¿Œ„´´ÅÍÎÎÏÏÍÏÇÔÓ? ?TV ( found that pesky ? ) is to watch the Merlin show on the Plasma. You should get a commission.

Right, so it can play 5.1 audio, but just not in a way that’s compatible with 99% of the other content people have (DVDs). And that’s the fault of the receiver manufacturers (who should immediately whip themselves and start supporting AAC 5.1 despite the fact that the aforementioned 99% of the content people will use with their receivers uses DTS or AC3), not Apple. Okayyyyy…. To suggest that people should have to buy a new receiver to get surround sound out of their Apple TV is, frankly, daft.

Productive Talk Compilation…

Productive Talk Compilation…

[…] This article from Daniel Eran on the capability of Apple TV in relation to 5.1 audio is lengthy and concise. Thanks to Merlin Mann who has a vested interest in the technology working properly now and who is in opposition to the Scott Bourne’s of the podcast world. I think Merlin or Ze Frank could be the stuff that makes the Apple TV type device a real winner. Just as Dire Straits helped make the CD a standard for audio by being one of the pioneers of digital recording. When “Brothers in Arms” was released most CD’s were produced by recording on analogue equipment then mastering as digital. The quality of that CD made me look for material that was recorded digital. It makes sense that as more people have HD screens and and AppleTV they will look for 720p content online. At present the podcast is the best bet to find it. […]