[wgoosey]

Just swapped out my old Series 3 for a Bolt. The HDMI goes to an HDMI Switch and then optical from the switch to the Yamaha Dolby/DTS capable receiver. When I play any cable channel the TiVo screen says dolby is there and the receiver also reports its getting DD so I'm pretty sure the switch is fine. However, if I play any Netflix video on the Bolt there is no sound at all unless I deselect DD in either the default TiVo setup screen or the audio/subtitle selector under the movie. Then there is audio but its pretty crappy compared to normal DD audio.

I've seen issues like this from way back in 2008 or so on the web but nothing recently. Is there something I'm missing? If I watch Netflix via my AppleTV4 through the same switch the receiver reports DD and the sound is much better. Does this mean that using Netflix on the Bolt means accepting less audio performance or is there some way I'm missing to fix this?

Thanks..

 

[Rick James]

Over HDMI, Netflix only streams Dolby Digital Plus which is a higher bitrate version of Dolby Digital that optical/toslink does not support. Try the optical output directly from the Bolt to the receiver and forgo the switch for audio.

 

[wgoosey]

Over HDMI, Netflix only streams Dolby Digital Plus which is a higher bitrate version of Dolby Digital that optical/toslink does not support. Try the optical output directly from the Bolt to the receiver and forgo the switch for audio.

Thanks Rick, your solution worked, though I don't really understand why.

Netflix, Plex, Amazon Prime on the Apple TV 4 all work fine through the switch (where its HDMI to the switch and optical to the receiver). The Bolt versions of all three of those things fail under Dolby Setting when played on the Bolt via the switch. Seems weird and Bolt related to me. Your fix works and it just means I have to use one receiver input for the Bolt and one for every other device plugged into the switch which is a pain but certainly doable. At any rate, at least I can use Netflix, Plex, and Amazon with Dolby via the Bolt now, thanks to you....

Bill.

 

[Rick James]

Glad to hear it, Bill. Maybe the ATV4 either has an older version of the Netflix app w/o DD+ and/or is a rare instance that doesn't output DD+ for Netflix at all, regardless of interface (wouldn't surprise me; Apple always gotta be different!).

EDIT: Just realized you said none of the apps work that way. I think you're totally right...something about the Bolt HDMI audio your switch can't separate.

 

[wgoosey]

Glad to hear it, Bill. Maybe the ATV4 either has an older version of the Netflix app w/o DD+ and/or is a rare instance that doesn't output DD+ for Netflix at all, regardless of interface (wouldn't surprise me; Apple always gotta be different!).

EDIT: Just realized you said none of the apps work that way. I think you're totally right...something about the Bolt HDMI audio your switch can't separate.

Rick,

All is not quite perfect. Netflix and Amazon do indeed show up as DD on the receiver when the optical cable is run direct from the Bolt. I've just noticed that the Plex app still seems to be seen as PCM by the receiver. I've checked to make sure the Bolt Plex app is set to DD and that doesn't do it. Since the APTV4 sends DD I'd think my Plex server is configured properly. Maybe the Tivo/plex app just isn't debugged yet. Not the end of the world. Just would have been nice not to have to change devices in order to use Plex.

EDIT: Ugh... too many buttons. It turns out PLEX does work and output DD. My video files have multiple sound tracks and the Plex app on Bolt apparently defaults to the first which is usually AAC. If you hit the play button and then go all the way to the menu item on the left of the normal play/pause lines there is a track selector. Manually selecting AC3 there puts out the Dolby sounds. Which I knew how to make it default to this track but at least it's there.

Bill