Play audio in Dolby Atmos or surround sound on your Apple TV 4K
Apple TV 4K is designed to deliver the best sound experience that your home entertainment system supports. Learn which audio formats are supported on Apple TV 4K and the setups you can use to play sound in the highest quality.
Audio formats supported on Apple TV 4K
Apple TV 4K automatically plays sound in the highest quality that's supported by your home entertainment system setup and that's available with content that you watch.
If your home entertainment system doesn't support the audio format that Apple TV 4K automatically selects, you can manually change the audio format. Go to Settings, select Video and Audio, select Audio Format, and turn on Change Format. Then you can choose the following:
Stereo: Apple TV 4K plays stereo audio tracks and sends uncompressed 2-channel PCM to your speakers. Select this setting only if you have a stereo setup.
Dolby Digital 5.1: Apple TV 4K re-encodes audio to send compressed Dolby Digital 5.1 to your speakers. Select this option only if your equipment doesn’t support Atmos or multi-channel PCM.
Dolby Atmos: Select to turn Dolby Atmos on or off.
Continuous Audio: Select to turn Dolby MAT on or off. Apple TV 4K uses a continuous Dolby MAT connection for seamless transitions across audio formats without glitches or dropped signals.
When Continuous Audio Connection is on, older receivers might indicate an Atmos signal, but the original audio plays as intended, which may also affect the ability of a receiver to distinguish a stereo signal for upmixing if the receiver supports that.
Setups you can use
On Apple TV 4K with the latest version of tvOS, you can listen to music, movies, and TV shows in Dolby Atmos. You can use the following setups to play sound in Dolby Atmos or surround sound:
One or two HomePod speakers
A television that supports Dolby Atmos audio
A Dolby Atmos compatible sound bar with a television that supports Dolby Atmos audio
A Dolby Atmos-enabled AV receiver
When you set up home theater audio with HomePod, your Apple TV 4K and HomePod speakers automatically play sound in Dolby Atmos or surround sound if it's available with content that you watch. HomePod mini doesn't support Dolby Atmos.
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