AppleTV Audio Setup

The AppleTV has audio outputs for stereo analogue, multi-channel optical (SPDIF) and HDMI digital audio. The AppleTV does not have hardware support for HD audio formats so HD soundtracks will be downmixed. The downmixing process is CPU intensive and can impact playback performance so if there are multiple audio tracks available it's worthwhile switching to a normal AC3/DTS audio track.

Out of the box your AppleTV will be configured for analogue audio. To use the optical or HDMI outputs you will need to change XBMC's audio configuration. The screenshots below show typical and correct setup for analogue, optical and HDMI audio.

Analogue (RCA) audio
The screenshot below shows XBMC configured for analogue output with a 2.0 speaker configuration and the "HDA Intel, ALC998A Analogue" device selected.



HDMI audio
The screenshot below shows XBMC configured for HDMI Output with the "HDA Intel, HDMI" device selected for normal audio and passthrough audio. If your TV or AV receiver supports AC3, Dolby Digital (DTS) or Multichannel LPCM input from HDMI you can enable these settings. The majority of TVs support AC3 only. If you enable DTS passthrough and cannot hear audio when you play a movie, this is a clue that your TV does not support it!



Optical (S/PDIF) audio
The following screenshot shows XBMC configured for optical output with the "HDA Intel, ALC998A Digital S/PDIF" device selected for normal audio and passthrough audio. The XBMC GUI will (in error) allow you to select a 7.1 speaker/channel configuration but 5.1 is the maximum supported by the S/PDIF standard.



Menu Sounds
OpenELEC 1.0 (XBMC 10.0/Dharma) and 2.0 (XBMC 11.0/Eden) support menu sounds over the analogue and optical connections but not the HDMI connection. OpenELEC 3.0 (XBMC 12.0/Frodo) supports menu sounds on all outputs. However, menu sounds require CPU cycles and for optimum GUI and playback performance it is best to completely disable menu sounds; both in the skin and in XBMC's audio settings.