I have this 4th generation appletv just lying around the house without purpose - with 1080p output, I think it lost it resell value.

Can I re-purpose it for something else? some hack? Is it possible to install on it another OS? Just hearing for some random cool stuff that could be possible - thanks!

im being sold a Apple TV 4k 1st gen for about $50 (A brand new Apple TV 4k 3rd gen costs 250 USD here). Is it still a great value for 2026 considering it was released 9 year ago? Im upgrading from the onboard OS of my Smart TV

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to understand whether this is expected behavior or if I’m missing a setting.

My setup is:
Apple TV 4K (2022)
Onkyo TX-SR674 (HDMI 1.1, no Dolby Atmos support)
Sony TV
5.1 speaker setup

The Apple TV is connected to the Onkyo via HDMI, and the Onkyo is connected to the TV via HDMI.

Here are the results of my tests:
- Disney+ (Pirates of the Caribbean): Onkyo reports “PCM MULTICH HDMI”.
- Apple TV+ (Napoleon, Dolby Atmos): Onkyo also reports “PCM MULTICH HDMI”.
- Apple Music:
Dolby Atmos is enabled (“Automatic”).
The currently playing track clearly shows the Dolby Atmos badge (for example Elton John’s Rocket Man or Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall).
However, the Onkyo switches to Dolby Pro Logic IIx, suggesting that it is only receiving stereo PCM.

So it seems that:
- Movies (including Atmos titles from Apple TV+) are rendered by the Apple TV as multichannel PCM, which my old AVR can decode perfectly.
- Apple Music Atmos tracks are apparently not rendered to multichannel PCM and instead fall back to stereo.

Is this expected behavior?

Does Apple Music require an AVR that advertises Dolby Atmos capability before it will output a multichannel render, while the TV app will happily render Atmos movies to PCM 5.1/7.1?

Or is there another setting I’m missing?

I’d appreciate hearing from anyone using Apple TV with an older non-Atmos AVR.

Update: I forgot to mention that my Apple TV 4K (2022) is running tvOS 27 Public Beta. Movies from both Disney+ and Apple TV+ still output PCM MULTICH HDMI on my receiver, but Apple Music Atmos tracks fall back to PLIIx. So this could also be a tvOS 27 Public Beta issue rather than expected behavior.

Update 2: Thanks everyone for all the suggestions and ideas. I did some more testing and I think I’ve narrowed it down.

I’m running tvOS 27 Public Beta on an Apple TV 4K (2022) connected to an Onkyo TX-SR674 (non-Atmos AVR).

Here’s what I found:
Automatic audio format
- Movies (Disney+, Apple TV+) → PCM MULTICH HDMI on the receiver.
- Apple Music Atmos → PCM + PLIIx.

Convert to Dolby Digital 5.1
- Movies → Dolby Digital 3/2.1.
- Apple Music Atmos tracks (e.g. Rocket Man) → Dolby Digital 3/2.1 and they sound great.
- Regular stereo Apple Music tracks become completely silent. The receiver still detects the signal, but there’s no audio until I switch back to Automatic.

At this point I’m starting to think this is a tvOS 27 Public Beta regression, specifically affecting stereo Apple Music playback when Dolby Digital 5.1 conversion is enabled.

I can switch the device back to my phone, but it seems to pop back up with whatever’s on my TV a few minutes later

Couldn't have done it without the great feedback from this sub! (the Watch Next sorting was a direct ask from here)

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/watchqueue-tv-watchlist/id6781497389?platform=tv

WatchQueue tracks every show and movie you're watching, shows you where each one is streaming, and always cues up your next unwatched episode. Connect Trakt or Plex to pull in your history and library or skip both and just use it on its own. The Trakt/Plex integration is a sub of 7 bucks/yr or 20/lifetime but once it unlocks it's good for family sharing and syncs across devices as well.

Free, no account required. And it's now a universal app: iPhone, (eventually)iPad, and Apple TV, synced through iCloud.

Also working on: tapping a title to jump straight into the streaming app that has it... what's still missing?

I have noticed that I am seeing an issue with 2 JBL Partybox 310 speakers turning on. The speakers are configured in JBL stereo mode, paired with each other with Bluetooth. I have the AppleTV 4K 3rd gen 128K with ethernet port set to stereo audio instead of automatic mode. The speakers only seem to wake up running Bluetooth off my AppleTV channel. If I run HBO, the speakers never turn on so there is no sound. I think Netflix is the same way. Maybe others. What I do when I first turn on my Sony 85-inch Bravo and my AppleTV I select my AppleTV icon and run any show or movie, whatever comes up first. I run it long enough for the speakers to turn on then I can switch to HBO or whatever and the speakers continue to work fine the rest of the evening as long as I don't turn it off.

I will switch to CAT6 cable in the fall. But I am not sure it is network related. It would seem to be more Bluetooth related but I don't really know. My AppleTV is connected to my Sony TV using HDMI 4K on the Sony Bravo TV.