If you have an Apple TV 4K and a soundbar or home theater system that supports Dolby Atmos, you may have noticed an issue with audio playback. Specifically, there was an audio delay.
The good news is that Apple has just rolled out a firmware update that promises to fix this problem.
A better Dolby Atmos experience
As noted by MacRumors, there have been Reddit and Apple Support forums complaining about this audio delay issue for a while, claiming it was so severe that it forced some to disable Dolby Atmos entirely via their Apple TV’s settings.
But with tvOS 18.5 — which Apple is rolling out this week — it should fix these audio issues. According to Apple’s support page, the firmware update “adds support for synchronizing Dolby Atmos playback to speakers over AirPlay or Bluetooth. “
Once your Apple TV is running tvOS 18.5, you’ll need to recalibrate your speaker system using Apple’s Wireless Audio Sync feature, which plays a sound and, using your iPhone’s microphone, measures the latency of your TV’s audio playback.
