Hi Mary. Funny you should mention the speech dropout issue as I recently ran into this myself but not with the Apple TV. It was with a mini pc that I had connected to an HDMI port on my receiver. It was really annoying and totally ruined the whole experience of using the PC. Like you, the problem was solved when I connected the PC to one of the HDMI ports on the TV. In my case however, sound continued to be routed to my home theater system because the TV was connected to the receiver via HDMI as well.
Regarding what you experienced with Netflix not playing when your TV wasn't plugged in, unfortunately, that's the way it is due to the HDCP (hd copy protection) present on any of these media streamers which is required by any of the services that offer movies and copy protected music. Best regards, Rick Alfaro -----Original Message----- From: Pc-audio [mailto:pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org] On Behalf Of Mary Otten Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2016 3:51 PM To: PC Audio Discussion List <pc-audio@pc-audio.org> Subject: Re: Apple TV 4th Gen Hi John, Your observation about the remote being easy to use is interesting. I think you are the first one who hasn't encountered a significant learning curve, especially when it comes to actually having to type something in, such as a mixed case alphanumeric password. I'm holding out for bluetooth keyboard access, which is supposedly coming with the next major release of tv os, if I can believe what I read in the mainstream Apple-oriented press. That deal where voice over cuts out has happened to me with a 2nd generation apple tv. It happened a lot and only quit happening when we experimented and connected the apple tv directly to the hdmi in on our tv, rather than going through an a/v surround receiver or even a sound bar. When connected directly to the tv, the voiceover cut out problem completely disappeared. Unfortunately, that also meant the rest of the sound from the apple tv went to the tv speakers, which are God awful. Just food for thought. And I have heard others report varying results with the voiceover cut out problem. Some have it. Others don't. And I haven't a clue why. I do have a question. Can you connect the apple tv 4th generation and use all of its features without actually having a tv in the mix? As an example, with my 2nd generation product, it was not possible to watch netflix unless the tv was actually turned on. Netflix would not play. There may have been others too, but Netflix is the one I specifically remember. So even though I didn't need the picture, the tv had to be physically on, not just the surround receiver and speakers. Mary
