The tvOS 12.2 public beta can be obtained by going to the Settings app on the Apple TV and navigating to the Software Updates section under "System." "Get Public Beta Updates" will need to be toggled on, and once it is, the Apple TV will download the beta software.
tvOS 12.2, paired with iOS 12.2, lets users ask Siri to play specific media on an Apple TV from an iOS device. You can, for example, ask Siri to play Modern Family on the TV in the living room. This works for music and TV content.
No other new features were discovered in the tvOS 12.2 beta as of yet, and it's often difficult to determine what's new because Apple does not provide release notes letting us know what's changed.
Sunday February 1, 2026 10:08 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Last year, Apple launched CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. Nearly nine months later, CarPlay Ultra is still limited to Aston Martin's latest luxury vehicles, but that should change fairly soon.
In May 2025, Apple said many other vehicle brands planned to offer CarPlay Ultra, including Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis.
In his Powe...
Thursday January 29, 2026 10:07 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple today confirmed to Reuters that it has acquired Q.ai, an Israeli startup that is working on artificial intelligence technology for audio.
Apple paid close to $2 billion for Q.ai, according to sources cited by the Financial Times. That would make this Apple's second-biggest acquisition ever, after it paid $3 billion for the popular headphone and audio brand Beats in 2014.
Q.ai has...
Sunday February 1, 2026 12:31 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
The calendar has turned to February, and a new report indicates that Apple's next product launch is "imminent," in the form of new MacBook Pro models.
"All signs point to an imminent launch of next-generation MacBook Pros that retain the current form factor but deliver faster chips," Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said on Sunday. "I'm told the new models — code-named J714 and J716 — are slated...
Saturday January 31, 2026 10:51 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple recently updated its online store with a new ordering process for Macs, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro.
There used to be a handful of standard configurations available for each Mac, but now you must configure a Mac entirely from scratch on a feature-by-feature basis. In other words, ordering a new Mac now works much like ordering an...
Sunday February 1, 2026 5:42 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple is planning to launch new MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips alongside macOS 26.3, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
"Apple's faster MacBook Pros are planned for the macOS 26.3 release cycle," wrote Gurman, in his Power On newsletter today.
"I'm told the new models — code-named J714 and J716 — are slated for the macOS 26.3 software cycle, which runs from...
I didn't know our AVRs didn't already do the decoding! So it's done on the Apple TV box? I have my sound output sent to Multi-channel. Always thought my AVR did the decoding...
That's correct. At least for now/temporarily. Happened sometime around tvOS 11.3, I believe.
I'll use my receiver as an example. When I play a Dolby Atmos movie from my UHD BD player, my receiver displays "D.Atmos." Pretty straight forward; the player is passing the audio to my receiver to be decoded, which reads it as Dolby Atmos (because it's seeing the Dolby Atmos container).
The Apple TV 4K, however, does the decoding itself. It decodes Dolby Atmos first, and then sends that audio on as an uncompressed LPCM stream. As a result, my receiver displays "Multi" when I'm playing a Dolby Atmos movie from Apple TV 4K since the audio is being read as LPCM.
That's correct. At least for now/temporarily. Happened sometime around tvOS 11.3, I believe.
I'll use my receiver as an example. When I play a Dolby Atmos movie from my UHD BD player, my receiver displays "D.Atmos." Pretty straight forward; the player is passing the audio to my receiver to be decoded, which reads it as Dolby Atmos (because it's seeing the Dolby Atmos container).
The Apple TV 4K, however, does the decoding itself. It decodes Dolby Atmos first, and then sends that audio on as an uncompressed LPCM stream. As a result, my receiver displays "Multi" when I'm playing a Dolby Atmos movie from Apple TV 4K since the audio is being read as LPCM.
Hey There,
I do notice on my Yamaha receiver when playing a film with Dolby Atmos from apple tv 4k:
1)Receiver lights up with "DTHD" 2) Then " Decoder" 3)Then finally ends on "ATMOS/PCM"
I did read its some type of newer ( or older) dolby container. But yes, at the end of it: the Apple tv is doing the decoding and my Yamaha ( thank goodness ) lights up "ATMOS/PCM" and its does sound pretty damn good ( most of the time) in case anyone is interested the receiver is a YAMAHA RX-A770
