Just wanted to check in on if there was any progress here after the 2136 beta not changing things. Is there any additional logging we can provide to help?
Any progress with this would be reported here.
Problem has been fixed in TvOS 17.2
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And this is why we wait 
@mtnbkr60 Thanks for keeping up with this and doing all the due diligence that you did!
Well the TV gods giveth and taketh. 5.1 no longer works on Netflix. Only Atmos. All audio comes thru as PCM Stereo.
Same for YoutubeTV. Nothing is in 5.1 anymore.
Glad its working for you, but even after 17.2 for me (I installed before checking here to see if there were any updates) it is still behaving the same. All 2 channel content on Channels (TVE, 2 channel OTA channels, etc) is still being encoded as DD5.1. Out of curiosity, is it working for you on the normal Channels release, or was this with the 2136 beta from last Friday?
Using the Stable release
I did an AppleTV reset, confirmed again I am on 17.2, and the behavior is unchanged for me. In my case, Netflix, Youtube, etc all behaving as expected, 5.1 content being seen by the receiver as 5.1, 2 channel content being seen as 2 channel by the receiver. @sok , if you are running 17.2, would you mind doing the same test you did above and see if a 2 channel source is being seen by your receiver as 5.1?
Well everything is working perfectly now. Can't explain it but the HDMI active splitter that I had in my system just does not like 17.2. Removed the splitter and all audio is working correctly on all apps. This splitter has worked just fine since tvOS 15. Channels was the one app that did work with the splitter and 17.2, but every other app I have did not. Strange but at least I am back up and running.
In tvOS 17.2 once I forced the system audio to 5.1 DD it stucks as 5.1 DD system wide even when browsing the main menu and playing Apple Music.
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I am thinking this is a handshake issue.
Thanks for the confirmation @sok. I had a friend also confirm on his AppleTV 4K that he is still seeing the issue even on 17.2. @maddox can we keep this as an open issue rather than marked as solved?
I would roll back to the beta before they tried to fix it. I am on the stable version and it works fine
In the future, it would be helpful to report when you have foreign things like this that are possible variables in an issue like this.
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Splitter was never an issue with any app before 17.1. Like I said still not an issue for Channels. Audio works perfectly for the Channels app. But Apple must have changed something because it affected every single app, except Channels.
I have been experimenting as I have found several other threads on other forums with many people saying the latest OS messed up their audio. I tested using several streaming apps and local files. The internal Dolby to LPCM decoder is completely messed up. For me no center or rear channels when watching 5.1 audio programs. Dolby Atmos audio is just fine though which is odd because it's LPCM too, with metadata. But any 5.1 source material that outputs as LPCM is borked. If I force Dolby out in the ATV, then audio is properly mapped. So for now I have set the ATV to forcing Dolby 5.1 output and foregoing Atmos audio until this is fixed.
If I turn on the experimental audio driver in Channels, then I get LRC channels, but no surrounds in LPCM mode. Go to default driver and only LR, so I don't hear any dialog on 5.1 sources like football games.
So I was able to downgrade my Apple TV to TVOS 13, as this is the next newest signed IPSW that is available. I know this isn't a long term solution, but just wanted to sanity check if the issue went away with older TVOS Since the latest Channels requires TVOS15 or newer, I was only able to install 4.3.3. This of course is less than ideal, but at least the audio is now working as it should (not because of Channels 4.3.3 but because something broke in TVOS17.X I believe). @maddox Would there be any value to submit a diagnostic log for this scenario? Also, I assume there is no newer Channels version that I can use on TVOS13?
No, and no.
This is tvOS 16.0 (20J373) and running on Channels DVR Version 5.7.5 and it still stuck at 5.1 DD with 2 channels source when the system audio format is set to use 5.1 DD.
Interesting, so maybe this has existed in TVOS 16 as well. I guess the only option for people with Dolby Digital only home theater setups is to run non Apple TV hardware which is disappointing since I think Apple TV runs Channels the best out of any other HW. The audio experience though just isn't worth it. Just noticed you are running experimental driver. Do you see the same with default driver?