# Playing Apple TV thru zone 2 speakers of receiver



## jasonb100 (Feb 1, 2012)

Hi, I cannot get my Apple TV to play through the speakers I have hooked up to zone 2 of my receiver. I have an onkyo tx sr608. I tried getting an optical audio cable and ran it from Apple TV to receiver but still could not get it to work. Anyone have any ideas? Is it possible. Thanks

Jason


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## natescriven (Jan 12, 2011)

Unfortunately, Zone 2 only plays sources that are analog. Many receivers have this limitation. I have the same situation with Chromecast. Does the Apple TV have RCA outputs? If you can hook it up with those and then it should work.


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## jasonb100 (Feb 1, 2012)

No just hemisphere and optical. Thanks for posting. Guess I got to live with it.

Jason


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## natescriven (Jan 12, 2011)

Are you shopping for a new receiver? I think the new Denon X4000 has the ability to play all sources through Zone 2. Of course that receiver may be out of your price range. It's out of mine, for now anyways. But eventually that feature should make its way to more models.


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## chashint (Jan 12, 2011)

There is another active thread for the same issue except it is with a Roku.
I could not find an AVR that will allow a digital input to be played in stereo in zone 2.


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## natescriven (Jan 12, 2011)

Here is a quote from the Audioholics review of the X4000:


> It can also take audio from HDMI, and send it out through the zone 2 preouts, eliminating the need to hook up HDMI and analog audio cables from sources. But, poor zone 3 doesn’t have any sort of video output, and only supports HDMI when “All Zone Stereo” is used. Both zones always support digital coax and optical as well.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

A digital signal is not permitted to be downconverted to analog any more, on the x 4000 it has digital coax and optical for zone 2 and 3 thats why it will still work.


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## RTS100x5 (Sep 12, 2009)

jasonb100 said:


> Hi, I cannot get my Apple TV to play through the speakers I have hooked up to zone 2 of my receiver. I have an onkyo tx sr608. I tried getting an optical audio cable and ran it from Apple TV to receiver but still could not get it to work. Anyone have any ideas? Is it possible. Thanks
> 
> Jason


This is what you need...Convert the OPTICAL OUT of the AppleTV to ANALOG (sound quality will be fine. I use these on all my AppleTV installs) ...Then Use the ANALOG OUTPUT to an AUX ANALOG INPUT on your receiver ....Zone 2 will play that INPUT :sn:

http://www.amazon.com/D3-Digital-Converter-Optical-Toslink/dp/B005K2TXMO/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1390287538&sr=1-2&keywords=digital+to+analog+audio+converter


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## rab-byte (Feb 1, 2011)

Yep that's exactly what you need.


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## paulinboise (Sep 9, 2016)

Thanks, this does make sense. Quick question, I don't care about any quality compromise for Zone 2 by switching to analog (as mentioned above) but I do 90% of my listening in my living (zone 1). Does going optical out of my Apple TV into my receiver (SR608) change the quality of sound in my living room? Thanks


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## paulinboise (Sep 9, 2016)

paulinboise said:


> Thanks, this does make sense. Quick question, I don't care about any quality compromise for Zone 2 by switching to analog (as mentioned above) but I do 90% of my listening in my living (zone 1). Does going optical out of my Apple TV into my receiver (SR608) change the quality of sound in my living room? Thanks


Also could use a little help with getting it setup. Have my apple tv hdmi connected to tv/cd. I have optical cord going from apple tv to Digital IN # 2 on my SR-608. So I am a little confused how to cable it from here to get my Apple TV to play on Zone 2.

Thanks for the help.


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

I can only speak from experience with my airport express. 
As far as I know most zone 2/3 can only playback analog. I had to use the 3.5mm to stereo RCA. Not sure if it's the case here but I think that's still true. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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