VLC on Apple TV4: no audio on AirPlay (but OK on HDMI and Bluetooth)

[chuckles67]

Apple TV4 latest firmware
VLC latest version
B&W Z2 Airplay wireless speaker

All other apps play audio OK through AirPlay (Netflix, HBO Go, DirectTV Now etc etc etc).

VLC playing an H264 video file with stereo AAC audio hosted on a DLNA media server hard drive: audio plays OK through HDMI, OK through Bluetooth to AirPods; but NO AUDIO through AirPlay. I hear a few short bursts of audio (<1second) intermittently in the Airplay speaker, but unusable. Duplicates on every other video file that I've tried with VLC. Not sure what to do to debug this.

[fkuehne]

How did you configure AirPlay on your apple TV? with the system settings to output any audio to that device?

[chuckles67]

How did you configure AirPlay on your apple TV? with the system settings to output any audio to that device?

Hi Felix, yes - I use the Apple TV system settings to select audio on my AirPlay wireless speaker.

With this setting the other Apple TV video apps I use (such as Apple Movies, Netflix, HBO Go, Amazon Video, Vudu, DirecTV Now, Channels, Plex, FX) automatically send audio to my AirPlay wireless speaker.

Only VLC app has this issue not sending audio to this AirPlay wireless speaker (but no problem with audio to HDMI and to Bluetooth devices). I'll hear one or two very short bursts of audio from the AirPlay wireless speaker then silence/no audio. This issue has been duplicating since I first installed VLC on Apple TV sometime late last year - I think November 2017 - duplicating with all VLC updates.

Thanks!

[chuckles67]

Just to clarify: the no audio problem I hear with VLC and Airplay is with AAC audio in the media file (AC3 audio in the media file plays fine).

For example
1. I have some media files containing H264 audio and AC3 audio track: I hear audio through AirPlay no problem
2. I have some media files containing H264 video and both AAC and AC3 audio tracks: selecting AC3 track is okay; selecting AAC track results in no audio through AirPlay
3. I have some media files containing H264 video and AAC audio track: results in no audio through AirPlay

[ftclausen]

I have this exact same issue too using either the VLC app or the "TVH Client" iOS TV Headend client app that uses VLCKit.

EDIT: The iOS/tvOS TVH Client app is using VLCKit 3.0.1 stable and the audio comes from a DVB-T stream as MP2.

[fkuehne]

Thanks for the feedback! I'll forward that to the engineer who refactored that code.

[djmartincook]

I’m having the same issue. Audio completely garbled and unplayable when sending audio via airplay from iphone (11.3) to any airplay device (ATV 3 and 4)

[treeline]

Similar issue for me with Airplay 2. ATV4k to Sonos One stereo pair yields no audio while all other video apps have no problem. Bluetooth plays fine.