Center Channel Audio Gone After November 1 Update

Hi NF_1105,

Welcome to Microsoft Community Forum. Thank you for sharing your concern with us today and we hope that all is well.

We understand that you are having concern with playing sounds on the Center Channel Audio of your Anthem AVM70 connected to Xbox Console after an update. We would recommend for you to contact the manufacturer for a thorough check of your device - Contact Us | Anthem® (anthemav.com).

If you have a different concern kindly create a new thread using this link - Create a new question or start a discussion.

Sincerely,



Xbox Forum Moderator

Microsoft Community

OK My bad please remove post. I didn't realize there is no center channel present in the dashboard but once the game loads all 7 channels are receiving audio. I should have tested it with a game first but thought no center channel audio on startup was a
problem with overall audio for all applications.

Hi Drew,

That’s part of the issue besides the audio bug, myself and many others in this thread and other online sources have spoken to tech support. I can’t be the only one who has used the report feature through the Xbox console.

Beyond that, the technical issues were just posted to your comment before me so I’ll leave that as is.

In my case (besides the already above mentioned issues), I immediately lost most of the audio designated to come through the center channel. I’ve made this statement many times and recently in this thread.

I hate repeating myself but as I posted recently, I purchased an Apple TV 4K which solidified the center channel issue with Xbox Series X. In this test case, watching YouTube through XBSX does not use the center channel, what you hear is the reverberated audio coming through the left and right channels. Whereas using a separate device such as my LG C9 TV or Apple TV 4K works fine and as expected.

More to the bigger issue is the games. I said earlier that “most” of the designated audio for the center channel doesn’t come through. As an example, - BF2042 will have some radio chatter come through the center channel but that’s it. No other sound effects. - Halo Infinite, nearly the same issue. Some radio chatter but again no sound effects, gun fire etc. - Gears 5, with the opening level using the waterfall as an audio source, only comes through the other audio channels, not the center channel. Fallout 76, Forza Horizon….

I could go on, but it’s clear that the “spatial audio” or Dolby Atmos, is not working as intended but was working fine before the November update.

My setup if it helps…

Xbox Series X

Denon 8500HA

13.2 channel audio (7.2.6 Dolby Atmos)

LG C9 Oled

All HDMI cables are 2.1 48gbs capable (unless the hdmi from Microsoft for the xbsx isnt 48gbs?)

Apple TV 4K (now used to stream all other sources of entertainment instead of the Xbox series X)

Can I ask how you are listening to your audio, Jack? I ask because, depending on the company, the audio is handled in different ways. For example, some companies use the Center Channel on surround sound signals to put out the voices, so if the center channel
has gotten turned down (or if you've chosen the wrong output format in settings) then the game will be trying to play audio on a channel that you don't have hooked up. Say you're listening on a stereo set of headphones, or even just on your TV speakers. If
you set the audio to 5.1 surround, you'll hear SOME audio, because the right and left channels will just be a mix of the different right and left surround channels. But since there is no center channel on a stereo setup, the system will send audio to that
center channel, and your system won't be able to play it. (So, if the audio is directional, any time the voices should be coming from the center speaker, you wouldn't be able to hear them very well.)

You might try setting your audio to Stereo instead of 5.1 or 7.1? It might not be the problem in your case, but it is a possibility worth checking!

The issue is your tv is unable to decode the 5.1 over HDMI. There are 5 channels of audio plus 1 channel for subwoofer they go in this order (Left, right, center, Surround Left, Surround Right). Since your TV is only stereo it's only playing channels 1 and
2, left and right, and commentary is obviously on channel 3 center. Some TV can Downmix, where they take all 5 channels and mix them into 2 stereo channels.

What I would do is set the HDMI back to Stereo so you get the correct 2 channels of audio(the Xbox does the downmix) and then since you are using optical to your surround sound system, set optical to Bitstream and DD 5.1 or DTS is your system supports it.