Hulu may have started rolling out 5.1 surround sound support on Apple TV with v7.26 update, as per some user reports

5.1 surround sound support has become almost a standard for every streaming platform and is especially important for home theater owners. The tech promises some of the most immersive audio experiences around.

This is done through a five audio channel system combined with a subwoofer channel (hence the 5.1 name).

On Apple TV, almost every streaming service including Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Apple TV+ supports the audio format. All with the exception of Hulu, which for some reason still relies on dual-channel stereo setups.

I’m seeing 5.1 badges and receiver confirmation of surround sound on a number of shows and movies. It’s not the full catalog, unfortunately, and only a few movies via the premium channel add-ons have 5.1. Hopefully there will be sound upgrades on more titles soon.
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That has changed now though as several Redditors just reported that several shows on Hulu have started displaying the 5.1 surround sound badge.

While some users have suggested that the feature has been added with the 7.26 update, it seems unlikely considering the fact that the update changelog makes no mention of it, even though it’s a pretty major addition.

Instead, a more plausible explanation is that it is a server-side update. It seems that Hulu is currently testing 5.1 surround sound support on Apple TV and has only rolled it out for select users.

As of now, there does not seem to be any magic switch to manually enable support for 5.1 surround sound. Also, the feature is not available even on the latest Hulu and tvOS updates for several users.

Still, now that the testing phase has begun, one can expect support for it to get enabled for all in the coming weeks.

Following that, more and more Hulu content can be expected to hop onto the 5.1 surround bandwagon on Apple TV.

With that being said, be sure to also check out our dedicated Hulu section for more of such stories on the streaming service.

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