So I updated my Apple TV to iOS 4.4 (aka iOS 5) the other day and immediately ran into a problem.  All of my movies/TV shows that had a Dolby Digital audio track were playing with the audio out of sync by about 1/2 second.  The 2.0 channel audio played perfectly, and these same files played correctly just a few hours before. I also tried using AirPlay to send the videos to the Apple TV with the same results.  Oddly enough, when I went to Netflix and played Psych (has a Dolby Digital audio track) it played perfectly in-sync.

After some troubleshooting and trying various random things, including 2 full resets, I finally tracked down the problem.  If the screen-saver type is set to Random then the digital audio tracks play with a 1/2 second delay.  If I pick a specific screen saver, everything plays correctly.  So for now I have selected a specific screen-saver instead of letting it randomly pick one.

One more random bug in Apple’s latest updates.