I finally sat down to binge Reacher Season 3. This season dives into Reacher’s undercover mission to infiltrate a crime organization. Just as I kicked off the session, I got hit by a snake of an unusual problem – Amazon Prime video 5.1 surround sound not working. Before this, everything was fine. Crisp, immersive audio, just the way I like it. But now it was back to stereo only. And let’s be real—watching Reacher with flat audio is like eating a piece of your favorite meat without seasoning. It just doesn’t hit the same.
Fix Amazon Prime Video 5.1 surround sound experience not working?
I figured maybe Prime Video had somehow defaulted to Stereo mode. So, I went digging. A few frustrating searches later, I finally found the fix. If you’re stuck in the same boat, here’s what you need to do and unlock your same Amazon Prime video 5.1 surround sound experience again.
Assuming your TV is hooked up to your AV receiver so it feeds rich, immersive sound to your surround system when everything is set up right,
Press the Action Menu button on your remote to access the Fire TV home page. (Make sure you have an active Amazon Prime Video subscription—no point troubleshooting if that’s the issue!)
Go to Settings (look for the gear icon).
Select the Display & Audio tab.
Scroll down and choose Audio—this is where you can control sound output and even enable/disable navigation sounds.
Switch to Dolby Digital output.
Check if it’s set to Dolby Digital Plus over HDMI. If it is, change it to Dolby Digital over HDMI instead.
That’s it. A quick tweak, and boom—5.1 surround sound should be back, making every punch, gunshot sound just as intense as it should and delivering crisp dialogue.
The issue bugging me was that I’m paying a monthly subscription to Amazon Prime Video and I don’t even get 5.1 sound on it, just simple stereo. But at least the fix was simple. If you’re dealing with the same issue, try it out and get back to enjoying Reacher. The season is based on the novel Persuader, kicking off with three episodes and releasing weekly until March 27.
