bliteben parent
I got one recently for a room that was already wired with speakers, and man the ability to control the volume on Apple TV remote app on your phone is amazing. For whatever reason none of my other Apple TV's will allow that (could be the tv's fault, but obviously somewhere along the line they at least expect a speaker bar). I'm sure it's a fault of the HDMI spec somewhere that you can't easily change the volume on the tv itself but you can on downstream devices.
I have an AppleTV on 2 different TVs and it works to change the volume on both of them.
Sometimes it stops working, but a reboot of the remote fixes it. The idea that I need to reboot a remote hurts my soul a little, but at least it works. Hold the TV and Volume Down buttons until the LED on the Apple TV turns off. Wait a bit and you’ll see a notice that it disconnects. Wait a while longer and press a button (volume seems safest) and it will connect again.
There are also some settings around the remote and volume. It can be set to use HDMI, the TV’s IR, and there is a learn option. The TV I’m currently on is using the IR direct to the TV… I guess this is why it doesn’t work when I try to use the app, but I almost never use that anyway.
The difference is with the app. With the Apple Remote it works fine, but in the app it only works with HDMI magic (I'm sure some tv's allow you to use the HDMI magic with no sound bar / receiver)