diff --git a/RELEASENOTES.md b/RELEASENOTES.md
index fbbe050c6c..abbc034835 100644
--- a/RELEASENOTES.md
+++ b/RELEASENOTES.md
@@ -15,6 +15,9 @@
 *   Track selection:
     *   Flatten `TrackSelectionOverrides` class into `TrackSelectionParameters`,
         and promote `TrackSelectionOverride` to a top level class.
+*   Audio:
+    *   Fix error checking audio capabilities for Dolby Atmos (E-AC3-JOC) in
+        HLS.
 *   Extractors:
     *   Matroska: Parse `DiscardPadding` for Opus tracks.
     *   FMP4: Fix issue where emsg sample metadata could be output in the wrong
diff --git a/library/core/src/main/java/com/google/android/exoplayer2/audio/DefaultAudioSink.java b/library/core/src/main/java/com/google/android/exoplayer2/audio/DefaultAudioSink.java
index bcf59167f4..db04bdeb69 100644
--- a/library/core/src/main/java/com/google/android/exoplayer2/audio/DefaultAudioSink.java
+++ b/library/core/src/main/java/com/google/android/exoplayer2/audio/DefaultAudioSink.java
@@ -1736,8 +1736,11 @@ public final class DefaultAudioSink implements AudioSink {
       // the channel count for this encoding, but before then there is no way to query it so we
       // assume 6 channel audio is supported.
       if (Util.SDK_INT >= 29) {
+        // Default to 48 kHz if the format doesn't have a sample rate (for example, for chunkless
+        // HLS preparation). See [Internal: b/222127949].
+        int sampleRate = format.sampleRate != Format.NO_VALUE ? format.sampleRate : 48000;
         channelCount =
-            getMaxSupportedChannelCountForPassthroughV29(C.ENCODING_E_AC3_JOC, format.sampleRate);
+            getMaxSupportedChannelCountForPassthroughV29(C.ENCODING_E_AC3_JOC, sampleRate);
         if (channelCount == 0) {
           Log.w(TAG, "E-AC3 JOC encoding supported but no channel count supported");
           return null;