‘Queen Rock Montreal’ alongside 18 Marvel films will be offered with Imax Enhanced sound on Disney+

[VJM]

‘Queen Rock Montreal’ Coming to Disney+ With Imax Enhanced Sound by DTS

'Queen Rock' Montreal is coming to Disney+ with Imax Enhanced sound by DTS on May 15.

variety.com

This will be interesting to try out, I'm wondering if these will be different mixes than the DD+ Atmos ones?

My Denon has Imax Enhanced mode, not sure what the difference is between regular DTS-X, some kind of processing?

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

‘Queen Rock Montreal’ Coming to Disney+ With Imax Enhanced Sound by DTS

'Queen Rock' Montreal is coming to Disney+ with Imax Enhanced sound by DTS on May 15.

variety.com

This will be interesting to try out, I'm wondering if these will be different mixes than the DD+ Atmos ones?

My Denon has Imax Enhanced mode, not sure what the difference is between regular DTS-X, some kind of processing?

There's not really any such thing as a DTSX mix vs an Atmos mix, there's a mix, and it's then encoded to one or both formats. There are minimal differences in the ideal speaker locations between DTSX and Atmos, so it could very well be related to the configuration in the mixing room.

My Anthem processor has DTS:X IMAX Enhanced as well. I watched Zombieland 2 with it via the UHD disc. It sounded good. Impossible to say if it sounded different, better or worse because there's no Atmos track on the disc to compare it to. Years later I have Z2 on Kaleidescape with an Atmos track but I no longer have the disc (or a functioning disc player) to compare to.

I think the IMAX Enhanced thing was a (failed) co-marketing partnership. Sony was involved early on and was planning all kinds of DTS:X IMAX Enhanced UHD disc releases that didn't really happen after the first wave.

After having a complete lock on the blu-ray audio market, DTS lost out to Dolby when Atmos beat X to market, and they've been trying a lot of different ways to gain back the lost market share.

Bottom line is that I don't make any purchasing decisions based on one or the other. If a processor has DTS X and Dolby Atmos, that's all I care about at this point. IMAX Enhanced is, in my opinion, just another light that will come on on the front panel if you have it. The mix is going to be the mix regardless of the encoding codec.

 

[VJM]

Bottom line is that I don't make any purchasing decisions based on one or the other. If a processor has DTS X and Dolby Atmos, that's all I care about at this point. IMAX Enhanced is, in my opinion, just another light that will come on on the front panel if you have it. The mix is going to be the mix regardless of the encoding codec.

So all this is nothing but marketing, "offered in IMAX Enhanced Sound" shouldn't be any different than DD+ Atmos?

 

[VJM]

Looking around the Internet I found this about IMAX Enhanced Sound:

IMAX Enhanced audio consists of a custom sound mix powered by DTS. To be certified IMAX Enhanced for audio, IMAX Enhanced devices have to meet performance standards for resolution, brightness, and sonic fidelity as defined by a certification committee of IMAX, DTS, and leading technical specialists from Hollywood. Like IMAX Enhanced video, IMAX Enhanced audio certification seeks to ensure a consistent audio experience as long as you have an IMAX Enhanced certified audio system. Fortunately, the nice thing about meeting IMAX Enhanced audio standards is that almost all Dolby Atmos systems will do.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

Yeah, if you eliminate the marketing speak in that blurb, you have nothing left.

If there was anything that could be detected by the end user, they'd have mentioned it. This is a licensing fee cash grab. Just saying "have to meet performance standards..." says absolutely nothing without indicating what those standards are. "Must display an image", "Must carry more than 2 channels of audio", "Must not burst into flames", "Must not exceed 800 calories"...these are all possible standards according to what has been given to the public.

Co-marketing. Licensing cash grab. Oh, you want the effect of the IMAX-Enhanced video? Well, your disc player, AVR/AVP, and display must all be IMAX certified, not to mention your cables and the content you're viewing.

 

[DianneGoslin]

I agree with you on that.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I've heard several IMAX Enhanced demos... I can't hear a lick of difference.

Frankly, for me, any association between IMAX and audio leaves a sour taste in my mouth based on my experience at IMAX commercial theater spaces. The audio always sounds blown out, over driven... generally terrible!

I'd have to agree with @Travis Ballstadt on this, the IMAX Enhanced venture stumbled out of the gate and never recovered. And the fact that all of your equipment has to be "IMAX Enhanced" is silly, particularly because I can't see or hear a difference.

 

[VJM]

I've heard several IMAX Enhanced demos... I can't hear a lick of difference.

Frankly, for me, any association between IMAX and audio leaves a sour taste in my mouth based on my experience at IMAX commercial theater spaces. The audio always sounds blown out, over driven... generally terrible!

I'd have to agree with @Travis Ballstadt on this, the IMAX Enhanced venture stumbled out of the gate and never recovered. And the fact that all of your equipment has to be "IMAX Enhanced" is silly, particularly because I can't see or hear a difference.

Interesting, thanks for the update. I haven't had a chance to try yet but I thought it would be the same or some kind of different mix that would run hotter than the Atoms mix.
Hopefully I have a chance to check it out soon, but it doesn't sound like we are missing much, just the IMAX marketing engine

 

[VJM]

Apparently I don't have anything that meets the requirements to get DTS-X sound from D+, @Todd Anderson what are you using to get DTS-X?

 

[SRW1000]

I just watched this video about the format today:

If I heard correctly, IMAX Enhanced is just a 5.1.4 format. How is it in any way an improvement over DTS-X or Dolby Atmos? Fewer channels = better experience?

I felt bad for Sven at this point in the video having to explain how it's handled for people with a 7.1.4 setup:

I know people love the IMAX experience but feels more like marketing hype to me than a revolutionary experience.