Atmos Music

[anjunadeep]

Thanks for posting, I was thinking about getting a shield for streaming and now I'll take a pass. I have high hopes for the new X-Box coming in December and hope they don't drop the ball.

My pleasure. I think it's an issue with Tidal and Dolby rather than the streaming boxes, because people are reporting the issue across seemingly all of them. I have both a Shield and AppleTV. The Shield is fantastic for Plex (which is what I watch movies 90% of the time), but AppleTV has a nicer remote and works great also. Historically X-Box has been terrible for surround format support, and for a few years even had the surrounds and surround backs mixed up (it would send surround channels to the surround backs and people couldn't fix it). For streaming boxes I would make a list of what you use the most (Netflix, Prime, Plex, Hulu, whatever) and see which ones offer the best support.

 

[Sal1950]

Are you guys comfortable that what Atmos is being streamed isn't just some upsampled files?
Are all the titles they offer also available as Atmos encoded discs?
Do the files your streaming switch your AVR into Atmos mode automagically?
TIA

 

[Sal1950]

Great question, as for a BRD Atmos mix some of them are underwhelming. Aquaman seemed like a normal DD mix with some height channel engagement during explosions. All of the Atmos files I stream turn on Atmos mode automatically. The "game changer" for me is that object based audio is hands down superior to channel based.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm a big supporter of Atmos and Auro immersive music.
I'm just not sure if the streamers are providing "the real thing", I'm only asking questions.
What is "BDR", BluRay? I'm thinking about the music streaming that Tidal and Amazon are offering.
Sorry I'm getting confused here?

 

[Sal1950]

The music Tidal and Amazon are offering in Atmos is fine and yes, the streamers are providing real, object based, Atmos content.

Do those streams engage the Atmos decoding automatically?
Do all the streams being offered also exist as BD or DVD Atmos discs as far as you know?
I've heard there are many that don't and I'm wondering where the get the Atmos encoded data from then?

 

[Sal1950]

As long as you select an atmos bitstream out to your receiver it will decode automatically. Not all Atmos content is available on BRD or DVD. Some of it is only streamed like some of the Amazon Original programming. My X-Box has an Atmos encoder so ALL content I select can be encoded in Atmos and works great.

OK, thanks for the answer.
But heck, my Marantz 7703 will encode/decode (upsample) music into Dolby Atmos, DTS-X, or Auro.
And I believe that's the kind of tricks Tidal and Amazon are playing with much of their catalog.
I don't believe that to be the same as a native mix done by the production team.
I wouldn't accept that from the Netflix type movie streamers as a way to turn 5.1 movies into ones tagged Atmos, would you?

 

[Sal1950]

I have a Marantz 7702 processor, it won't upmix a native atmos stream. It simply display Atmos. If I feed it another type of bitstream like DTS then I could select an upmixer like Dolby Surround, auro 3d etc

I'll have to check and find out. Can't remember if I ever tried either

 

[Sal1950]

I have a Marantz 7702 processor, it won't upmix a native atmos stream. It simply display Atmos. If I feed it another type of bitstream like DTS then I could select an upmixer like Dolby Surround, auro 3d etc

I can change a Atmos stream to most anything, Dolby base with DTS NeuralX overheads or Auro 3D with no problem?

 

[Sal1950]

Good question. You can change ANY stream to anything with the X-Box.

Sorry, don't have a X-Box so I can't help you with that. I tested running a Atmos BD on my Samsung BluRay player.

 

[Sal1950]

OK, you need to set the BRD to bitstream out and the processor will display "Atmos" in the front panel.

That's how I keep it.

You can't change it from Atmos to something else in your processor.

Yep, I can

You can select the speaker configuation you want to use.

???

 

[Sal1950]

In my Marantz processor settings I can select different speaker setups. I can select 7.1.4 Atmos, 10.1 Auro 3D, etc. So I can have an atmos bitstream playing through an auro3D speaker setup if I want. I am not able to change the data stream from atmos to something else within my processor, only if I change it at the source.

H
Humm. I have a 5.2.4 Atmos speaker type configuration and keep the Marantz setup that way.
Now, when you playing a Atmos blu-ray disc and the Marantz reads it's receiving a Atmos stream, what happens when you push one of the colored "Sound Mode" buttons on the remote? By pushing any one of the same color buttons repeatedly, you should be able to change the playback codec from Atmos to any one of a number of options including DTS-X and Auro for overhead speaker decoding?
You can't do that?

 

[Sal1950]

Not here on my AV7703
??? There was some talk about 2 years ago that Dolby was going to restrict the use of other functions while using a Dolby stream.
But they changed their mind and AFAIK no firmware ever went out to lock down it's streams?

 

[Sal1950]

Do you have the latest firmware installed?
Maybe post to the question to the AVS Official 7702 thread and see what you can learn there.

The **OFFICIAL** Marantz AV7702 Pre/Pro

www.avsforum.com