The Dolby Atmos, DTS-X, and Auro-3D Discussion Thread

[Bookmark]

Reference Atmos/Dts:X for myself would be slightly different due to availability of certain films. However, in no particular order, top 10 would be.

Ready Player One
Kong: Skull Island
MI: Fallout
Hacksaw Ridge (Certainly the back half of the film)
Crimson Peak (Dts:X )
Rampage
San Andreas
Now You See Me 2
Ghost in the Shell
Batman V Superman

I have to say a lot of stuff up mixes surprisingly well and the possible benefits of either Atmos or Dts:X discrete mixes for some films seems decidedly marginal.

 

[panteragstk]

Hopefully you mean Skyscraper, it is a truly appalling film, or do we mean Twilight with shiny sweaty vampires?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Now guys, we’re just talking about purely Atmos overhead sound effects, not the movies.

We know that some movies are excellent, but have no overhead sound effects for Demo.

OTOH some movies aren’t good, but have fun overhead sound effects.

 

[Bookmark]

I don't have a copy of Sully, however it's currently on Prime (no Atmos for me alas ). It seems fine on the up mix, not sure what exactly I would be missing with the Atmos, but doubtless would have been nice (it is on the bluray). Pans, surrounds, overheads all seem present and correct. A good few standout moments, the crashes, water, plane interiors, the phantom landings, voices in the overheads when running in what looked like times square and the boats and helicopters.

I was not sure I would like the film, I have kind of been avoiding it, I am not normally fond of true life films, however overall a decent Eastwood film and good sound. Well worth a watch

we’re just talking about purely Atmos overhead sound effects,

Personally I think that would be too restrictive. I have noticed a lot more in just the overall sound besides picking out just the overheads. Yes they only really present for the Atmos/Dts:X, but the up mix seems to extract a fair bit for something that isn't encoded specifically.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I don't have a copy of Sully, however it's currently on Prime (no Atmos for me alas ). It seems fine on the up mix, not sure what exactly I would be missing with the Atmos, but doubtless would have been nice (it is on the bluray). Pans, surrounds, overheads all seem present and correct. A good few standout moments, the crashes, water, plane interiors, the phantom landings, voices in the overheads when running in what looked like times square and the boats and helicopters.

I was not sure I would like the film, I have kind of been avoiding it, I am not normally fond of true life films, however overall a decent Eastwood film and good sound. Well worth a watch


Personally I think that would be too restrictive. I have noticed a lot more in just the overall sound besides picking out just the overheads. Yes they only really present for the Atmos/Dts:X, but the up mix seems to extract a fair bit for something that isn't encoded specifically.

No matter how often you and I say it (to the point of making it sound cliche), Upmixing with DSU and NeuralX is truly impressive.

Movies don’t need to be Atmos to have cool overhead and surround sound effects thanks to DSU and NeuralX.

 

[panteragstk]

Now guys, we’re just talking about purely Atmos overhead sound effects, not the movies.

We know that some movies are excellent, but have no overhead sound effects for Demo.

OTOH some movies aren’t good, but have fun overhead sound effects.

It's funny how movies that may not be all that great can have great things about them. A good sound track can make up for a bad script in some ways.

I guess you found a good example of this.

 

[panteragstk]

No matter how often you and I say it (to the point of making it sound cliche), Upmixing with DSU and NeuralX is truly impressive.

Movies don’t need to be Atmos to have cool overhead and surround sound effects thanks to DSU and NeuralX.

I think the coolest part for me is sound is just everywhere. I have to "try" and hear if it is coming from overhead. Sometimes it's obvious, sometimes it just sounds awesome and I don't think about it.

 

[snakeeyes]

I am going to try to make some progress on my install tomorrow since I have the day off. I hope to map out my options for the location of the 4 RSL 34e in ceiling speakers. Not sure I’ll nut up enough to cut thru tomorrow yet.

 

[Danzilla31]

Ok you guys are going to laugh but I guilty pleasure love that movie Battleship that came out awhile back? Upmixed it sounded completely kick ass on my system! One of the best upmixes in awhile

 

[Danzilla31]

Me and my dad watched Traitor on Netflix yesterday had a great upmix experience on that although the gain was set kind off low on that movie had to up the dial from where it's normally set

 

[VonMagnum]

I can't believe what I'm reading here in some cases...

Starship Troopers has "good" Atmos? In what alternate universe??? I heard very little from the overheads most of the movie on my 11.1.6 system (three rows of seats and I get around the 11-channel limit in DTS:X using multiple processors and AVRs). MI:Fallout is pure Atmos magic by comparison (I can only conclude something is massively wrong with Andy or his system). I was also pretty disappointed with The Fifth Element in that it didn't sound that much better than the original soundtrack (i.e. it's good, but overhead usage was minimal compared to what it COULD have been and not very loud at that). Both could have been a LOT better, IMO.

Gravity does not *correctly* pan dialog when they're on the screen! It "snaps" a LOT (voice will jump to to the right while Clooney is still at the center, for example right after he says they were going to get hit no matter what). Watch a Toy Story movie (with mere ES matrixed 6.1 sound) to see/hear a CORRECT panned dialog.... Panned dialog has NOTHING to do with Atmos anyway.... Gravity does have impressive Atmos effects, however (even better here in 3D video + Atmos courtesy a remux using MKVtoolinix and a Zidoo X9S as I've done with all my 150+ 3D movies that have immersive mixes available. I even have Auro-3D and Atmos mixes combined into one MKV file since a hard drive doesn't have the space limits of of a blu-ray). Speaking of which, I own 10 Auro-3D movies, ~125 Atmos movies and 25 DTS:X movies so far (and 7 of the 10 Auro-3D titles I have Atmos versions as well) so I have a few to compare

People haven't heard any good DTS:X titles? Really??? Crimson Peak had creepy sounds coming from every corner of the room and all over the ceiling here.... Better yet, virtually all the Harry Potter titles blow away most of the Atmos titles I've watched!!! Huge overhead sounds in both of those! Azkaban was particularly good. The various Jurassic Park movies (all are available in DTS:X) are also pretty good.

Someone dismissed Red Tails in Auro-3D? Do you even have a correctly set up Auro-3D system??? The overhead plane content in this movie is pretty much jaw dropping! (A plane even goes above and across the top of the screen left to right in at least one case). Blade Runner 2049.... Atmos is good but the Auro one stinks? They are both quite similar in Atmos and Auro-3D if you use the same layouts (I can expand Auro to use 6 overheads with an extracted top middle or use suuround heights only or surround heights + rear heights with a Monoprice switchbox. In other words, BOTH are good. Dark Tower in Auro-3D at the final battle is CRAZY with overhead sounds (It sounds like a river is flowing overhead across the ceiling). If Auro-3D sounds bad, there's something wrong with your system, IMO.

One of the absolute BEST Atmos soundtracks I've heard so far is the original Jumanji. Even a family member with bad hearing dropped her jaw with that one. The mosquitoes had people swatting above their heads here! I don't see it on anyone's list. Frankly, given Andy throwing a VERY GOOD Atmos soundtrack in the litter box (MI:Fallout), I wouldn't believe a word he says after that.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I can't believe what I'm reading here in some cases...

Starship Troopers has "good" Atmos? In what alternate universe??? I heard very little from the overheads most of the movie on my 11.1.6 system (three rows of seats and I get around the 11-channel limit in DTS:X using multiple processors and AVRs). MI:Fallout is pure Atmos magic by comparison (I can only conclude something is massively wrong with Andy or his system). I was also pretty disappointed with The Fifth Element in that it didn't sound that much better than the original soundtrack (i.e. it's good, but overhead usage was minimal compared to what it COULD have been and not very loud at that). Both could have been a LOT better, IMO.

Gravity does not *correctly* pan dialog when they're on the screen! It "snaps" a LOT (voice will jump to to the right while Clooney is still at the center, for example right after he says they were going to get hit no matter what). Watch a Toy Story movie (with mere ES matrixed 6.1 sound) to see/hear a CORRECT panned dialog.... Panned dialog has NOTHING to do with Atmos anyway.... Gravity does have impressive Atmos effects, however (even better here in 3D video + Atmos courtesy a remux using MKVtoolinix and a Zidoo X9S as I've done with all my 150+ 3D movies that have immersive mixes available. I even have Auro-3D and Atmos mixes combined into one MKV file since a hard drive doesn't have the space limits of of a blu-ray). Speaking of which, I own 10 Auro-3D movies, ~125 Atmos movies and 25 DTS:X movies so far (and 7 of the 10 Auro-3D titles I have Atmos versions as well) so I have a few to compare

People haven't heard any good DTS:X titles? Really??? Crimson Peak had creepy sounds coming from every corner of the room and all over the ceiling here.... Better yet, virtually all the Harry Potter titles blow away most of the Atmos titles I've watched!!! Huge overhead sounds in both of those! Azkaban was particularly good. The various Jurassic Park movies (all are available in DTS:X) are also pretty good.

Someone dismissed Red Tails in Auro-3D? Do you even have a correctly set up Auro-3D system??? The overhead plane content in this movie is pretty much jaw dropping! (A plane even goes above and across the top of the screen left to right in at least one case). Blade Runner 2049.... Atmos is good but the Auro one stinks? They are both quite similar in Atmos and Auro-3D if you use the same layouts (I can expand Auro to use 6 overheads with an extracted top middle or use suuround heights only or surround heights + rear heights with a Monoprice switchbox. In other words, BOTH are good. Dark Tower in Auro-3D at the final battle is CRAZY with overhead sounds (It sounds like a river is flowing overhead across the ceiling). If Auro-3D sounds bad, there's something wrong with your system, IMO.

One of the absolute BEST Atmos soundtracks I've heard so far is the original Jumanji. Even a family member with bad hearing dropped her jaw with that one. The mosquitoes had people swatting above their heads here! I don't see it on anyone's list. Frankly, given Andy throwing a VERY GOOD Atmos soundtrack in the litter box (MI:Fallout),I wouldn't believe a word he says after that.

Geez, calm down.

Let’s not presume anything about your system or anyone else’s 100.1.100 system and 100 rows of seats.

I thought Starship Troopers Atmos had pretty good overhead effects during the action war scenes, not active overhead effects throughout the entire movie. I wouldn’t say it belongs in the “great Atmos list”, but not the worst.

I have seen Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom in DTSX and as I have stated before, I thought there were some good overhead moments, but the overall overhead contents were underwhelming.

I have not seen Jumanji in Atmos because I hate that movie. And I won’t be seeing it again.

Obviously none of us have seen every single Atmos or DTSX title. That’s a huge purpose for having a thread like this - so we could “pool our resources”.

I have about 80 Atmos and only 16 DTSX movies.

I haven’t seen Crimson Peak and many other titles. I still haven’t seen the entire Blade Runner 2049 Atmos. Still only seen most of Atomic Blonde DTSX.

I have seen a few Bourne movies in DTSX. I thought the overhead effects were underwhelming.

 

[VonMagnum]

100.1.100 isn't even possible at the cinema (64 speakers max; 32 at home). I use matrixed front and rear wides and extracted top middle on top of the 7.1.4 system (thus 11.1.6). The room is 12x24 so both to increase the rear depth of effects and to seat more people, I made three rows (3x2x1 with an optional second seat in the third row that blocks the rear glass door when used to seat up to 7 people). The room was difficult to work with because it has a half bathroom in the back and an outboard fireplace in the middle (thus limiting the 2nd/3rd row seating to 2/1 without blocking anything and three in the front row). I could still probably use a second sub for more even bass and some more acoustical treatments, but otherwise, it's working well now.

I use a Marantz 7012 AVR + Yamaha AVR for amplifier use only + Onkyo Pro Logic processors for extraction and active mixers for matrixing the channels and dialog lift effects plus another amplifier for the rear wides). All speakers are PSB brand with identical drivers in 13 out of 17 speakers (T45 towers for main L/C/R, B15 bookshelves for front height, side surround, front and rear wides and S50 bipolars for side heights, all of which have the same woofers and tweeters; the towers have a second set of the same woofers) and newer versions of the same drivers in 4 of them (X1T towers in rear and CS500 on rear ceiling have newer clay-packed version of woofer and titanium instead of aluminum tweeters, but still sound very nearly the same). The sub is a DefTech PF-1500 15" 250W model I've had for over two decades and measures flat to 20Hz in the room. No speaker angle from one speaker to the next is greater than 40 degrees apart on the floor or more than 70 on the ceiling. The system is Audyssey XT32 corrected.

I thought Fast & The Furious had great sound in DTS:X (reference quality bed level, IMO), just not overhead much...but then it's a car movie. I haven't watched the later ones where they were parachuting cars from airplanes. Those ones might have better overhead effects in DTS:X.

But if you haven't heard a Harry Potter film in DTS:X (assuming you don't hate the series or something), they're pretty fantastic sounding (I moved the DTS:X tracks over to the 3D discs on the last two as well). The first movie has GREAT overhead effects from brooms flying to the flying keys later in the movie, etc. The second movie starts out near the beginning with a flying car that is all overhead; the third has a tree that attacks in every which way and flies right through you plus a clock tower that gongs right over your head. Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle didn't have tons of overhead effects but every time they died, it pinged directly overhead as their character started its next life and dropped in from the sky. Annihilation in Atmos has all kinds of freaky synth sound effects coming from all around in every direction.

Two of the WORST Atmos discs I've heard lately:

1> Murder on the Orient Express (I just watched the first 40 minutes and I don't think I heard any real surround effects AT ALL, let alone overhead ones (OK, the side surrounds were in use, but it was so pathetic you barely noticed them beyond reverb/atmosphere). Given the newer movie is awful compared to the 1970s version I don't know if I can stand to watch the rest to find out if it ever does any real surround work.

2> Labyrinth - 90% of the movie is the original surround track with little bits added here and there. There are a few action sequences where things improve (not necessary overhead, though), but it was a HUGE disappointment to me in I don't see the point in revising a movie to have Atmos if you're not going to use it. I suppose it's more of a marketing gimmick on those titles. The problem is the Atari 2600 died and caused the video game crash of 1983 precisely because there were SO MANY "crap" titles flooding the market that nobody even cared about the system anymore (I had moved on to the Intellivision and then the Colecovision, but the fact remains that entire technologies die due to poor use. It'd be hard to get someone excited about buying an already questionable Atmos "sound bar" when the movie has no overhead effects even on a high-end system.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Alright I finally finished Blade Runner 2049. Still watching the End Credits now because it still has plenty of overhead sounds.

I would definitely put BR2049 in the Atmos Reference List. Very active overhead sound throughout the movie.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

On to Alien Covenant Atmos.

So far about 21 minutes in, it is very underwhelming in regards to the overhead sound.

Even when the ship’s computer Mother speakers, I don’t hear it overhead. Disappointing.

Wow. I just heard some static interference noise overhead around 22 minutes.

I get the feeling I’m not going to be hearing much overhead sound. It’s now 30 minutes.

I’ve had enough. Signing off on this movie. Think I’m wasting my time.

Not on my list of recommended Atmos movies.

 

[VonMagnum]

Not everything is about overhead sound.... Atmos Objects can pan across up to 22 bed level speakers. Not all sounds using overheads are "100%" overhead either. I'm watching The Matrix Reloaded right now (taking a pitstop break) and it's not the most amazing Atmos soundtrack ever, but it's still pretty good so far. Some overhead things are more subtle than others (lights turning off for the night in Zion, etc.) and some like the ship moving in are kind of "everywhere" around you. I did find it a bit disappointing that bullet time bullets sounded more to the sides than overhead (it's like they turn the overhead volume down in many Atmos movies like it can't handle the sounds louder or some crap; that's where movies like the original Jumanji sound so much better because they are LOUD in the overheads. Even the end of The Dark Tower was great overhead and LOUD.

Sometimes I think Neural X is better than some of these Atmos mixes, though. I was watching The Orville and its mere 5.1 upmixed with Neural X is incredible in some of the episodes! Things are attacking the ship and you can clearly hear the shots hitting the ceiling overhead.

That reminds me...underwater. If you haven't seen The Meg with Atmos, it's GREAT! Loads of sounds overhead while they're underwater, etc.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

If you haven't seen The Meg with Atmos, it's GREAT! Loads of sounds overhead while they're underwater, etc.

I thought it had some pretty good overhead sound for the underwater scenes, but I wouldn’t call the movie great Atmos overall.

And yes, Atmos is “more than” overhead.

But since we’ve already heard great 5.1/7.1 “bed” surround sound for the past 20 years, the bed channels are nothing new. The non-Atmos BDs already have great bed sound effects.

 

[VonMagnum]

5.1 and 7.1 can't really handle multiple rows except with arrays and front wides are also quite nice. And no we have not had 7.1 for 20 years.... 5.1 maybe (although I wouldn't call most of it "great"). Really, just 6 years ago there was very little 7.1 content out there; it was on maybe 1 in 30 Blu-rays at that point (and still very even today compared to 5.1). Worse yet, you've got Atmos and even Auro versions coming out that then have only 5.1 on the regular Blu-Ray now (e.g. Venom 3D/2D has 5.1 except in Germany which will apaprently have Auro-3D on the 2D disc. Yet the 4K version has Atmos.... At least Disney puts 7.1 on their regular and 3D blu-rays (which upmix nicely with Neural X). It is definitely not a disc constraint in most cases. They could have put Atmos on the 2D disc. They didn't want to. They want you to buy the 4K disc at a higher price (more profit). It's sad.

Honestly, if you don't think The Meg had a good Atmos soundtrack, I don't know what you think DOES have one. Do you need the whole room spinning in the speakers like in Gravity (which Atmos combined with 3D made me almost want to vomit at times from the spinning) or Atmos is a waste of time? It IS supposed to be about the movie and what's going on, not just sound effects for sound effects sake. Not every scene in The Meg is action so yeah, not every scene has things shaking the ceiling.

Now a lot of Atmos movies are probably kind of pointless for those of us that want Atmos in a "big" way, but then that goes back to the 1990s belief that was given when stereo surrounds came out with 5.1 that surround sound is DISTRACTING from the movie itself and THAT is the primary reason (IMO) that many movies are not crazy aggressive with Atmos. Christopher Nolan won't even put 7.1 on his movies, let alone Atmos.... It's horrible. But his moves are "great" so nobody will stand up to him. It's got to be FILM too. Yeah, film grain is great in 2019....

It's like when we were waiting for Indiana Jones and Back to the Future. They were thinking of maximum money and were like when do we get to see our favorite movies in HD???? WHEN!?!?!? I'm still waiting to see True Lies come out on Blu-ray. WTF is it? I saw it on HBO in HD, so I know it was transferred to HD at least once. Now you can wait another 10 years for Back to the Future in 4K Ultra with Atmos or X (sigh)

 

[Danzilla31]

Alright I finally finished Blade Runner 2049. Still watching the End Credits now because it still has plenty of overhead sounds.

I would definitely put BR2049 in the Atmos Reference List. Very active overhead sound throughout the movie.

Hey so watcha think of BR2049? I thought it was a great movie but man I loved that soundtrack

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Hey so watcha think of BR2049? I thought it was a great movie but man I loved that soundtrack

I liked it a lot. My one and only complaint was the Rachael CGI. If they didn’t have that fake face scene, I would have considered BR2049 just about perfect.

So just minor complaint.