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

[panteragstk]

You can switch fairly easily between Neural X and Atmos, at least on a Marantz AVR. I was comparing scenes in Red Tails between various Auro-3D configs (extracted top middle, regular surround height and duplicated surround/rear height plus Neural X upmixing). With a remux 3D disc, I can swap Atmos and Auro-3D as well at the push of a button.

I can as well on my Denon. I think in later models Dolby restricts the use of their upmixer to only Dobly formats. I can use whatever I want since mine doesn't have that restriction.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Will be interesting if the bass changes on EOT or is the same. Some people have claimed the bass was mixed too hot by mistake.

I also believe the bass was stronger on the Master and Commander DVD than the Blu-ray.

Yes. The Blu Ray of M and C had a 30hz filter on it. I tried to demo it before I knew that and the results were not as intended lmao. So I tried the dvd and all was well. Gave away my BD to my brother who has a 30hz subwoofer.
I hate when they do that $hit.

 

[snakeeyes]

Yes. The Blu Ray of M and C had a 30hz filter on it. I tried to demo it before I knew that and the results were not as intended lmao. So I tried the dvd and all was well. Gave away my BD to my brother who has a 30hz subwoofer.
I hate when they do that $hit.

Will need to find my DVD or buy it again used on DVD. I need those canon fire scenes to sound right.

By the way, gotta love those battleship guns firing in Hacksaw Ridge too.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

By the way, gotta love those battleship guns firing in Hacksaw Ridge too.

Please lord, let me just get one more.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Will need to find my DVD or buy it again used on DVD. I need those canon fire scenes to sound right.

By the way, gotta love those battleship guns firing in Hacksaw Ridge too.

Yes indeed. Hacksaw ridge is excellent all the way around.

It sure the time stamp but here’s a couple screen caps of M and C.

Too lazy to look but John wick has some pretty satisfying bass too. That whole track is awesome actually. Someone above mentioned that atmos tracks have a tendency to remove the walls from your room. I agree with this, and also find that atmos tracks played back on my old 7.3 system exhibited superb imaging and wall less character. I bought equalizer 2 on UHD since it came with a BD also, and I am going to buy a new Sony x700 soon. Anyway even with the BD and DSU, it was awesome. The other thing is, my speakers disappear even more than ever. Unfortunately I haven’t spent nearly the amount of time I would have liked. Life has a way of taking priority. Winter is long however, and the coming weeks should give plenty of opportunities.

 

[VonMagnum]

I can as well on my Denon. I think in later models Dolby restricts the use of their upmixer to only Dobly formats. I can use whatever I want since mine doesn't have that restriction.

Mine is from 2017 (Marantz SR7012); I read the 2018 (current) models don't restrict upmixers yet either. The only restriction I've seen is DTS Virtual X doesn't work with Dolby sources (you can send it PCM, though I think). Thats' too bad, really as DTS Virtual X works unbelievably well, IMO (i.e. I told my AVR I had a 7.1 system and tried it out with various DTS:X titles and what not and even the DTS:X channel demo. It was unreal how close it sounded to the actual speakers in those locations (the channel test had some obvious bleed through but with real material you couldn't tell from the MLP). I've thought about getting a cheaper Virtual X AVR to use in my living room where I don't want speakers on the ceiling, etc., but the Dolby limitation sucks (you can get around everything but Atmos itself).

 

[panteragstk]

Yes indeed. Hacksaw ridge is excellent all the way around.

It sure the time stamp but here’s a couple screen caps of M and C.

Too lazy to look but John wick has some pretty satisfying bass too. That whole track is awesome actually. Someone above mentioned that atmos tracks have a tendency to remove the walls from your room. I agree with this, and also find that atmos tracks played back on my old 7.3 system exhibited superb imaging and wall less character. I bought equalizer 2 on UHD since it came with a BD also, and I am going to buy a new Sony x700 soon. Anyway even with the BD and DSU, it was awesome. The other thing is, my speakers disappear even more than ever. Unfortunately I haven’t spent nearly the amount of time I would have liked. Life has a way of taking priority. Winter is long however, and the coming weeks should give plenty of opportunities.

This is why I have the DVD and BD of this movie. Dumb.

 

[Bookmark]

As of I think, 1st Jan '19 anything coming out Denon/Marantz will, like Yamaha already, have the Dolby restrictions. I believe Denon/Marantz have been a little bit shy about the 2018 models fate, but I believe the 2017 xx12 models will be ok. I have seen nothing to indicate otherwise. What is happening with Pioneer and Onkyo, I don't really know, either they already comply or would have as of the 1st too.

 

[snakeeyes]

As of I think, 1st Jan '19 anything coming out Denon/Marantz will, like Yamaha already, have the Dolby restrictions. I believe Denon/Marantz have been a little bit shy about the 2018 models fate, but I believe the 2017 xx12 models will be ok. I have seen nothing to indicate otherwise. What is happening with Pioneer and Onkyo, I don't really know, either they already comply or would have as of the 1st too.

They seem to be creating this restriction now prior to HDMI2.1 and 8k and whatever next Dolby audio codec might be coming out.

 

[panteragstk]

They seem to be creating this restriction now prior to HDMI2.1 and 8k and whatever next Dolby audio codec might be coming out.

I doubt another Dolby Audio codec will come out for at least 5+ years. Could be wrong, but DD and TrueHD stuck around for a long time. DD much longer obviously, and it had updates along the way as well.

Not sure how they could make Atmos "better".

 

[snakeeyes]

I doubt another Dolby Audio codec will come out for at least 5+ years. Could be wrong, but DD and TrueHD stuck around for a long time. DD much longer obviously, and it had updates along the way as well.

Not sure how they could make Atmos "better".

Not sure about CATMOS in the floors but they have to keep innovating to stay ahead of DTS.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

This is why I have the DVD and BD of this movie. Dumb.

Maybe they'll remaster it with Atmos and get everything right.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Maybe they'll remaster it with Atmos and get everything right.

That wouldn’t hurt my feelings! I’ve actually moved it up higher on my list of test films. Interested to see how dsu and dtsu handle it. My old system used to convey a great deal of overhead sounds when the camera was below deck. Surely DSU has to be better!

 

[VonMagnum]

I doubt another Dolby Audio codec will come out for at least 5+ years. Could be wrong, but DD and TrueHD stuck around for a long time. DD much longer obviously, and it had updates along the way as well.

Not sure how they could make Atmos "better".

They could certainly make it more responsive to specific environments. Imagine giving the AVR your room layout and speaker locations and Atmos adapts to YOUR ROOM instead of you adapting to its predefined layouts. In other words, it's supposed to be a coordinate object based system, but it depends on KNOWN locations of speakers. That's really not much different in some respects from a channel-based system. It SHOULD have been able to map a path of the object in your specific room and pan accordingly as objects near your exact speaker locations (which IMO shouldn't have to be in the symmetrical locations predefined by Dolby as not all rooms can really conform perfectly (something might be in the way like a half bath or some big piece of furniture that's impractical to move or whatever). Unfortunately, Atmos is pretty much limited to the pre-defined layouts provided. "Objects" should be capable of adapting much better than that, IMO.

 

[panteragstk]

They could certainly make it more responsive to specific environments. Imagine giving the AVR your room layout and speaker locations and Atmos adapts to YOUR ROOM instead of you adapting to its predefined layouts. In other words, it's supposed to be a coordinate object based system, but it depends on KNOWN locations of speakers. That's really not much different in some respects from a channel-based system. It SHOULD have been able to map a path of the object in your specific room and pan accordingly as objects near your exact speaker locations (which IMO shouldn't have to be in the symmetrical locations predefined by Dolby as not all rooms can really conform perfectly (something might be in the way like a half bath or some big piece of furniture that's impractical to move or whatever). Unfortunately, Atmos is pretty much limited to the pre-defined layouts provided. "Objects" should be capable of adapting much better than that, IMO.

Agreed. Funny enough, DTS-X supposedly does exactly that. Agnostic to speaker layout.

 

[panteragstk]

Maybe they'll remaster it with Atmos and get everything right.

This and the Lord of the rings. I've read they've got a filter on LFE as well.

 

[VonMagnum]

Agreed. Funny enough, DTS-X supposedly does exactly that. Agnostic to speaker layout.

Not exactly. It still doesn't let you just stick a speaker just anywhere you can fit it in the room. It just means it can use both Atmos and Auro-3D layouts.

 

[panteragstk]

Not exactly. It still doesn't let you just stick a speaker just anywhere you can fit it in the room. It just means it can use both Atmos and Auro-3D layouts.

Right, but that's not really how they advertise it until you dig deeper. Then it says it can use "typical speaker layouts" which would be the Auro and Atmos layouts.

Doesn't Auto piggyback off DTS-MA anyway?

 

[VonMagnum]

Right, but that's not really how they advertise it until you dig deeper. Then it says it can use "typical speaker layouts" which would be the Auto and Atmos layouts.

Doesn't Auto piggyback off DTS-MA anyway?

I assume you mean "Auro" not "Auto". Yes, all titles except Red Tails are encoded in a DTS-MA wrapper. Red Tails is pure PCM encoded (which makes it not work with KODI unfortunately as apparently KODI doesn't passthrough PCM perfectly by itself) so I have to play that one off the disc. But Auro has said that it can also be wrapped in Dolby TrueHD as well (it just hasn't so far that I know of) as well as just be presented in its true form of PCM with metadata like Red Tails.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

“Hunter Killer” in Atmos - This is definitely Atmos Reference Demo material IMO.

A lot of overhead action. Tremendous spatial Atmos imaging underwater. Every time they are underwater, it feels like I’m underwater with them.

Overhead intercom voices and water leaking overhead.

Of course, there’s plenty of submarines and torpedoes going overhead underwater, and jets, helicopters, bullets, and nuclear missiles flying overhead frequently too.

The firepower overhead is awesome.

Very active Atmos sound mix.

I also saw the non-Atmos Dolby TrueHD version with DSU upmix. It was pretty good, but it was absolutely nothing compared to the Atmos version.