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

[William Lemmerhirt]

“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 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.

Nice! I saw that this has awesome bass too! Is the atmos track only on uhd?

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

You guys know if dish network has any atmos support? Quick search found nothing...

 

[Bookmark]

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

That looks nicely crazy, think this goes on the list, come the end of the month. Always love a good sub movie, looks up there with the U571, still probably the best for depth charge scene.

35sec in is hysterical

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Nice! I saw that this has awesome bass too! Is the atmos track only on uhd?

No, the Atmos track is with the 1080p version also.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Hunter-Killer-Blu-ray/225403/

Hopefully we will see more and more BDs with Atmos for both 2K and 4K versions.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

You guys know if dish network has any atmos support? Quick search found nothing...

I have not heard of any reports of DISH having Atmos contents.

I have heard some people say that DIrect TV has some Atmos contents, but I have not seen for myself.

I hear we need a 4K receiver (with additional monthly fees for 4K) to get Atmos. But I am hearing complaints of Volume changing on its own. So some bugs there.

Is your DISH receiver 4K?

My DTV receiver is only 1080p.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

No, the Atmos track is with the 1080p version also.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Hunter-Killer-Blu-ray/225403/

Hopefully we will see more and more BDs with Atmos for both 2K and 4K versions.

Excellent! I am looking forward to this one!

I know I’m not alone in my frustration, but damn it dries my a$$ that they only include the atmos track on some 4K titles. There are some on 2k, but it seems like when I want to watch one, it’s not...

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I have not heard of any reports of DISH having Atmos contents.

I have heard some people say that DIrect TV has some Atmos contents, but I have not seen for myself.

I hear we need a 4K receiver (with additional monthly fees for 4K) to get Atmos. But I am hearing complaints of Volume changing on its own. So some bugs there.

Is your DISH receiver 4K?

My DTV receiver is only 1080p.

I have a hopper3 which is 4K, but my joeys are not. My display is only 1080, but I was hoping to do just like a uhd player and use the atmos track while outputting 1080. I’m going to dig a little deeper!

 

[VonMagnum]

An HDFury Vertex will let you watch 4K streams, etc. from any service and convert it to 1080p while they think you have 4K. I've been thinking of getting one myself to use with Vudu and Prime (AppleTV 4K will play Atmos on Netflix and iTunes in 1080p without one).

 

[panteragstk]

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.

Thanks, fixed my post.

Didn't know it would piggyback on more than one codec. Interesting.

 

[Bookmark]

The Grudge (2004), based on the J Horror series Ju-on, still directed by Takashi Shimizu, for those interested this makes a very nice up mix. Of particular interest are the patter of tiny feet across the overheads.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I bet Bohemian Rhapsody BD in Atmos will sound great - the 3D sound atmosphere of the music, especially during final Live-Aid Concert scenes with Queen.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I bet Bohemian Rhapsody BD in Atmos will sound great - the 3D sound atmosphere of the music, especially during final Live-Aid Concert scenes with Queen.

I also saw that it has some pretty deep bass too!

I’m looking forward to that film.

 

[VonMagnum]

I'm again finding many non-Atmos titles sound as good or better than actual Atmos content in many cases when upmixed with Neural X. I just watched "The Hole" (2009) in 3D and it only had 5.1, but there were so many scenes were things were banging on the ceiling and what not and unlike Atmos where many soundtracks put things only "directly' overhead (for some reason panning between front, middle and rear is less common than I thought it would be), Neural X follows no such logic. Sounds will appear anywhere on the ceiling or sound like the whole thing is being stomped on or hit with fire in The Orville or whatever. I'm not sure why so many Atmos tracks avoid "big ceiling" sound. They seem to go for the side height area (which to me is ironic since that's not a speaker location for Atmos normally) instead of directly overhead whereas Red Tails in Auro-3D and Crimson Peak and Harry Potter in DTS:X put sounds anywhere and everywhere by comparison.

SOME Atmos soundtracks do better, of course, but I've been disappointed by a lot of them. Batman Vs. Superman (which I just watched in 3D with Atmos) did have a lot of overhead sounds, but the movie was slow to get moving (first half seemed to reference things visually that I had no idea what was going on; I think it must have been from the prior Superman movie or something...very poorly explained and the guy that plays Lex was terrible in the part, IMO).

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I'm again finding many non-Atmos titles sound as good or better than actual Atmos content in many cases when upmixed with Neural X. I just watched "The Hole" (2009) in 3D and it only had 5.1, but there were so many scenes were things were banging on the ceiling and what not and unlike Atmos where many soundtracks put things only "directly' overhead (for some reason panning between front, middle and rear is less common than I thought it would be),Neural X follows no such logic. Sounds will appear anywhere on the ceiling or sound like the whole thing is being stomped on or hit with fire in The Orville or whatever. I'm not sure why so many Atmos tracks avoid "big ceiling" sound. They seem to go for the side height area (which to me is ironic since that's not a speaker location for Atmos normally) instead of directly overhead whereas Red Tails in Auro-3D and Crimson Peak and Harry Potter in DTS:X put sounds anywhere and everywhere by comparison.

SOME Atmos soundtracks do better, of course, but I've been disappointed by a lot of them. Batman Vs. Superman (which I just watched in 3D with Atmos) did have a lot of overhead sounds, but the movie was slow to get moving (first half seemed to reference things visually that I had no idea what was going on; I think it must have been from the prior Superman movie or something...very poorly explained and the guy that plays Lex was terrible in the part, IMO).

Did you ever come up with an updated list of all your favorite (active overhead sound) Atmos, DTSX list?

I still have not re-watched Batman v Superman in Atmos, among so many Atmos and DTSX movies.

And yes, I continue to love DSU and NeuralX. Even the Super Bowl sounded better in DSU.

 

[VonMagnum]

I've got a long way to go before coming up with another list, I think. Besides, it's like when I used to review CDs many years ago, content and quality are two different things. I might like a movie or song, but not care for the quality or imaging or whatever. Ultimately, I decided liking the music was more important than the actual sound quality, even though it's nice to have both.

The Hole was a pretty good "horror" movie, though (more thinking than horror and for such a weird thing as a hole to hell or whatever, they actually did a good job the 3D quality was pretty good for the most part with lots of "pop out" effects.

I'm still waiting to find out if the German release of Venom will include Auro-3D on at least the 2D disc...one more week to go.

 

[Bookmark]

Since AcuDef's last suggestion Sully worked so well, I am tonight giving Bad Times at the El Royale a shot. Also on the menu are Venom and Final Score. I don't have much hope Mr Baurista's outing, although the premise sounds remarkably similar to Van Damme's Sudden Death (1990) which has, the alas departed, excellent Powers Boothe as the baddie. Worth a watch for those that haven't seen it.

None of these unfortunately have an Atmos/Dts:X so it is an up mix once again. Last night we watched the under rated Deep Impact (1998) and lord helmet Tracy (1990). Deep impact suffered badly in the shade of Armageddon, but it's more realistic take and timescale are probably the real reasons it suffers. Still sounded pretty good and Frodo gets the girl.

lord helmet Tracy has a host problems, but an incredible cast, even Madonna is not completely useless. The sound is also surprisingly good, especially the gun fights. The follow article gives a nice insight for those interested. Personally I like the highly stylized cartoon look with stark colors, nowadays of course it would be a green screen CGI fest.

https://www.vox.com/2015/6/17/8790397/lord helmet-tracy-movie-25

 

[Bookmark]

Lord helmet. LOL.... Autocorrect filtering at its best. Richard.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Since AcuDef's last suggestion Sully worked so well, I am tonight giving Bad Times at the El Royale a shot. Also on the menu are Venom...

None of these unfortunately have an Atmos/Dts:X so it is an up mix once again.

Sully, El Royale, and Venom do not have Atmos release in UK?

I thought both Sully and El Royale had more overhead sound than Venom (which does have some OH sound, but just not as many) in Atmos.

So maybe NeuralX will do a better job on Venom.

Try "The Cloverfield Paradox" in DSU or NeuralX.

I watched a little bit of Cloverfield Paradox in Atmos. Very strong bass for sure. And I think plenty of overhead sound effects for Atmos.

I don't know if I love the weird story/plot, but the Atmos sound of "Paradox" is pretty great.

I haven't finished watching "Paradox" yet, but so far I think this might be another Atmos demo disc.

Did I mention VERY STRONG BASS?

"Cloverfield Paradox" is another 1080p/Atmos release (instead of making people buy the 4K release for Atmos). So hopefully the trend continues where Atmos will be part of every version of the blu-ray.

Blu-ray review gave "Paradox" a 5/5 for both 1080p Video and Atmos Sound.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Cloverfield-Paradox-Blu-ray/170821/

 

[Bookmark]

Sully has it on Bluray, yet to get a copy of it. However not alas Venom or El Royale. And the Venom is Sony, not Disney, but then neither did Blade Runner 2048 so probably no surprise. We will see how they sound on the up mix, but I think we may just have to start considering 4k for some of these going forward.

Never really liked the original Cloverfield and 2nd is something different but the Paradox is on Netflix so we can maybe give a go.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Never really liked the original Cloverfield and 2nd is something different but the Paradox is on Netflix so we can maybe give a go.

I hated Cloverfield-1.

I thought Cloverfield-2 was better, but still didn't really like it.

I thought Cloverfield-3 was much better than CF-1 and CF-2.

Okay, I actually liked CF-3.