I have heard cases where the Atmos mix is superior to the orignal lossless audio. For example, Star Trek Into Darkness UHD has an Atmos mix that sounds better than the original BD on my 5.1 system. In the opening scene, the spears wooshing has a better transition friom front-to-back.
My take-away an Atmos track can be better on a non-atmos system because of the care and effort that goes into scenes where sound moves in the room.
Atmos/DTS-X 3D audio in not going away because unlike it is backward compatible and does not harm users with 5.1/7.1 audio. There is no need to buy a special copy at higher price and glasses.
When 3D video did not make the transistion to streaming, it was over.
3D audio on the other hand is starting to show up on Netflx. Even Apple, will (finally) be supporting DD+ (required for Atmos).
- Rich
Apple, like practically every other streaming service, already supports dd+. 3D video probably failed because it's inconvenient, a actually is a gimmick, unlike Atmos. Lastly, an Atmos track cannot sound better in 5.1. Atmos won't render unless you have a minimum of 7 channels, and the AVR supports it. A quick run down on how it works for home theater:
Atmos mixes on blu-ray are mixed down via truehd to 7.1 mix, during the encoding process, the Atmos encoder creates a 7.1 rendering of the objects in their relative position without the overhead speakers, a 5.1/2ch downmix of that, and a completely lossless Bitstream of the objects, including positional Metadata. For home theater purposes, the original bed channels are converted to objects with a "snap to nearest speaker" flag, not only is this more efficient since the renderer groups objects of similar spectral content and position, but it makes reversing the down mixing process simple and completely lossless. There is no 7.1 mix when played back via an Atmos capable AVR, just a losslessly decoded object mix.
Without an Atmos AVR, you're only hearing a 5.1 down mix. What you could be hearing, is most re-released UHD blu-rays that did not originally release in Atmos have been completely remixed for Atmos from the original stems. Obviously, this will turn out differently than the original mix, but it isn't Atmos.
One of the reasons I find Atmos/DTS:X so incredibly powerful is not just because I love the immersion so much (and some tracks are indeed superior to others), but I also love it due to its insane flexibility. The track tells your receiver where it needs the sound to come from within a 3 dimensional space, and your receiver does the heavy lifting of figuring out how to do that, utilizing your current setup. Whether you have a simply 5.1.2 system, a full blown Trinnov Altitude32, or anything in between, these object-based formats will make your theater shine and take advantage of whatever you have.
Personally, I have become a true believer. There's no going back. Haha.
I'm of the same opinion. It does this even without Atmos encoded content, via upmixers.
Mostly because it's impractical for most HT enthusiasts to set up, that is you see A/V receivers coming with applications like DTS X virtual.
Yes, software support is seriously lacking for for immersive audio formats. It appears as though some studios have decided to release movie with immersive audio encoding only on the UHD Blu Ray format which is stupid, they will kill it themselves.
I agree, but uhd only releases are limited to a few studios or uhd rereleases. A large portion of new releases are Atmos encoded, and it's becoming the norm more and more as time goes on. I still don't get why it's so impractical to implement, plenty of people mount surround speakers to their wall, why is mounting front height, on the side walls near the ceiling, or actually mounting them ON vs in the ceiling any more impractical? Bounce speakers also work to a certain degree, even if not as good as overhead speakers.
