The BEST Streamer for Music and Movies is the New X-Box

[Trebdp83]

Yeah, it was a bit much and I do feel I owe @witchdoctor an apology for the hijacking of the thread. I also feel Dolby and Microsuck, um, soft, owe us all a f#%kin' apology for the Dolby Almost, um, Atmos implementation. F#%kers!

 

[witchdoctor]

Yeah, it was a bit much and I do feel I owe @witchdoctor an apology for the hijacking of the thread. I also feel Dolby and Microsuck, um, soft, owe us all a f#%kin' apology for the Dolby Almost, um, Atmos implementation. F#%kers!

Everything you posted was good info, I think anyone looking at X-Box will be aware of the pros and cons, all good.

 

[panteragstk]

I think I was a bit harsh on the XBOX Series S and its music streaming services. There are more there than I gave it credit. I was surprised that it did not have its own Tidal app as it is available on many platforms. I would like to have seen Qobuz and Apple Music as well. While the Tidal app is available on many devices, Tidal's Dolby Atmos support is limited to a few devices. If I want to play Dolby Atmos tracks from Tidal, I cannot use the LG C1's Tidal app or Onkyo's Tidal app. I have to use the Apple TV 4K. I was also able to use the Nvidia Shield Pro when I had it as well. Some Amazon Fire devices also support Tidal's Dolby Atmos tracks. Any device that does not support Tidal's Dolby Atmos tracks will not even display them as such and will play a two channel version.

I'm not sure about the DSU up mixer from just a few years ago but I'd be willing to bet it has received a few tweaks in new devices compared to some from just a few years ago. Cross up mixing restrictions have certainly changed in just a few years. I didn't find the DSU up mixer was any better in the XBOX over my Onkyo receiver. But, results will vary widely based on age and brand of processors and receivers and the speaker configurations and their actual placement. I'm still curious about the Dolby Surround label of up mixed signals from the XBOX on my receiver display but it does help to identify real Atmos tracks from those up mixed by the XBOX if I leave it on for games. DTS has changed a bit over the years as well with Neo:X replacing Neo:6. Neural:X has replaced Neo:X and is now in play and Virtual:X can be applied to it in certain processors and receivers for virtualization of height speakers as is done with Dolby Atmos Height Virtualization when no real height speakers are present.

For me, the ONLY thing my Shield TV doesn't do is multichannel audio from files (flac, wav, dsf, etc.)*. Lucky for me Plex FINALLY released a PC client that works perfectly with all those types, except DSF. Doesn't bother me though on the DSF front.

With Nvidia adding the ability to match framerate on the video side and sample/bitrate on the audio side, I only have ONE thing that I need to use my HTPC for.

*The Shield will do multichannel audio from those file types, except DSF, BUT it's not 100% solid and I have to use Kodi which crashes often when playing multichannel audio.

 

[Mr._Clark]

Yeah, it was a bit much and I do feel I owe @witchdoctor an apology for the hijacking of the thread. I also feel Dolby and Microsuck, um, soft, owe us all a f#%kin' apology for the Dolby Almost, um, Atmos implementation. F#%kers!

It really didn't seem like it was a over the top or anything to me. Everything you posted was a legitimate gripe.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming. . . .

 

[Trebdp83]

Why are my ears burning?

 

[Kleinst]

Hi All,

My son took his XBOX to his room and now I'm left with a Firestick 4k. I don't do PLEX, I stream normal apps like HBO, Netflix, Hulu, etc.

Want best sound quality possible (video too).

Is Apple 4K the best option? Should I wait as another might be coming out?

Also, relating to XBOX, perhaps I didn't have the best settings but I found the xbox put out a audio signal that was porbably about 6-7 DBs louder than my Firestick and perhaps the sound was colored a bit. Not saying it was bad, I liked it. But wondered if others have found that to be the case with xbox

Welcome your advice.

 

[Trebdp83]

Hard to say why it might have been louder as it would have depended on the audio output settings in the XBOX and the receiver connected to it.