5 Reasons Dolby Atmos May Be DOA

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Wasn’t that catmos ?

If they ever do Catmos, I'm ready for it. Bring it on.

 

[Auditor55]

The ONLY way to get good Atmos/DTSX experience is to be able to easily hear those sounds from the CEILING and have good soundtracks that will make use of those ceiling speakers.

But even without the best soundtracks, we can still use NeuralX.

That is the secret weapon. And Atmos is backward-compatible. So that's why Atmos will live. Most people don't even need to use Atmos for it to live.

If you don't have Atmos, you can still listen to TrueHD. No sweat.

Wait. Didn't we already talk about this?

Based upon your above stated criteria on to properly experience Atmos in the home is essentially the problem with Atmos, which is the reason why Dolby introduced the ill fated Dolby Enabled speakers.

DTS observed that flaw with Dolby Atmos in the and introduced their own immersive audio format, DTS-X, which was supposed to be speaker agnostic, which it isn't. In fact no one really knows how to set up a home DTS-X setup because they don't provide any literature with guidelines and recommendations.

 

[Auditor55]

I understand the very good points made by those who aren't convinced in atmos

However......

After having atmos setups in 2 different homes now all that matters is I'm convinced for me

Both setups were superb and had amazing sound

The new theater room is just simply friggin awesome tho It Chapter 2 the other day I had this one scene where the head on the screen was crawling all over my ceiling the side walls behind me and then can rushing at me screaming from the front it was amazingly immersive and just friggin awesome

Hell I love vampire shows and really like the Netflix VWars so far that isn't even full atmos my anthem just upmixes it to all the speakers and it SOUNDS phenomenal

Sounds going on all around beside behind you above you just matching the action on the screen just really super cool

Sicario day of the Soldado the other day was just superb with overhead effects with the coptors and stuff there was one scene in particular where they lift off and fly above you before heading left the sound started from the ground moved up the screen went over my head and off to the left behind and it sounded so friggin authentic just awesome

So atmos may die but you know what when done right it sounds friggin awesome so until it does I'm riding it all the way until it finally craps out!!!!!

I don't know why people keep bringing up how awesome Atmos sound as if that's being disputed. Heck, if done right, two channel stereo sounds awesome and one easily and practically implement it in the home.

 

[Auditor55]

Let's not compare Commercial In-ceiling speakers vs those little upward-firing Atmos-modules or enabled speakers?

Compare In-ceiling HOME Atmos vs commercial Atmos. Then come back here and tell us about it.

The in ceiling speakers is a way of trying to practically duplicate the commercial cinema in the home.

 

[VonMagnum]

Based upon your above stated criteria on to properly experience Atmos in the home is essentially the problem with Atmos, which is the reason why Dolby introduced the ill fated Dolby Enabled speakers.

DTS observed that flaw with Dolby Atmos in the and introduced their own immersive audio format, DTS-X, which was supposed to be speaker agnostic, which it isn't. In fact no one really knows how to set up a home DTS-X setup because they don't provide any literature with guidelines and recommendations.

It's actually "layout agnostic" in the sense that it advertises to and does work with Auro-3D and Dolby Atmos layouts. In other words, I can select "surround height" and "top surround" on my Marantz 7012 (and if you have the Denon 8500 you can select "center height" as well) and DTS:X will make use of them (via Neural X). The other two formats don't support their different speakers, only DTS:X, which is what they were talking about. I don't think anyone implied you'll be able to put 6 speakers in a straight line on the left wall and 5 speakers in the basement and the AVR will somehow magically make it sound like a proper 7.1.4 evenly distributed setup.

I do think they could have made a system (with enough CPU power) to tell it where your speakers are in the room and it could pan to those speakers based on a rectangular layout as it comes near them in the coordinate grid. Of course, if you put all your speakers in a line on one wall, it might pan beautifully down that wall, but you'd get NO sound on the right side, above etc. Such a system could only make use of your speakers as the sound object is close to them. It wouldn't be able to correct for utterly stupid layouts. But it could perhaps do something with speakers at mid-heights (due to placement issues in the room) or one speaker offset from the other by panning at the correct amounts for those distances and heights. This would be better than nothing. Unfortunately, no such system exists as far as I know. Trinnov might have some options, but it's damn expensive even if it does.

 

[Danzilla31]

I don't know why people keep bringing up how awesome Atmos sound as if that's being disputed. Heck, if done right, two channel stereo sounds awesome and one easily and practically implement it in the home.

Just putting in my 2 cents lol. For the record I think you and others makevsime very good points

For me sounding awesome is a good point to make tho it's why we invest in this in the first place

As you correctly pointed out from 2 channel on up

I agree with you that people have to hear it to want it and then have to overcome the learning curve expenses and the extra install plus spouse acceptance factor and many other factors to go for it

That is going to be too big a hurdle for many

But really like I said I didn't care I enjoyed it so much I'm in it for the amount of time it may have left

Besides with careful planning my system sounds great with 5 channels or 7 going so if atmos totally poops out I'll just keep on jamming and use all 11 speakers for multichannel stereo for music which sounds awesome to me for some crazy reason

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Just putting in my 2 cents lol. For the record I think you and others makevsime very good points

For me sounding awesome is a good point to make tho it's why we invest in this in the first place

As you correctly pointed out from 2 channel on up

I agree with you that people have to hear it to want it and then have to overcome the learning curve expenses and the extra install plus spouse acceptance factor and many other factors to go for it

That is going to be too big a hurdle for many

But really like I said I didn't care I enjoyed it so much I'm in it for the amount of time it may have left

Besides with careful planning my system sounds great with 5 channels or 7 going so if atmos totally poops out I'll just keep on jamming and use all 11 speakers for multichannel stereo for music which sounds awesome to me for some crazy reason

Don’t worry danno. Even if someone installed a state of the art Atmos system in his home, he’d find a pile of reasons to piss and moan about it.

 

[Auditor55]

Don’t worry danno. Even if someone installed a state of the art Atmos system in his home, he’d find a pile of reasons to piss and moan about it.

You seem mighty intolerant of anyone that would dare to offer criticism of Dolby Atmos home.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

You seem mighty intolerant of anyone that would dare to offer criticism of Dolby Atmos home.

No. Just you.

 

[ParisB]

People without Atmos setup = It's not viable, it sucks, it's overrated, it's dead.

People with Atmos setups = Buys many UHDs with Atmos and enjoys the quality immersive experience.

 

[Darenwh]

I have no doubt it will survive. Simple reason is marketing. Even if people don't set it up right, don't bother with mounting ceiling speakers, don't bother with even changing the settings in their AVR and/or BR player/streamer to match they will still want it to say they have it. For this reason soundbars will have it, some TV's will eventually have speakers to simulate it, the different flavors of speakers (true ceiling mount, wall mount, bouncy, etc...) will be available, and people will want it because of marketing. You know Bose will have a setup for it (if they don't already) and everybody who would buy Bose will want the latest and greatest even if they mount all the speakers across the top of their TV cabinet or on a shelf over the TV.

That said, for those who set it up right it will make for a greater experience than just 3 channel, 5 channel, 7 channel, etc...

Marketing alone will keep it valid. Expect it to be around a long time.

 

[snakeeyes]

So as far as Catmos.....You’re saying there’s a chance?... LOL

 

[VonMagnum]

Catmos? I keep picturing a certain kind of NC-17 or X-rated movie with moaning sounds coming from all over the room. Hmmmmm. I've got this idea for such a movie in space in Zero-G gravity. I'll call it, "Zero-G Love" after the song of the same name from the Macross Japanese animated movie from 1984 (Super Dimensional Space Fortress Macross - Do You Remember Love). It actually had a Zero-G makeout scene too.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

So as far as Catmos.....You’re saying there’s a chance?... LOL

Are you talking about andy black cat? He used to talk about that. And his cat...

 

[VonMagnum]

Are you talking about andy black cat? He used to talk about that. And his cat...

I thought it was a reference to Dumb & Dumber....

"I'd say more like one in a million."

"So you're telling me there's a chance!"

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I thought it was a reference to Dumb & Dumber....

"I'd say more like one in a million."

"So you're telling me there's a chance!"

I think he was talking about a former member. Andy Black cat. He would talk about Catmos. He was always experimenting with speakers and placements etc. however, he was very colorful and easily agitated. So he got booted. A few times...

 

[snakeeyes]

Speakers in the floor (to match those in the ceiling) was what he called CATMOS. LOL

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Speakers in the floor (to match those in the ceiling) was what he called CATMOS. LOL

I miss his near field BD reviews. Right in the litter box. Lmao.....

 

[snakeeyes]

I miss his near field BD reviews. Right in the litter box. Lmao.....

Yep He’s a character.

Maybe if we say CATMOS enough times, he will reappear like Candyman or Betelgeuse.

 

[keepr88]

I have a pretty modest atmos setup...some paradigm LCR, subs and surrounds with 4 in cieling RSLs in a 5.2.4 with a marantz receiver. Anyone that's ever listened to an atmos movie with me has always commented on how crazy good it sounds and how the effects move around without any knowledge of atmos or me telling them about how it works. They were just there to watch a movie. To me that says enough. I've never listened to anyone elses atmos system I wish more of my friends were as enthusiastic about home theater as I am but I suspect atmos is thriving if a system as simple as mine can make an average person stop and comment positively about the experience.