Apple TV 4K, and bitstream

[KiterSuperFly]

Complain to Apple on their Apple TV feedback page!
Just venting, but I’m still really pissed that Apple TV 4K doesn’t support bitstream pass-through. This means stuff on my Plex server in TrueHD Atmos 7.1, DTS-X, etc. Are all stripped of their height metadata. Honestly, I’d be happy if they just allowed apps to down convert the audio to Dolby digital+ with MAT 2.0 for the height information.
It really is the best streaming box, for everything else at least… just not using with Plex, or anything else that would want to send lossless Atmos content.

 

[TLS Guy]

Complain to Apple on their Apple TV feedback page!
Just venting, but I’m still really pissed that Apple TV 4K doesn’t support bitstream pass-through. This means stuff on my Plex server in TrueHD Atmos 7.1, DTS-X, etc. Are all stripped of their height metadata. Honestly, I’d be happy if they just allowed apps to down convert the audio to Dolby digital+ with MAT 2.0 for the height information.
It really is the best streaming box, for everything else at least… just not using with Plex, or anything else that would want to send lossless Atmos content.

At present Dolby Labs do not allow for lossless Atmos streaming. This is to prevent clogging and slowing down the Internet. So the only way to get truly lossless Atmos requires a disc.

In addition Dolby labs specify that an Atmos stream that has audio above -18 LUFS has to be taken down. That is actually the EBU standard now for all audio WAVs. Most do not adhere to the rule. It is a much lower level than streams we are used to. I was upset about it, at first, but I have confirmed it results in better quality Wav. files. So I now normalize my Wav. files to EBU spec. EBU is European Broadcasting Union. AES have now gone in line with this.

The downside is that equipment needs superior signal to noise ratio.

 

[KiterSuperFly]

That is interesting information. Yes, there always is more to the story.
Having said that, at the end of the day, and as a user without deep technical knowledge, my experience is such that I am trying to stream from my Plex server and I’m not getting Atmos. The Nvidia shield can do it, but I don’t want to buy another streaming box just for one individual source. The Apple is better for all the commercial streaming services and is a very user-friendly interface. I’d prefer to just keep the one.

 

[TLS Guy]

That is interesting information. Yes, there always is more to the story.
Having said that, at the end of the day, and as a user without deep technical knowledge, my experience is such that I am trying to stream from my Plex server and I’m not getting Atmos. The Nvidia shield can do it, but I don’t want to buy another streaming box just for one individual source. The Apple is better for all the commercial streaming services and is a very user-friendly interface. I’d prefer to just keep the one.

As you have found out, Apple TV does not support decoding Atmos by pass through to another device.

As far as I'm concerned Apple TV is a bust and I would never use it.

I personally use HTPCs for streaming, but I use the App on my LG TV that supports the BPO app, and that is really the only Atmos Stream that I grab. Windows does not support Atmos from some sites, but it does some.

So for Atmos I just use disc and the BPO app. I think the number of good Atmos streams are far and few between.

I have a pretty severe antipathy to those stand alone streamers and don't use any. So I can grab a lot of streams that no streamer could grab.

I use a DIY HTPC built round a gamer board for my HTPC room.

In our great room I had an Intel Nook for the last few years, and swapped it for this Beelink Unit to get ready for the end of Windows 11 a couple of weeks ago.

That unit is superb value and far more use than any streamer.

It comes loaded with Windows 12 making it even better value. Better hurry though, as Trump will make them unavailable if he already has.

 

[Trebdp83]

That is interesting information. Yes, there always is more to the story.
Having said that, at the end of the day, and as a user without deep technical knowledge, my experience is such that I am trying to stream from my Plex server and I’m not getting Atmos. The Nvidia shield can do it, but I don’t want to buy another streaming box just for one individual source. The Apple is better for all the commercial streaming services and is a very user-friendly interface. I’d prefer to just keep the one.

The Apple TV 4K decodes all incoming signals and outputs LPCM by default. It supports PCM, DD and Atmos/DD+ signals but not Atmos/DTHD or any flavor of DTS. Those signals will have to be output as LPCM from the source and any metadata will be lost. So, even if the Apple TV 4K could bitstream signals, it would only bitstream those supported signals.

The Apple TV 4K and Nvidia Shield TV Pro each have their advantages over the other. I use both of them frequently myself these days. I would not say the Apple TV 4K is better concerning most commercial streaming services and the Nvidia Shield TV Pro betters it a bit in picture quality concerning the best Dolby Vision streams.