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

[William Lemmerhirt]

Yeah, when I “judge” an Atmos movie, my ears tune in very specifically to those 4 overhead ceiling speakers.

If a car goes overhead on the movie screen, I want to hear those ceiling speakers roar. If water pours down from above, I want to hear that water pour like a waterfall.

Fury Road for TrueHD definitely gets grade A. But for Atmos, since I couldn’t hear significant discrete overhead sounds, gets 2 thumbs down. Nothing stood out for. I recall some voices overhead, but can’t seem to recall much else.

So I don’t trust some of these reviews. Maybe they heard sounds from height speakers, since I don’t have any height speakers? Maybe their ceiling speakers aren’t on 14FT ceiling?

Oh, I hope they have Tron Legacy in Atmos.

FWIW I’m afraid that 14’ height is hurt your experience. I saw that film in atmos and I thought it was awesome.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I saw “Shoplifters” from Amazon Prime using NeuralX.

Heavy rain scene- heard rain from ceiling.

Fireworks (auditory only) scene - heard fireworks from ceiling

NeuralX is great.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

FWIW I’m afraid that 14’ height is hurt your experience. I saw that film in atmos and I thought it was awesome.

Probably.

I can hear the overhead sounds extremely clearly, distinctly, and easily on movies like Pacific Rim, Cliffhanger, Blade Runner 2049, Sully, Cloverfield Paradox, Matrix trilogy, Harry Potter franchise, Equalizer, Hunter Killer, El Royale, Underworld franchise, Snow White, and all the Atmos demo trailers.

But I can’t easily hear the overhead sounds on some movies like Fury Road and San Andreas.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Love that movie.

Yeah, it was easy to re-watch Fury Road.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I just finished re-watching “Allegiant” in Atmos.

I definitely heard a lot more overhead sounds than Fury Road.

I don’t think “Allegiant” is among the best Atmos mixes, but definitely thumbs up from me.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Probably.

I can hear the overhead sounds extremely clearly, distinctly, and easily on movies like Pacific Rim, Cliffhanger, Blade Runner 2049, Sully, Cloverfield Paradox, Matrix trilogy, Harry Potter franchise, Equalizer, Hunter Killer, El Royale, Underworld franchise, Snow White, and all the Atmos demo trailers.

But I can’t easily hear the overhead sounds on some movies like Fury Road and San Andreas.

I find that interesting. Any ideas?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I find that interesting. Any ideas?

Maybe for the movies that I could easily hear the overhead sounds, the sound mixers lowered the volume of the bed speakers a little and boosted the volume of overhead speakers during those scenes.

But there's really no telling.

For example, I heard plenty of overhead sound effects on "Snow White and the Huntsman" DTSX.

But VonMagnum did not hear as much overhead sound effects on this same movie.

Different distances and locations of ceiling speakers.

I doubt it, but perhaps different processors? Is it possible that Atmos and DTSX in Yamaha is slightly different than Marantz/Denon? My gut tells me they should be the same. Atmos is Atmos and DTSX is DTSX, right?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

List of Atmos/DTSX movies (so far) that FAILED my OVERHEAD Sound Test (even though they still sound awesome for TrueHD and DTS-HDMA and I may love the movies).

San Andreas
Alien Covenant
Ant-Man and the Wasp
American Assassin
Ghost in the Shell
King Arthur
Mad Max Fury Road
John Wick Franchise
Sicario Franchise
Bourne Franchise
Jurassic Franchise

 

[Phase 2]

Your Mad Max Fury Road, is it a 4K disk? Or where you streaming?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Your Mad Max Fury Road, is it a 4K disk? Or where you streaming?

All these movies are from BluRay Discs, not from Amazon Prime, Netflix or other WEB-streaming services.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Maybe for the movies that I could easily hear the overhead sounds, the sound mixers lowered the volume of the bed speakers a little and boosted the volume of overhead speakers during those scenes.

But there's really no telling.

For example, I heard plenty of overhead sound effects on "Snow White and the Huntsman" DTSX.

But VonMagnum did not hear as much overhead sound effects on this same movie.

Different distances and locations of ceiling speakers.

I doubt it, but perhaps different processors? Is it possible that Atmos and DTSX in Yamaha is slightly different than Marantz/Denon? My gut tells me they should be the same. Atmos is Atmos and DTSX is DTSX, right?

I think VM has height locations and not tops. I’m sure that would contribute a great deal to differences in observations.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I think VM has height locations and not tops. I’m sure that would contribute a great deal to differences in observations.

Yeah, we all have different setups. Even if we all have ceiling speakers, it would still be different because of the different locations and distances.

So we all have different perceptions/impressions/observations of the Atmos overhead sound effects.

But there are a few movies where we ALL have awesome Atmos impressions (although different) - Pacific Rim and Blade Runner 2049 are two.

 

[VonMagnum]

I think I get a lot of "high wall/corner" versus "overhead" due to my side heights being at the room boundaries. This would happen with ceiling speakers in a wide room too if you sit in the middle. Atmos movies often put sounds "at the speaker" overhead and so if you have them space together on the ceiling, they come from that location overhead. If they're spread out further or on the side walls, you can interpret them as coming from the high walls instead (visually 'looking' around the room). I've noticed if I listen to some parts with my eyes closed it seems very different because I'm not looking at where the walls are and thus I don't necessarily think "high on the side wall" if I'm not looking at a wall where the sound is coming from.

 

[VonMagnum]

I just watched THE SHADOW (1994). It's only 5.1 but it has CRAZY surround effects. With Neural X, his voice was bouncing off every corner of the room and the ceiling too. Cheesy as hell (very comic book like though; REAL comic books not that this modern Marvel 'serious' stuff),but damn it was some good cheese! Penelope Ann Miller was just scrumptious looking. I went and bought The Freshman so I can see some more of her.

 

[VonMagnum]

I watched Mad Max: Fury Road in 3D + Atmos. 3D was good. Movie was meh. Atmos was so-so. I did hear sounds overhead when the truck would fly over the camera, etc., lots of voices and music and occasional sound effects. I don't think it was bad as it was made out to be for overheads, but OTOH, I watched Venom 3D with 5.1 + Neural X and it had a LOT of stuff overhead (I've noticed Neural X puts music overhead quite a bit). Venom was entertaining. The 3D was good, contrary to what some wrote on the bluray forums.

 

[YC305]

Help Please. I have an Apple TV 4k connected to a Denon AVR-S720W receiver and I can play Dolby Atmos with no problems I see the receiver displaying ATMOS in the front, however, when I play blurays that have Atmos the receiver screen shows TrueHD and not ATMOS, why is this happening? The player I'm using is LG UBK90.Thanks

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I watched Mad Max: Fury Road.... Atmos was so-so. I did hear sounds overhead when the truck would fly over the camera, etc., lots of voices and music and occasional sound effects...

Seems like you could probably hear more overhead sounds than I could.

For me, I could mainly hear mostly voices, music, and "occasional sound effects".

I would agree with the "So-so" Atmos effects overall.

Last night we saw "Leave No Trace" in DTS-HDMA upmixed with NeuralX. I (subjectively) felt like I heard more overhead sounds in this movie than in Mad Max Fury Road. There were a couple of overhead Helicopter scenes that sounded like a real helicopter was hovering on my ceiling. There were plenty of water/rain/thunder sounds from the ceiling. A lot of wind/tree/animal sounds from the ceiling. Also music overhead.

Another example of how NeuralX can make non-Atmos and non-DTSX movies sound better than some Atmos and DSTX movies.

So again, even if some Atmos/DTSX movies only seem so-so/mediocre, NeuralX can make your DTS/DD sound great.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

BTW, I accidentally did a firmware update yesterday on my Yamaha CX-A5100. I was playing around with MusicCast on my Samsung S9+ phone. Next thing I knew, it did a firmware update.

I think I can still use NeuralX on Dolby contents. I should double check today.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Help Please. I have an Apple TV 4k connected to a Denon AVR-S720W receiver and I can play Dolby Atmos with no problems I see the receiver displaying ATMOS in the front, however, when I play blurays that have Atmos the receiver screen shows TrueHD and not ATMOS, why is this happening? The player I'm using is LG UBK90.Thanks

So we know that your Receiver's Setting is correct.

This means the Setting in your LG BD player needs to be changed. See if there is an Atmos setting that needs to be turned on.

 

[VonMagnum]

Watched Minions 3D in Atmos.... OMG what a stupid movie (I kept falling asleep). The sound wasn't very good either. I watched Charlie Brown afterwards and at least it was watchable (the 3D version had 7.1, but the Red Baron, etc. flew overhead with Neural X anyway).