The Dolby Atmos Home Theater Paradox

[DD66000]

Yes but the industry needs to sell new and more!

And there is the problem...anyone who is in the audio supply chain, making their living selling audio, will never tell the truth about how to properly setup a system...As they want the customer to have a system that is always lacking...so they will buy the latest fad.

But the smart people who know how to get the max from a system do not need to go there. I never will.

 

[TheWarrior]

And there is the problem...anyone who is in the audio supply chain, making their living selling audio, will never tell the truth about how to properly setup a system...As they want the customer to have a system that is always lacking...so they will buy the latest fad.

But the smart people who know how to get the max from a system do not need to go there. I never will.

Thats nonsense, regarding the audio supply chain. And not, what you are saying, but the concept that people selling audio need to always have a product with that 'new car smell' to ever make sales.

I may not be qualified to make this statement, but that has got to be the laziest sales job on the planet. You aren't willing to go to a clients house and even take a few simple measurements, both physical and audio, and give them a tiered set of options for how much they want to spend?

You CAN actually sell more by educating your customer! Thats how you build TRUST! And then you'll see a sales increase just by word of mouth about the quality and care of your hands on approach!

I hadn't looked at this thread because I despise even 7 channel setups. Its just unneccessary unless you have an auditorium sized room. But oh man am I getting a good laugh out of this, and even the fact that way back in April, Gene and Hugo had to make a video about it!

People will defend to death their right to freely piss away their money on a cloud of hope.

Maaaaattt Daaammun!

 

[DD66000]

that's interesting

What I wrote above is my take on the audio industry...others can come to their own conclusions.
But the facts are, I have seen so many systems setup half assed, and not just in people's homes, but in HT/Audio shops. And listening to these setups...its obvious to me what I am NOT hearing.
A full soundstage, that is wide, deep, high. Hearing the instruments right where they should be.

 

[DD66000]

Thats nonsense, regarding the audio supply chain. And not, what you are saying, but the concept that people selling audio need to always have a product with that 'new car smell' to ever make sales.

I may not be qualified to make this statement, but that has got to be the laziest sales job on the planet. You aren't willing to go to a clients house and even take a few simple measurements, both physical and audio, and give them a tiered set of options for how much they want to spend?

You CAN actually sell more by educating your customer! Thats how you build TRUST! And then you'll see a sales increase just by word of mouth about the quality and care of your hands on approach!

People will defend to death their right to freely piss away their money on a cloud of hope.

Maaaaattt Daaammun!

And there are two sides to a coin.
One side the people selling are not telling their customers the proper how to's.
The other side might very well be they do not have a clue themselves. So then they can not give the proper info.

Either way, it results in really bad sound systems.
And when it comes to setting up a system, some rooms are a very easy task, others take a lot of trial/error to get it right.
I have personally experienced both ends of that stick.

 

[TheWarrior]

And there are two sides to a coin.
One side the people selling are not telling their customers the proper how to's.
The other side might very well be they do not have a clue themselves. So then they can not give the proper info.

Absolutely! I am just not as nice as you. A bad sales person is just exactly that! And not like there's ever going to be a certification program for audio sales people, like contractors, ie. Probably should be considering the amount of money that can be extorted from a fool, but, 'Merica!

 

[DD66000]

It also comes down to thinking "outside the box"...instead of going along with what others consider the proper way, just b/c those "others" are considered to be "audio experts."

 

[TheWarrior]

It also comes down to thinking "outside the box"...instead of going along with what others consider the proper way, just b/c those "others" are considered to be "audio experts."

Its like the time I sat through a Bose presentation, and then they took those big dummy speaker boxes off the wall...

 

[DD66000]

Its like the time I sat through a Bose presentation, and then they took those big dummy speaker boxes off the wall...

Just the thought of sitting through a Bose presentation, turns my stomach. lol

 

[Paul Fenlon]

Is it better to have 5.1.4 or 7.1.2

 

[TheWarrior]

I prefer 2.1.1.2

...and the meek shall inherit the earth

 

[Steve81]

Looks like Klipsch is entering the Atmos-Enabled speaker market:
http://www.klipsch.com/dolby-atmos-speakers

 

[shadyJ]

Looks like Klipsch is entering the Atmos-Enabled speaker market:
http://www.klipsch.com/dolby-atmos-speakers

*groan*

 

[andyblackcat]

*groan*

Entering for near-field and enough of these near-field re-mixes. FAR FIELD mixes should be handed out to us by all the studios for FREE since we have been spending out £20.00 here and there every time for same title.

 

[Grassy]

I prefer 2.1.1.2

...and the meek shall inherit the earth

Neil, is that you? Test for echo,Test for echo

 

[vinnyb]

No, as I noted in my article, Blu-ray is limited to 8 discrete channels. They will have to either matrix the extra channels or use some sort of compressive algorithm which I'm not sure would be compatible with existing Blu-ray players.

I believe Dolby Atmos is a channel less system and instead an object based system. The Dolby Atmos (or for that matter DTS-X) encoded content is presented to the AV receiver which then decides based on the object meta data where in the 360 degree space to place the sound in. So a Dolby Atmos system can scale all the way from 5 channels to 128 channels without the content being encoded/mixed for each channel format.

 

[RichB]

Dolby Atmos is a mixed system with channel beds in the traditional positions and objects that can be placed. Mapping objects in home-Atmos is to the fixed layouts supported by the PrePro.

Channel beds are essentially channels, the notion that it is completely object based was marketing fluff.

Also, when asked during an interview how many channels were supported on home Atmos, Craig Eggers (of Dolby) stated no channels are lost. For me, that was a hold onto your wallet moment

- Rich

 

[vinnyb]

Dolby Atmos is a mixed system with channel beds in the traditional positions and objects that can be placed. Mapping objects in home-Atmos is to the fixed layouts supported by the PrePro.

Channel beds are essentially channels, the notion that it is completely object based was marketing fluff.

Also, when asked during an interview how many channels were supported on home Atmos, Craig Eggers (of Dolby) stated no channels are lost. For me, that was a hold onto your wallet moment

- Rich

Rich, that's a different perspective you have there. With all the markerting stuff I was believing Atmos is purely an object based system. How about DTS-X? Is it the same? Do you happen know of any article/documentation that can throw more light on the subject?

 

[RichB]

Rich, that's a different perspective you have there. With all the markerting stuff I was believing Atmos is purely an object based system. How about DTS-X? Is it the same? Do you happen know of any article/documentation that can throw more light on the subject?

DTS:X is similar in layout but the final feature set has not been published.

Here is a good place to start:

http://www.audioholics.com/audio-technologies/dolby-atmos-home-theater-101

I have not found definitive information about the Home-Atmos number of objects supported or, whether this is platform/processing power dependent.

From this article:

http://hometheaterreview.com/dolby-atmos-at-home-the-known-knowns-and-the-known-unknowns/?page=2

For now, that looks to be the limit to the amount of channels that receiver manufacturers are willing to cram into one chassis, but it's not the theoretical limit of Atmos' home capabilities. In a new blog post, Dolby Director of Sound Research Brett Crockett reveals that the home version of Atmos is capable of handling up to 24 speakers on the floor and 10 overhead, and that one of Dolby's hardware partners is indeed planning to release a 32-channel AV receiver at some point

Here we read about speakers supported and not objects.

It has been posted that DTS:X support 12 objects in addition to the beds. But, it has not been released...

For me, that is not very important anyway. Either you are going for the full Monty with overhead channels or not. With the exception of up-mixing, you are going to get a limited amount of sound mixed there. Many folks seem to like the up-mixers that make use of their height channels.

- Rich

 

[Rickroll]

I think it's a good idea for the industry to get more money from people that have to have the newest stuff always. 5.1 or 7.1 is very sufficient for most soundtracks and I think it will be like the 3D tv and never really take off strong. It will just linger in my opinion. Also, budget will have to be huge to upgrade and add to the system. If you upgrade to 4K tv, upgrade receiver, 4K blu-ray when available, and atmos speakers, then your looking at big money. Set up awesome 5-7.1 system and still can blow the doors off the room and have unbelievable realism. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[Steve81]

And then there was the Atmos soundbar:
http://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio-visual/digital-sound-projector/ysp-5600_u/?mode=model

I just know Gene will be excited about this news.