Where do you go to get high quality audio in movies?

[Bobby Bass]

I still buy 4K movies and stream through my Panasonic player connected to my main music system for concert movies or the Samsung soundbar that came with the TV For movies and TV. Good deals on discs new and used online.

 

[gnorthern]

Netflix tends to compress the hell out of soundtracks but maybe that's just me.

I don't think they are bad but I pay extra for high resolution.

 

[dolynick]

Most streaming service Atmos comes down as 768 kb/s (Rings of power was the highest I've noted at 960 kb/s) for all 6 channels. A UHD Atmos or DTS-X track is typically more on the order of 4500 kb/s fof the 6 channels. The streams are definitely not a lossless track.

Like MP3 and other lossy codecs elsewhere, it's probably good enough for the average user who's happy to play it through their TV speakers or perhaps a modest soundbar. Even on a decent system, you probably won't notice too much out of order unless you're listening critically or have a lossless source to compare too. I personally go lossless whenever possible because I went to the cost and trouble to build a decent system - Why feed it compromised material instead of trying to get the most out of it?

If you do want a full lossless audio track, the only legal options that I'm aware of currently are to buy the UHD, or something like Kaleidescope. Both are pretty effective at punishing your wallet if you want full quality. Still, I will be quite sad when physical media goes and the compressed streams are the only common source left.

 

[gene]

Kaleidescape Introduces $2K Strato M Movie Player, But There’s A Catch

At $2K, the new Kaleidescape Strato M Movie Player is the brand’s least expensive device that can act as a standalone player or be part of a multi-zone Kaleidescape system but not in 4K resolution!

www.audioholics.com

 

[isolar8001]

Kaleidescape Introduces $2K Strato M Movie Player, But There’s A Catch

At $2K, the new Kaleidescape Strato M Movie Player is the brand’s least expensive device that can act as a standalone player or be part of a multi-zone Kaleidescape system but not in 4K resolution!

www.audioholics.com

I agree with Kaleidescape that downscaled 4K to 2K can look extremely good.
And, a machine that can do this on the fly is one hell of a powerful little machine !

I've been experimenting with this myself on my new PC with Intel CPU/GPU, that is an encoding beast.
I take a 4K remux and downscale it to 2K with the x265 10bit Intel QSV codec.
I sometimes use filters if needed/wanted. (I do all this in VidCoder)
Using around a 30mb bitrate (thats real high for 2K in x265) takes about 20 minutes for a two hour movie.
My old PC would have taken two days to do this !

Playing these files back on my Dune HD player yields fantastic results ! (and saves a lot of drive space)