Dolby Atmos

[june]

hello all,

what do you think about this new surround format?

http://www.dolby.com/us/en/professional/technology/cinema/dolby-atmos.html

[madmac]

I'm skeptical. I'd have to hear it and judge it obviously. Most movie theaters today sound horrible to me to be honest. My surround setup blows away all of them right here at home!!. But.....I'm all for sound improvements and development. If it's better then good....It's better!!! :-)

[John Holmes]

If it truly adds to the enjoyment of a film, great! I guess as with all things, time will tell.

[Chris D]

I have mixed feelings, mostly positive though. Good that we finally are getting things with solutions for ceiling speakers. These will greatly help with flyovers and to raise the soundfield up and over the viewer. Also, I'll definitely give Dolby a chance. They did an AMAZING job with DPL IIx, and I still use it constantly. I do hope they make another great solution.

That being said, on the negative side, I have to wonder if this is another industry ploy to just go for more and more channels, which means new products, more cables, more speakers, etc. More speakers doesn't necessarily translate into a quantifiably better experience.

[madmac]

I have mixed feelings, mostly positive though. Good that we finally are getting things with solutions for ceiling speakers. These will greatly help with flyovers and to raise the soundfield up and over the viewer. Also, I'll definitely give Dolby a chance. They did an AMAZING job with DPL IIx, and I still use it constantly. I do hope they make another great solution.

That being said, on the negative side, I have to wonder if this is another industry ploy to just go for more and more channels, which means new products, more cables, more speakers, etc. More speakers doesn't necessarily translate into a quantifiably better experience.

Agreed about the 'more speakers' statement!! :roll:

[Chris D]

Reviving an old thread. By now, all of us have certainly heard Atmos in theaters, whether you realize you were listening to it or not.

Atmos is now in the home, though. You have GOT to listen to a proper Atmos setup to really appreciate what it can do. Best Buy Magnolia gives demos, but reports are that they are improperly setup and VERY mediocre. (I had the same experience, even though it was the same demo that I saw at CEDIA 2014, which was great)

I just got Atmos in my own home, although I have yet to add the top speakers for full setup.

[Ovation]

Actually I've yet to see a movie at an Atmos equipped cinema, so I'm in no position to judge. However, I do know for certain there will be no Atmos in my current cinema room at home. I have a drop ceiling--no good for in-ceiling speakers and no good for reflecting signals from top firing speakers. I have ZERO interest in swapping out my drop ceiling for a sealed enclosure. I'm afraid I'm going to have to let the Atmos revolution pass me by.

[Hdale85]

We have no Atmos theaters around here unfortunately.

[Chris D]

DTS:X announcement has reportedly been delayed, but still should be out in next few weeks. Then we'll have a complete picture of what new object based audio looks like for HT.

[Hdale85]

But, ATMOS is already object based audio for the HT?

[Ovation]

As is AURO (or AURA or something) 3D. There's never only one audio codec--if there were, how could we have the obligatory DTS sounds better than Dolby Digital, lather, rinse, repeat kind of arguments? Whaddya want--take all the fun out of dis hobby? @#$@#$ :lol:

[Hdale85]

Was just saying it kind of sounded like Chris was saying ATMOS wasn't fully object oriented and DTS-X or whatever would be. But maybe it's just me reading it wrong lol.

[Chris D]

I mean that for the last 18 or whatever years, the audio side of the HT market has been pretty much made up by the two halves of Dolby and DTS. Dolby released their 3D object-based codec of Atmos. Once DTS:X is released, we'll know the complete picture of this chapter in HT audio. Sadly, it doesn't look like Auro 3D is going anywhere.

[TEK]

I watched Star Wars VII yesterday. In 3D and Atmos.
I would say that Atmos added quite a bit to the sound stage in that setting.
But... that was a quite large movie hall.

Adding speakers to the roof of my home theater... I'm not sure. The speakers will be quite close to the seating position.
Probably should have 4 to get the wanted effect. For me that would be quite archivable. Would probably run the cables either trough the hdmi-cable channel or in channels in the corners. As I have a system roof there are room for the cables on top of it.

But... there are very few movies out there with Atmos. Heck, there are very few movies out there with 7.1 sound (wich I have). So for now - and probably many years to come, I see little value in investing in all the equipment needed to support Atmos. The same still goes for 4k.
Quite big investments are needed but there are very little source material out there.

I'm not sure objectivly seen, but subjectivly I think that both the 5.1 surround format as well as the HD format (1080p) had a totally different drive at the source side than 4k and the new surround formats.

[madmac]

I'm with you Tek !! While I'm sure that Dolby Atmos is a better, more immersive surround format, I'm quite happy and impressed at my current 5.2 surround sound and 1080P viewing experiences.

4K is like putting the chariot before the horse since there is very little program content in that native format. However, I watched a number of Blu rays this week that were indeed recorded in Atmos. Even in standard Dolby Digital on my legacy Rotel receiver, they sounded better than any other DD presentation I've heard!!

[Chris D]

I tell you what, Atmos is ABSOLUTELY worth it. I don't even have the ceiling speakers installed, and just listening to object based audio, even without the ceilings, is much tighter and cleaner of a sound. AND... Atmos comes with "Dolby Surround", which is a processing that you can apply to ANY source, to get it in full surround of whatever speakers you have in your setup. And it's far from a gimmick, it works very well, makes all your material sound noticeably better and cleaner.

[madmac]

I tell you what, Atmos is ABSOLUTELY worth it. I don't even have the ceiling speakers installed, and just listening to object based audio, even without the ceilings, is much tighter and cleaner of a sound. AND... Atmos comes with "Dolby Surround", which is a processing that you can apply to ANY source, to get it in full surround of whatever speakers you have in your setup. And it's far from a gimmick, it works very well, makes all your material sound noticeably better and cleaner.

Agreed !!