Dolby Atmos coming soon for home use

[Ray_Rogers]

Since I use my self-built computer to watch Blu-rays, does this mean there'll be another version of ArcSoft Total Media Theatre?

[BozQ]

Originally Posted by Ray_Rogers

Since I use my self-built computer to watch Blu-rays, does this mean there'll be another version of ArcSoft Total Media Theatre?

Do you intend to watch Blu-rays beyond 7.1 with Dolby Atmos?

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by Ray_Rogers

Since I use my self-built computer to watch Blu-rays, does this mean there'll be another version of ArcSoft Total Media Theatre?

Can it bitstream Dolby TrueHD through the HDMI connection?

If yes, then there is no need for an update. It's just like a hardware player in that regard. Atmos must be bitstreamed to an Atmos capable receiver or pre-amp.

[bigshot]

My point was that it is hard enough to get a seamless left to right and front to back handoff between channels with 5:1. I can't imagine how hard it will be to properly balance 9:1:4 to create a unified sound field. No matter how big or small the room is, that is going to be a very delicate balance.

[Brian81]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

Wide dispersal monopoles that are timbre matched to your other speakers. Dolby is supposed to be coming out with a recommended design for speaker manufacturers to follow for the on-ceiling surrounds.

Timbre matching and monopole are the name of the game with these new audio formats.

So for those of us that have identical speakers all around the board... will I have to mount large, heavy bookshelf speakers in the ceiling? They'd certainly not be flush with the ceiling, and either screwed to the joists or have some kind of locking mechanism/cage to house them.


I'm interested in trying to pull this one off, but I'm not so sure I want to start mixing speakers that aren't from the same line, and I'm not looking to replace a complete matched set that I am satisfied with.

[Brian81]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

Brett Crockett of Dolby Labs has just replied with a new blog post to answer some of our concerns.

Current consumer Atmos can accommodate up to 24 front and surround speakers plus 10 on-ceiling speakers. There are products planned that will output the full array of speaker locations.

http://blog.dolby.com/2014/06/dolby-...ions-answered/

Oh wow...just saw this posting. I currently have two sets of 5.1 (different locations), so I can do 11.2 no problem. Don't think I could pull this one off...34 speakers? This can't possibly be for larger speakers in the home environment...unless you have a personal gymnasium. Is the name of the game to buy many small speakers instead?

[Poya]

Is there a receiver that does both Atmos AND Auro 3D?

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by Poya

Is there a receiver that does both Atmos AND Auro 3D?

Not at this time. Most of the current ISP chips are maxed just with Atmos.

[Poya]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

Not at this time. Most of the current ISP chips are maxed just with Atmos.

That sucks. It'd be nice to have both options. Plus, IMO, Auro is better than Atmos. It provides more of a surrounding experience while Atmos just adds more speakers around you and tons of overhead speakers instead of adding wide range height speakers. Am I alone on this?

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by Brian81

So for those of us that have identical speakers all around the board... will I have to mount large, heavy bookshelf speakers in the ceiling? They'd certainly not be flush with the ceiling, and either screwed to the joists or have some kind of locking mechanism/cage to house them.


I'm interested in trying to pull this one off, but I'm not so sure I want to start mixing speakers that aren't from the same line, and I'm not looking to replace a complete matched set that I am satisfied with.

No. Lighter overhead channel speakers can be used. However, since this is such a new format the speaker manufacturers haven't had time to design new consumer oriented, object friendly speaker models. We really just have to bide our time and wait. Companies like Klipsch, JBL, and others that do pro level cinema speakers already have them designed and manufactured. It just hasn't trickled down to the consumer market yet.

At CE Week one of the demos supposedly used proof-of-concept Triad speaker models that were Atmos ready.

[Poya]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

No. Lighter overhead channel speakers can be used. However, since this is such a new format the speaker manufacturers haven't had time to design new consumer oriented, object friendly speaker models. We really just have to bide our time and wait. Companies that do pro level speakers already have them designed. It just hasn't trickled down to the consumer market yet.

At CE Week one of the demos supposedly used proof-of-concept Triad speaker models that were Atmos ready.

I don't recommend the Atmos ready ones. They don't provide an accurate representation of the system; only a simulation. Just get real speakers for the ceiling, center ones would work.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by Poya

I don't recommend the Atmos ready ones. They don't provide an accurate representation of the system; only a simulation. Just get real speakers for the ceiling, center ones would work.

That was just one type of all-in-one solution. Dolby is helping companies build other designs for proper theater setups.

They have to take commercial theater speakers made for Atmos and tailor them for the consumer and enthusiast markets. It takes time.

Current speakers for the ceiling may not have the dispersal pattern recommended for object based surround. It's different. Just look at the Dolby Atmos white papers.

[Poya]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

That was just one type of all-in-one solution. Dolby is helping companies build other designs for proper theater setups.

They have to take commercial theater speakers made for Atmos and tailor them for the consumer and enthusiast markets. It takes time.

Current speakers for the ceiling may not have the dispersal pattern recommended for object based surround. It's different. Just look at the Dolby white papers.

But these Atmos ready speakers aren't unlike a sound bar that simulate a surround sound experience. It may seem like surround but it isn't authentic. How hard is it to make in-ceiling speakers to be ready for Atmos?

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by yellowcakeuf6

Datasat (DTS) has already equipped their cinema and home processors with Auro-3D w/ at least 11.1 channel capability.

yeah, but they also released processors and two (count 'em two) blu-ray discs in NEO-X 11.1 sound and look where and what's happened since... nothing.

wake me up when they rerelease 'Gravity' closing mirroring the fantastic Atmos mix or at least 7.1

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by Poya

But these Atmos ready speakers aren't unlike a sound bar that simulate a surround sound experience. It may seem like surround but it isn't authentic. How hard is it to make in-ceiling speakers to be ready for Atmos?

I'm talking about Atmos friendly commercial designs that have to be shrunk and modified to home theater use, not the sonically compromised Pioneer and Onkyo Atmos speakers aimed at the lay consumer.

It's not hard to do, it just hasn't happened yet. Some in the industry were caught completely off guard by home Atmos. They weren't paying attention.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

yeah, but they also released processors and two (count 'em two) blu-ray discs in NEO-X 11.1 sound and look where and what's happened since... nothing.

wake me up when they rerelease 'Gravity' closing mirroring the fantastic Atmos mix or at least 7.1

Auro3D is DOA as far as I'm concerned. They're even switching over to object based rendering with DTS MDA for the cinema using the Auro speaker layout. Oh, the occasional Lionsgate film might have a disc with it included. But I think, for the most part it will be Atmos or possibly DTS-UHD. DTS and Auro's backer, Barco, are partners, so they may back off and allow DTS-UHD some wiggle room.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Poya

That sucks. It'd be nice to have both options. Plus, IMO, Auro is better than Atmos. It provides more of a surrounding experience while Atmos just adds more speakers around you and tons of overhead speakers instead of adding wide range height speakers. Am I alone on this?

Yes.


Atmos is a discrete object based system, Auro is matrixed and that is a step backwards to the old Dolby Pro-Logic days.


Another forum has had people compare the experience with the same exact film in each format and Atmos pretty much comes out on top every time.


Auro will probably be like SDDS as far as home use goes.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

Yes.


Atmos is a discrete object based system, Auro is matrixed and that is a step backwards to the old Dolby Pro-Logic days.


Another forum has had people compare the experience with the same exact film in each format and Atmos pretty much comes out on top every time.


Auro will probably be like SDDS as far as home use goes.

As in non existent?

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

Yes.


Atmos is a discrete object based system, Auro is matrixed and that is a step backwards to the old Dolby Pro-Logic days.


Another forum has had people compare the experience with the same exact film in each format and Atmos pretty much comes out on top every time.


Auro will probably be like SDDS as far as home use goes.

granted I've only seen/heard two films in Auro - 'Mr. Peabody' and 'How to Train Your Dragon 2' - neither of them impressed me - I honestly don't get how Auro can negate the 7.1 configurement and not use rear center channels of sound.

since SDDS has been mentioned - I'm surprised Dolby hasn't enacted a request for mixers to encode films with the five front channels with discrete sound sourcing, since it's mentioned in Dolby literature that adding a Left Center and Right center speakers is recommended for these newer larger (and wider screens) where filing in the missing gaps is key to panning sound more effectively. This is actually also integrated into standard DCI compliant audio processing - adding the additional channels and [hint, hint] archiving pre-1979 70mm/6-track (and 8-channel SDDS) films that used five front sound would be most ideal.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by Poya

That sucks. It'd be nice to have both options. Plus, IMO, Auro is better than Atmos. It provides more of a surrounding experience while Atmos just adds more speakers around you and tons of overhead speakers instead of adding wide range height speakers. Am I alone on this?

Auro is not better than Atmos because Auro just adds more channels. It's not object oriented and therefore, it still uses the old model of sending audio to channels, not to locations. When Dolby did its research for the theatrical market, it decided that just adding a few more channels wasn't enough of a benefit.

As part of the calibration process (and I assume that this will need to be included with any Dolby Atmos home receiver), you run test tones so that the Atmos processor understands where the speaker locations are. Then, in live time, when it "sees" an audio object, it sends it to the speaker location closest to where it's intended. This is why theaters can implement Atmos with a variety of speaker configurations. The more speakers you have, the more accurate and distinct the location. Having said that, if your room is relatively small and the speakers are spaced closely together, I don't believe it's going to provide much distinction.

Unless you have a very strangely shaped room, you can't have a wide that's wider than the surrounds or the overhead channels, so I don't see the point of the wide channels - they were really just matrixed gimmicks for those people who wanted "more" channels. While in 11.1, they're not matrixed, they're not quite as effective. As just one example, from what I've read, people who saw Gravity in both IMAX and Atmos preferred the audio on the Atmos version.

Having said all that and even though I really like Atmos theatrically, with the possible exception of those Wall Street bonus babies who have a $million home theatre, there aren't actually that many consumers who even have 5.1 in the home, never mind 7.1, 9.1, 11.1 or the up to 64 channels that Atmos can provide in the theatre (I'm still unclear as to how many channels Atmos can provide in the home). Most consumers, if they have anything at all besides the TV's own speakers, have a sound bar. IMO, this is going to be a very limited market.

One other note: once you start adding lots of additional speakers, it's not going to be very practical if they have to be hardwired. If Atmos and systems like it are going to succeed beyond the Pioneer implementation (of simply adding upward facing speakers to the tops of the front and rear speakers), I believe the system has to move to wireless active speakers for all the extra channels.

Eventually there probably will be chips that handle both Atmos and Auro and you'll be able to choose. It looks to me like the 2014 implementations have been rushed (especially since they won't be available until the end of the year). I think 2015 will be a better year to start looking at these systems. Meanwhile, there's no content yet anyway.