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The official Dolby Atmos thread (home theater version) – Check out post 1 first

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#1 · (Edited)
Last update: 02.04.2023



Official Dolby Atmos at home website

Dolby on Atmos for the home
Dolby Atmos Speaker Setup
Ceiling-firing speakers ("Atmos-enabled speakers")
http://www.dolby.com/us/en/technologies/dolby-atmos/dolby-atmos-enabled-speaker-technology.pdf
Speaker installation guidelines
http://www.dolby.com/us/en/technolo...tmos-home-theater-installation-guidelines.pdf
If you're more the visual type of guy here's a good video explaining the basics of placing your Atmos speakers:

Insights from a recording and mixing engineer


Technical specification for studios wishing to employ a 7.1.4 home entertainment Dolby Atmos monitoring setup
Dolby Atmos Home Entertainment Studio
Certification Guide


Blog posts
Dolby Atmos: Coming soon to a living room near you - Lab Notes
Dolby Atmos for home theaters: FAQ - Lab Notes


Dolby Patent Application
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/WO2014036085A1.html


Dolby on Atmos for movie theaters
Wayback Machine

Specifications for movie theaters
Wayback Machine


How Atmos content is created
Wayback Machine


How Atmos is encoded into TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus
https://professional.dolby.com/site...on/dolby-atmos/dolby_atmos_renderer_guide.pdf


avsforum.com Members Atmos & Auro Configuration Spreadsheet (at Google Docs, maintained by user kokishin)


Atmos test tone downloads (E-AC-3 audio in .mp4 container)
https://www.dolby.com/us/en/guide/test-tones.html

Other Dolby trailer downloads
 
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#3,002 ·
Hi Kris,

This is good news because I like Secrets and the people there.

By the way, I notice that under your name (username) on the left, where it says;
Location: The Pacific
Northwet


Where is that?
I live on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. I always call the Washington/Oregon area the Pacific Northwet instead of Northwest because of the rain.
 
#3,004 ·
I live on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. I always call the Washington/Oregon area the Pacific Northwet instead of Northwest because of the rain.
I love it! I could not take this, lived there for two years and bailed out to sunny pastures, I am solar powered :)
 
#3,005 · (Edited)
Hey, has anyone seen this article?

http://www.highdefdigest.com/blog/dolby-atmos-secret-bluray/


This would be awesome if true. And the beauty from what I understand is, it won't have to be in a preset 5.1.4, 7.1.2, etc. The processor knows the room and speakers, and delivers the best it can with what it has, real time encoding for YOUR setup. So I wonder what kind of microphone array the Atmos receivers will have for room calibration?
You still have to have a layout that is close to their various recommended speaker/sub placement charts... up to 34. Even cinema Atmos renderers are not that sophisticated. We'll know more once Dolby releases their white paper on the at-home Atmos format.

Again, it would be nice if true about stealth Atmos discs already in the wild. But then the studio brass would have to be a lot smarter than they appear to be.
 
#3,006 ·
The author uses the recent re-release of How To Train Your Dragon, which replaces the original 5.1 track with a TrueHD 7.1 track, to suggest a stealth Atmos release. "Why would the studio bother to do this?" He conveniently leaves out that the previous track was also TrueHD (so it's not like the studio switched form DTS-HA MA to TrueHD) and that the TrueHD 7.1 track had already been released with the 3D version a few years ago (so it's not like the studio had to create a brand new mix, they already had it in 2011).
 
#3,008 ·
TLOTR Trilogy EE ??
It depends on if Warner Brothers is waiting on DTS-UHD to release object surround tracks. If Dolby has a big announcement and there are no WB discs listed, then one can start speculating if perhaps they've been in talks with DTS instead.

I think it will also depend on how much Peter Jackson and Co. want to spice up the Lord of the Rings for any subsequent video re-releases and if they have to do any upgrades out of pocket or if Warner Brothers would spring for an audio overhaul and other upgrades
 
#3,009 ·
Remember, don't think in those terms (7.1.4). It's more like Dolby Atmos 34 output surround.
I know, you're right. ...Dolby TrueHD 7.1 surround, with Atmos.

Dan said:
If the Trinnov speaker layout schematic is accurate for their Altitude32 processor, it's possibly breaking down as:

Front: 5 screen speakers (Left/Left Center/Center/Right Center/Right)
Left wall: 5 speaker array
Right wall: 5 speaker array
Rear wall: 5 speaker array
Overheads: 10 speaker array (in left and right pairs)

Two subwoofer outputs
Another two bass management derived outputs

A miniature version of the their cinema layout??
...Or expand our home theater rooms? ...No more walls when you come back from work.

Or! Back to drive-in theaters? :cool:
 
#3,010 ·
That's fair. Just because I think they're doing a good job doesn't mean there aren't equally effective or more effective ways to have done it. I think that's one of the better aspects of this launch: lots of buzz amongst enthusiasts, lots of questions waiting to be answered, lots of speculation building up, all without Dolby having issued an official announcement. Like having manufacturers warm up the audience before doing a press conference.
That's why forums like AVS exist, and with all of us a joyous Atmos bunch. :)
 
#3,011 · (Edited)
Hey, has anyone seen this article?

http://www.highdefdigest.com/blog/dolby-atmos-secret-bluray/


This would be awesome if true. And the beauty from what I understand is, it won't have to be in a preset 5.1.4, 7.1.2, etc. The processor knows the room and speakers, and delivers the best it can with what it has, real time encoding for YOUR setup. So I wonder what kind of microphone array the Atmos receivers will have for room calibration?
Ha!

My BD 3D of 'How to Train your Dragon' comes with an English 7.1 Dolby TrueHD audio soundtrack.
...Maybe it is secretly encoded with Dolby Atmos? ...That would be :cool: ...I don't think so though.
 
#3,012 ·
#3,013 · (Edited)
What percentage of this happening? ...Because no two homes are the same.
True but homes differ from dubbing stages and movie theaters too. Doing mixes for acoustically small rooms is difficult - there's no universally accepted acoustical standard for small rooms - nevertheless it is done every single day for music recordings.
 
#3,014 ·
... I remember seeing a poll in another section which asked how many speakers we had and was real surprised the majority of responders on AVS had only 5 speakers(and in 2nd place was 7) but only a few had 9 or more using height and/or wides...[/URL]
That sounds right; makes you wonder how it can be worthwhile for mfgr's to bother making 9+ ch receivers, and if Atmos-enabled ones will survive.

Maybe the incremental cost of 7.1/Atmos over the bread-and-butter models isn't very much.
 
#3,015 ·
#3,016 ·
True but homes differ from dubbing stages and movie theaters too. Doing mixes for acoustically small rooms is difficult - there's no universally accepted acoustical standard for small rooms - nevertheless it is done every single day for music recordings.
Markus, where are moving picture soundtracks made/mixed and recorded?

And for that matter, where are classical orchestral live operas recorded?

See, film soundtracks recorded in some larger studio theaters, and medium studio theaters, and smaller studio venues, with the dialog recorded on some booths (lip sync), dubbing stages (foley sound effects), orchestral music (larger spaces with good acoustics), mixing consoles with pre-recorded sounds (with EQ added, dynamic compression, etc.) - music recordings done in small jazz venues, blues alleys, professional recording studios of all genre and size, auditoriums, churches, halls of all sizes and everywhere in the world, etc., etc., etc. - makes the music reproduction @ home the impossible art of accurate replication of that moment in time and in space. ...Magic is the best we can hope for in this audio hobby of ours where the Music is the main essence entering our soul through emotional chords of harmony and unison.

Imagine, if you would be a professional recording/mastering artist sound engineer who has his own professional recording studio and use various microphones or few. ...And recording music from the artists you like; a la David Chesky for just naming one example (New York).
Or for the ECM record label in their main recording studios in Europe, or for the Classic Channels record label, or for Concord Jazz record label, or for Reference Recordings studios, or ...

...And the same thing with all the various movie studios; Sony Columbia various studios and sound mixing theaters, , FOX studios, Paramount studios, Universal studios, Warner Brothers studios, Disney various sound stages, studios and theaters (Hollywood, California), Lions Gate studios in North Vancouver, Criterion sound mix venue, etc. etc. etc.

Where all the sounds are recorded, mixed, manipulated, equalized, ..., it's a mine field out there and to expect to be perfect in each one of our living rooms and home theater rooms is like asking for lady Godiva nude on her white horse running on water and with her golden hair floating freely in the four winds from the four corners of the world.

God lock! :)
 
#3,017 ·
Keith

If you're asking how many theatrical movies were 7.1 for the cinema, I wouldn't have a clue. Filmmixer might have an idea :)

If you're asking how many BD releases are 7.1, there's several sites that listed all available 6.1/7.1 BD's. Here's one I can link to.

The original post is in 2010 but the author is keeping the list up-to-date with new & latest titles.

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=159814

counting rows on an excel sheet, his total is 711.

the total # of blu-ray titles released is many tens of thousands from all studios. it's going to be tedious to add up the list by studio but I'll see if I can parse the textual listings to just get numbers ;) and will let you know the number if I succeed!

the same site has the totals by genre and by studio. if totals by genre don't overlap, the total will be well over 300,000.

for the sake of argument, let's say 7.1's are < 0.25 % of the total.

IOW, very dam few are taking advantage of existing capability.

and total number of Atmos titles is about 120, right?

not scientific by any means ;) but looking at numbers, it took all Blu-ray studios 8 yrs to release 711 titles with 7.1 out of all the movies released, or about 89/yr.

with 120 titles with a subset of a subset for Atmos, it could take 1.3 yrs for them to get thru the list IF they decided to aggressively release them at the same pace of ~90/yr. or it could take a decade (!) if they follow the same pattern as 7.1 ;)
The point I was making is that the comparison with Atmos and 7.1 mixes is irrelevant. If a movie was mixed in 5.1 then it is significant extra work to remix it in 7.1 for the home. And a fair comparison would look at home many 7.1 mixes existed about 3 months after the launch of discrete 5.1. To save the trouble of checking, it was none.
 
#3,018 · (Edited)
In reference to post number 3012 ::

Won't happen Markus; money. ...It cost money. ...Thing is that Dolby Atmos is SCALABLE to our home rooms from the theatrical mixes.

They'll transfer what they have to our Blu-rays just like they keep doing it since 2006.

* Ask Marc, and Roger what they think.
 
#3,019 · (Edited)
Won't happen Markus; money. ...It cost money.
I agree, nevertheless there are Blu-ray remixes. How many? Marc might have statistical data.

...Thing is that Dolby Atmos is SCALABLE to our home rooms from the theatrical mixes.
Define "scalable". Does Atmos render to fewer or more speakers than used during re-recording? Yes. Does it change how a mix is perceived at home vs. a movie theater? No. Why would it?

Atmos doesn't do away with the fact that acoustically small rooms behave differently than acoustically large rooms. Acoustics doesn't "scale". Atmos scales the number of speakers but it can't "scale" physics. Reflection patterns in acoustically small rooms are different from larger spaces. The way we perceive sound differs with room size.
 
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