Cinema-Grade Dolby Atmos to Reach Consumer Hardware Soon

[N.Broekhuijsen]

After a surprisingly short wait (2012 - Present), it looks like we'll already be seeing Dolby Atmos supporting gear to hit the shops for non-cinema-goers to buy.

Cinema-Grade Dolby Atmos to Reach Consumer Hardware Soon : Read more

 

[alxianthelast]

I have never understood the concept of rain as coming from UP. You hear rain hitting the ground.

At least with Atmos and well recorded audio you should hear rain hitting everything.

 

[dimar]

I went to see How to Train Your Dragon 2 with Dolby Atmos, and didn't hear any difference in audio from any other usual movies.

 

[cozmium]

Speakers above is the most noticable thing, in fact probably the only feature worth getting excited about.

The fact is that having a sound channel per speaker works perfectly when a film has been mixed properly - and that is exactly the process they go through when being released on bluray etc. If you have a decent timbre matched system you're probably not going to tell the difference. Perhaps it might benefit cheap and nasty surround setups, time will tell.

 

[klockwerk]

Sound seemingly coming from above is not what will improve my cinematic experience. Stinks of the same thought processes as what gave us 3D.

 

[XGrabMyY]

Dolby maybe the industry standard, but that is only because they don't care about sacrificing obvious quality for a smaller digital footprint. That is actually why it is the standard, there is always a limitation of space and audio is always on the back burner. Give me DTS, or give me death!

 

[catswold]

I went through the Dolby fascination stage with home theater. Had full 7.1 complete system with Lexicon DC-2 processor, then later a Pioneer Elite THX Ultra receiver feeding an Earthquake Cinenova 5.1 amp (300 wpc crystal clear), etc. etc. etc. Best damn system of anyone I ever came across. It was great, walls shook, bullets pinged around the room, sounds transitioned smoothly from one side of the room to the other--about 20 grand worth of speakers and electronics . . . but after a while, it's just a novelty.

I've since gotten rid of most of it, kept the main speakers and gone back to simple stereo. It's very rare that I miss all of that stuff.

 

[majorlag]

This is nothing new, the speaker configuration has been around for a long time. and the sound is still mapped to a channel, its just that channel configuration spec already takes into effect 3d positioning immersion. From the microsoft PCM WAV format,
CHANNEL NAME --- Decimal Value
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
FRONT_LEFT 1
FRONT_RIGHT 2
FRONT_CENTER 4
LOW_FREQUENCY 8
BACK_LEFT 16
BACK_RIGHT 32

FRONT_LEFT_OF_CENTER 64
FRONT_RIGHT_OF_CENTER 128

BACK_CENTER 256
SIDE_LEFT 512
SIDE_RIGHT 1024
Standard 10.1.0 channels or as most state it as 10.1
*************************************
TOP_CENTER 2048
TOP_FRONT_LEFT 4096
TOP_FRONT_CENTER 8192
TOP_FRONT_RIGHT 16384
TOP_BACK_LEFT 32768
TOP_BACK_CENTER 65536
TOP_BACK_RIGHT 131072
RESERVED 262144
0.0.7 channels
The channels they are talking about have been in the PCM WAV spec for a long time, and include .7 channels with a reserved for anything that haven't thought of yet. Interesting thing is that the spec never thought about channel below you, only around and above you. LFE (Low Frequency Effect) or bass, is the only channel that has no position in 3d space, and can be placed anywhere.

~Majorlag