Dolby Atmos/DTS-X/Auro 3D Discussion and Experiences

Big Red Machine · « **Reply #60 on:** 23 May 2019, 05:47 pm »

Quote from: witchdoctor on 22 May 2019, 04:38 pm

Here is a video about surround ai, looking forward to your impressions:

https://youtu.be/9AbBDO0Zdrs

So at my advanced age I read the model number w/o my glasses and it turns out I have the 2060 and not the 2080. So no AI. Pretty much everything else (that I don't use).

witchdoctor · « **Reply #61 on:** 24 May 2019, 03:06 pm »

Quote from: Big Red Machine on 23 May 2019, 05:47 pm

So at my advanced age I read the model number w/o my glasses and it turns out I have the 2060 and not the 2080. So no AI. Pretty much everything else (that I don't use).

I think the receiver is fine according to this review. Can you tell us your other components? Speakers, source, TV, etc?

https://av-receivers.net/yamaha/yamaha-rx-a2060-review/

Doublej · « **Reply #62 on:** 24 May 2019, 10:23 pm »

Quote from: Big Red Machine on 23 May 2019, 05:47 pm

So at my advanced age I read the model number w/o my glasses and it turns out I have the 2060 and not the 2080. So no AI. Pretty much everything else (that I don't use).

I hope you are making good use of the internet radio function, which is much easier to navigate with the Yamaha remote app.

Big Red Machine · « **Reply #63 on:** 25 May 2019, 01:28 am »

Quote from: Doublej on 24 May 2019, 10:23 pm

I hope you are making good use of the internet radio function, which is much easier to navigate with the Yamaha remote app.

I never use it. My son might use it. When I watch a movie or Sunday NFL game is when I use this set=up. It is not part of my 2 channel room gear so I don't use it much. If I move, I may bring the two together into one system. Not ideal but perhaps the sweetspot chair for stereo would still suffice for HT sound.

Big Red Machine · « **Reply #64 on:** 25 May 2019, 01:29 am »

Quote from: witchdoctor on 24 May 2019, 03:06 pm

I think the receiver is fine according to this review. Can you tell us your other components? Speakers, source, TV, etc?

https://av-receivers.net/yamaha/yamaha-rx-a2060-review/

Oppo 4k player and Elac speakers. Sony 75" 4k.

witchdoctor · « **Reply #65 on:** 25 May 2019, 01:31 pm »

Which elac speakers and how many?

ajzepp · « **Reply #66 on:** 28 May 2019, 07:17 am »

Just a quick update...

Pretty much done with turning the extra bedroom into a theater room, so Sunday night we sat down to watch "Adrift" on Showtime. I had the FireTV connected and was streaming the Showtime Anywhere app. Well, I checked to see what the receiver was showing as the audio track and it said "2.0 PCM"

Turns out that the showtime app ONLY streams in 2.0 on FireTV, and the showtime people are supposedly "passing along the concerns to their technical team".

The GOOD news, however, is that DTS Neural took those two channels and transformed it into an incredible, lively, and dynamic 5.2.4 multichannel experience that blew us away. There are some scenes in that film of a storm on the water, and it was intense as hell. So even though it would really be nice to get *real* Atmos and DTS X fired up in here soon, I'm more than happy with the upmixers.

Here are a couple quick before and after shots. The room looks quite a bit better in person, IMO. The first photos are the room just before I decided to go Atmos, and the after is the full room in a panoramic shot on the iPhone, which is why it looks a tad wobbly.

Before (March 2019)

And After (May 2019)

witchdoctor · « **Reply #67 on:** 28 May 2019, 02:56 pm »

Gorgeous, the blue lights around the room look fantastic, your idea? What is the small white box on top of your rack? Is that your streamer?
Once you start comparing the native mixes to the upmixers it will depend on the movie. On some you might prefer the upmixer, on others the native mix. You can stream showtime,starz,hbo as an amazon channel and I think it streams in DD from what I can tell. Just don't use the showtime app, use the Prime video app and stream showtime through there. CONGRATULATIONS! Please post your thoughts after you have had a chance to listen toi some upmixed music. "Riders on the Storm" is intersting because you can hear that thunder in the beginning of the song coming from above you

ajzepp · « **Reply #68 on:** 28 May 2019, 08:54 pm »

Thanks Witchdoctor. Yep, I wanted to add an LED strip around the base just to give it some pop. I'd seen some other folks on the forums do it, so that's where the idea came from. Pretty amazing what technology can do today...it's actually connected into the wifi, and even Alexa can control it. Crazy!

The white box is my Sonos streamer, yeppers.

I will definitely fire up that track after work tonight, but so far I've spent a fair amount of time listening to 2-channel music in DTS Neural. I never did that very often with dolby pro-logic, because it never sounded natural, but so far, Neural seems to do a great job. It adds to the presentation instead of taking away from it. Definitely a thumb's up so far.

ajzepp · « **Reply #69 on:** 29 May 2019, 09:15 pm »

Was pleasantly surprised to find out today that AppleTV will pass Atmos with iTunes movies, and also Netflix, when you only have a 1080p display.

***May have jumped the gun. The AppleTV is showing Atmos, but the receiver is still showing PCM....so need to do some troubleshooting to confirm if it's sending Atmos via bitstream or not. Will update once I find out for sure.

witchdoctor · « **Reply #70 on:** 29 May 2019, 10:13 pm »

Nice, that is mostly for Netflix tv shows right?

ajzepp · « **Reply #71 on:** 30 May 2019, 01:36 am »

Quote from: witchdoctor on 29 May 2019, 10:13 pm

Nice, that is mostly for Netflix tv shows right?

I was primarily just wanting a way to rent new titles in Atmos, since Vudu pairs atmos with HDR. Unfortunatley, though the AppleTV is showing Atmos, the receiver is showing PCM. So I need to make sure the same pairing issue isn't causing this to be screwed up yet again. Going to troubleshoot tomorrow when Im off work and hopefully figure this out. Very frustrating! lol

TomS · « **Reply #72 on:** 30 May 2019, 01:37 am »

Quote from: ajzepp on 30 May 2019, 01:36 am

I was primarily just wanting a way to rent new titles in Atmos, since Vudu pairs atmos with HDR. Unfortunatley, though the AppleTV is showing Atmos, the receiver is showing PCM. So I need to make sure the same pairing issue isn't causing this to be screwed up yet again. Going to troubleshoot tomorrow when Im off work and hopefully figure this out. Very frustrating! lol

I sure hope you figure this out so I don't have to

Drives me crazy too. I gave it a rest for a couple weeks.

ajzepp · « **Reply #73 on:** 30 May 2019, 02:21 am »

Quote from: TomS on 30 May 2019, 01:37 am

I sure hope you figure this out so I don't have to
Drives me crazy too. I gave it a rest for a couple weeks.

LOL...it's incredibly frustrating. The worst part is that it's very hard to isolate variables. I can't tell if it's the source, the damn HDMI cable (which is new, so that shouldnt be it), the receiver, or the fact that I dont have a 4k display. Very annoying. Going to try to take it step by step to isolate and get to the bottom of it. I've got five days off to figure it out lol.

TomS · « **Reply #74 on:** 30 May 2019, 02:40 am »

Quote from: ajzepp on 30 May 2019, 02:21 am

LOL...it's incredibly frustrating. The worst part is that it's very hard to isolate variables. I can't tell if it's the source, the damn HDMI cable (which is new, so that shouldnt be it), the receiver, or the fact that I dont have a 4k display. Very annoying. Going to try to take it step by step to isolate and get to the bottom of it. I've got five days off to figure it out lol.

I had a brand new HDMI cable, all kinds of fluffy "hi speed" specs on it, 4k, blah blah blah. Finally figured out it wouldn't pass ARC for whatever reason. Put a cheapo cable in, and worked like a champ. Go figure.

ajzepp · « **Reply #75 on:** 30 May 2019, 03:00 am »

Quote from: TomS on 30 May 2019, 02:40 am

I had a brand new HDMI cable, all kinds of fluffy "hi speed" specs on it, 4k, blah blah blah. Finally figured out it wouldn't pass ARC for whatever reason. Put a cheapo cable in, and worked like a champ. Go figure.

LOL that sounds like the perfect "poster child" scenario for how crazy this hobby is lately.

To add to all the confusion (just speaking for myself, here...lol), apparently the AppleTV doesn't even have the ability to bitstream Atmos. It uses something called "Dolby MAT", which I've never heard of. And when it does this, it apparently will show up on the receiver as multi-channel PCM. So now it's kind of like a game..."guess whether it's actually Atmos...or NOT Atmos...let's see what's behind curtain number one!"

I'm going to call both Anthem and Apple in the morning so I can confirm 100%. Hopefully that will settle it.

ajzepp · « **Reply #76 on:** 30 May 2019, 12:42 pm »

I'm very, very happy to say that I can now officially confirm that the AppleTV 4k DOES indeed pass Dolby Atmos, even when you're running a lowly 1080p display. So far, this is only limited to iTunes rentals/purchases, Atmos titles on Netflix, and Atmos titles on Amazon Prime. I'm also happy to report that the image quality still looks fantastic. I had some concerns about whether the HDR-to-SDR conversion would impact the image, but it's pretty beautiful.

I love my projector, so this takes away the temptation of going to 4k sooner than I really want to.

So in case anyone is in my position and considering Atmos, but not wanting to go to a 4k display, I can very highly recommend the AppleTV4k. So far, it's a fantastic device.

witchdoctor · « **Reply #77 on:** 30 May 2019, 08:21 pm »

Nice, thanks for "taking one for the team" and figuring this out, good to know as I have never tried ANY apple products before (not even itunes or a mp3 download). THANKS

ajzepp · « **Reply #78 on:** 31 May 2019, 07:36 am »

sure thing, that was quite an education! lol I keep trying to get away from apple products, but they keep bringing me right back in apparently.

ajzepp · « **Reply #79 on:** 25 Sep 2019, 05:00 am »

Hey all...just finished phase 3 of my room, so thought I'd share a few pics since it's quiet in here. I am really happy with the results, but ironically, it was the cheapo foam stuff that finally got that slight last bit of slap echo out of the room. The GIK absorption and Vicoustic diffusors make a massive improvement, but there was a tiny bit of echo that I isolated to the high side walls. It wasn't feasible for me to treat this part of the room with GIK or Vicoustic, so I tossed some foam panels up there and that did the trick. After-treatment calibration results were pretty fantastic. My main goal was to give the ARC room correction the best environment possible so that I could get the most out of it, and it appears to have worked out well.

I've since added some small treatments to the corners in the rear room, but other than that, this is basically the finished product after five months of working on it. Obviously the room is designed more for dim lighting, but took the pics with full light since it's hard to see otherwise.

Happy Listening