I don't believe bitstreaming prevents system audio in any way. My shield does bitstream but google still talks and there are system sounds.
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Apple Announces 'Apple TV 4K' With 4K and HDR Video Powered by Faster A10X Chip
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killer B - is there a hdmi splitter (one hdmi in, two hdmi out) that would accomplish the goal of feeding the apple TV signal to a 4K television, while also feeding a second hdmi signal to an older av receiver that lacks 4K pass-though?
Interesting. I presume there is a technical reason that Apple chooses not to output Atmos then. It seems like it should be capable. I personally think it's a massive missed opportunity if so.
Currently I don't think there is, but the HD Fury Vertex might. It's $349. So why not just buy a new receiver, see? The $179 Integral doesn't support Dolby Vision/HDR.
And the real kicker is that HDR 10+/Dynamic HDR will require HDMI 2.1, scheduled for 2018. So if you buy a receiver this year, you might want a new one again in a year when the next gen devices are HDMI 2.1
I have the Vizio P-Series which supports HDR/Dolby Vision/HDR 10+, but if I buy an HDMI 2.0a receiver now I'll just want a new 2.1 next year... I saw this whole dilemma coming when the Apple TV 4 came out.
I've seen multiple references including, here and here, that bitstreaming audio won't allow system sounds to be mixed into the bitstream. Perhaps the Shield is reverting to PCM while playing the system sounds. Bitstream is literally streaming the raw bits from the source as is without decoding them so that the TV or receiver can do the decoding. I would think the TV or receiver would have to handle two different audio streams to add system sounds to a bitstream.
Is the X1S bitstreaming while playing system audio on top of media? My guess is it only does that if it's sending LPCM. I tried to experiment with my PS4, but it doesn't actually have any system menu sounds in the first place during playback.
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I'm with you! I was extremely excited about what they announced....until I saw no Atmos. The ridiculous part is that atmos is essentially a free upgrade since it uses the existing audio/data channels. Not including this makes no sense. I recently replaced all my gear to have access to 4K, both HDR formats, and Atmos. HD to 4k was not a night and day improvement. SD to HDR is a slightly larger jump and I believe it adds positively to the experience. Going from a 7.1 to a 5.1.4 Atmos system was huge upgrade!
And your right! It's frustrating how one device wont do it all.
content that is seriously lacking. Unless you are in the US.
Bluetooth 5 offering nothing of value.
Best UI? I cant even get most of the available boxes in my country and its ok, the stupid search button on the remote sucks.
Computer power and memory... with none of the functionality.
I'm in the same boat mate. Had a total system restock with 4k DV enabled tv, receiver etc, and went from 5.1 to 5.1.2. Whilst the picture difference is great with HDR and DV, the real noticeable change is in the sound, and I haven't even got 5.1.4!
^ This - really hope it's possible.
Bad timing to be buying a new AV receiver - the HDMI 2.1 supported ones likely won't be out until the spring.
(that's what I'm waiting for).
Have you ever seen your aTV 4 outputting DD+ stream? I have not.
aTV 4 supports DD+ 7.1 in that it can internally decode the stream, but from its HDMI I've only seen PCM 7.1 being output. That in itself means, that Atmos metadata will get stripped.
Dolby Labs explains it pretty well on their developers page: Dolby Audio Support on Apple TV
As you can see, even if you enforce DD5.1 output in aTV system settings, only thing you will get is that it will internally re-encode the audio stream into DD5.1
At the end of the day, they probably could achieve Atmos support piggybacked on DD+ when they would re-encode and reassemble the metadata into E-AC3 stream before sending it out to HDMI.
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Hopefully, alternatives to the $349 splitter your reference will come soon.
A new receiver isn't really on the option table for me - Mine is neary $2K - and I don't want to dump it chasing features - I invested in it for its clean amps, etc. In order to get that same core audio quality with hdmi2.2, and then 2.1, will cost another $2K, probably more. I probably should have gone separates!
It's a shame apple's put us in this position by omitting ports (a second HDMI or even a digital audio) that woulds have make this device work so much better for a small but vocal number of people.
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It's not a massive missed opportunity because of the tiny number of digital downloads on other services that support audio formats like Atmos. Look on VUDU and try to find more than a small handful of recent releases that have Atmos listed for the digital download. Probably less than 50 films total. Those are also typically $30 downloads too, not $19.99.
Exactly mah man. From what I've heard Xbox One S can do the Cortana overlay on streaming content over optical/spdif, so I think Apple was just lazy with their no optical, no Dolby Atmos or DTS X.
I'm probably just going to wait for HDMI 2.1 before upgrading my receiver and buying the apple tv. I hate it when a plan doesn't come together lol
This is true - but I'm thinking more about the next 12 months. I'm in the UK so am sadly without the joys of vudu...but I'm aware that Netflix has recently started to output content with both dolby vision and dolby atmos, which I anticipate (maybe incorrectly) increasing over time. As far as I'm aware, unless you own a 2017 OLED tv supporting e-ARC, there's not many ways of taking advantage of both formats simultaneously at present.
Feels like a missed opportunity for Apple not to capitalise on everyone else's omission, especially with their already huge invested member base
I also use it over wired ethernet and I do not experience lip sync problems you describe. I am playing them from hard disk, no online streaming.
What do you mean by "it lags"?? This streaming is not a real-time-business. What does a time delay matter? And appleTV downloads the movie to it's internal buffer as fast as it can, this can even be observed on the timeline. So in essence it buffers the whole movie ahead. This applies again to iTunes serving, Beamer for example, behaves differently.
In my experience it has been very nice and reliable way to enjoy content for any Apple device on the big screen.
With Airplay you are get a double dip for streaming if you are coming from your mac.
So youtube for example - internet to laptop via wifi, then laptop back to Time Machine (router again) over wifi as youtube doesn't hand off and then you run over ethernet direct from ATV... It's just a sucky protocol with no handoff to the end device. Yes you "could" run from the youtube app on the ATV, but the search and interface are crappy. If you are hardwired on both ends it's not an issue as its basically A to B only.. lets see what AP2 brings with OS11...
So youtube for example - internet to laptop via wifi, then laptop back to Time Machine (router again) over wifi as youtube doesn't hand off and then you run over ethernet direct from ATV... It's just a sucky protocol with no handoff to the end device. Yes you "could" run from the youtube app on the ATV, but the search and interface are crappy. If you are hardwired on both ends it's not an issue as its basically A to B only.. lets see what AP2 brings with OS11...