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Apple Explains How Spatial Audio Head Tracking Will Work on Apple TV
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Living in an apartment, a surround sound system is out of the question as it would be rude to neighbors.
Being able to virtualize theater sound convincingly (I've been watching films with a Dolby Headphone Processor for a long time) is awesome.
And you can crank it up as loud as you want.
A few years ago, I added a Sennheiser wireless RF headphone system that allows you to add as many wireless headsets as desired. (although RF is subject to lots of interference from microwaves and wifi
). I've been looking at getting a Bluetooth Transmitter for headphones, but the maximum headsets one could pair was 2. I assume one has to get multiple bluetooth transmitters for additional devices.
Currently... how many bluetooth headsets does the AppleTV support?
Apple is introducing four new audio features:
1. Lossless
2. Spatial - makes sound appear to come from the front
3. Headtracking: keeps the sound coming form the front in a fixed position, even if you twist your head
4. Atmos: enables the placing of specific sounds in specific places relative to your head
It seems to me these are distinct and separate features, and people may want to be able to control each one. For example, we may wand to enable Spatial and Headtracking but not Atmos when sitting in a living room and wanting to have an experience alike listening to stereo speakers; Spatial only when listening to music while on the go; Spatial, Headtracking and Atmos together when doing FaceTime, watching a movie or listening to recordings specially mastered for Atmos; and Lossless only when listening to music on high end speakers.
I get confused that Apple appears to bundle these features in different ways depending on the use, without an intuitive way of controlling it.
1. Lossless
2. Spatial - makes sound appear to come from the front
3. Headtracking: keeps the sound coming form the front in a fixed position, even if you twist your head
4. Atmos: enables the placing of specific sounds in specific places relative to your head
It seems to me these are distinct and separate features, and people may want to be able to control each one. For example, we may wand to enable Spatial and Headtracking but not Atmos when sitting in a living room and wanting to have an experience alike listening to stereo speakers; Spatial only when listening to music while on the go; Spatial, Headtracking and Atmos together when doing FaceTime, watching a movie or listening to recordings specially mastered for Atmos; and Lossless only when listening to music on high end speakers.
I get confused that Apple appears to bundle these features in different ways depending on the use, without an intuitive way of controlling it.
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I think this is not quite right. My understanding is that Spatial Audio is Apple's implementation of Dolby Atmos (or, perhaps, a superset) - or at least the same idea. The "coming from the front" seems purely the domain of Headtracking.
I agree with your point, though, that these are all separate things (although I can see that, at a technical level, SA and head-tracking are related - you probably need the former to implement the latter).
iOS 14 already has that, but you need to be using airpods and the movies have to be in Dolby Atmos for it to work.
Agreed. In my case, the city is building new sidewalks on my street for the next month, so I'm quite interested in headphones lately! And I have a roommate, so that's two pairs of headphones.
I found instructions for pairing up to 2 pairs of AirPods here, I guess you've been able to do this for a while now:
Use Apple TV to play audio throughout your home
You can use Apple TV as a hub for playing audio throughout your home.
support.apple.com
A paying Apple Music customer.. which makes Apple money?
You know a lot of people own iPhones or listen to Apple Music that DONT own a Mac right? Apple has created an Android Apple Music app fyi - to get you up to speed.
Imagine if the whole world shared your lacklustre attitude
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Thanks for this. and then there is "Spatialised"..... (and my iPhone seems to have inverted the toggle: it shows Spatial as ON when it is clearly off, and as Off when the song is clearly playing in Atmos...)
But I’m not watching movie on iOS. I’m watching it on my Chromecast (and I also have an ATV so I could reuse it if I have a good reason to).
Oh I see, that makes sense. Yeah I think spatial audio will be really nice on appletv. Definitely looking forward to that!
I don’t think you understand the technology here. The accelerometer in the AirPods is required for head tracking. The one in the Apple TV is not, and Apple is using a workaround in order to accomplish the effect with just the AirPods. Headphones without an accelerometer wouldn’t be able to do this effect.
I understand the head tracking... the position of the audio changes to simulate where you turn your head.
But beyond that. I assume spatial audio also does virtualizing of the surround sound space--like you are in a movie theater like what Dolby Headphone/Atmos does.
Even without the head tracking.. listening to the 2 channel audio that virtualizes a surround sound space will still sound great. It will just be binaural. (Which can be played back with any stereo headphone).
Imagine enjoying the Spatial Audio Movie from the iPhone with the AirPod Pro.
Now imagine that same 2 channel sound but without the ability to reposition itself when you turn your head.
That's what would be so nice to offer customers as an option for anyone that doesn't have an AirPod Pro or Max.
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So basically Spatial Audio in Apple Music? From what I understand those will work with most headphones.
People are definitely confusing Dolby Atmos in Apple Music on the Apple TV with Spatial Audio for video content. You can experience Dolby Atmos Apple Music on tvOS 14.6 and a pair of compatible headphones right now. Spatial audio for video content isn’t coming until tvOS 15 though.
fair enough. I guess we’re lucky as the TV has never been something that would wake him up.
This one of those things that makes no sense to me whatsoever. Hopefully someday I'll be able to experience it.
I dunno, I've been listening to the spatial audio playlist on Apple Music with my APPs, and I'm just not noticing much of a difference? I switched back and forth a few times b/w my downloaded copies of some of the songs and the SA version, and I think I could tell without being told which is which, but I'm not 100% sure. I'm far from an audiophile, though--never really had a problem listening to music through cheap headphones.
U1 isn’t needed for spatial audio/head tracking. The accelerometer on both the AirPods and iOS devices does the heavy lifting figuring out their position relative to each other.
I do agree that having a U1 chip would help add another data point to improve Positioning of simulated surrounds but it most likely isn’t worth it for some scenarios like going to another room and back So a software trick is good enough for now.
I do agree that having a U1 chip would help add another data point to improve Positioning of simulated surrounds but it most likely isn’t worth it for some scenarios like going to another room and back So a software trick is good enough for now.
Not quite correct. Spatial audio is the umbrella term for all virtualised 360º audio on headphones, wether that's movies or audio. It can refer to
- Dolby ATMOS mixed music or visual content
- Spatialised stereo - simulating listening to stereo speakers in front of you with stereo content
I eel itw only the acceleremo
Only the accelerometers in the APP that are needed it seems. If you watch a movie on iPhone with Spatial on and turn your head, you will definitely notice the shift of the sound towards the ear closer to the iPhone. But if you keep your head straight and move the iPhone to one side, the sound will not shift.
Got it thank you. So what is the difference between ATMOS Automatic On and Always On? The results should be the almost the same:
Stereo track:
Headphone/ Automatic on / Always On
AirpodsPro / Stereo (no spatial effects) / Stereo (no spatial effects)
Third party earphones / Stereo (no spatial effects) / Stereo (no spatial effects)
ATMOS track :
Headphone / Automatic on / Always On
AirpodsPro / ATMOS / ATMOS
Third party earphones / Stereo / ATMOS
I wish someone posted a comprehensive table / structured list of what effects are available with which toggles on what type of equipment. There are A LOT of variables.
Apple support page says to get Dolby atmos music for non Apple chip headphone you have to select always on. Apple chipped headphones will be Dolby Atmos if auto is selected.