Atmos support removed from Music app with MacOS 12.2.1!?

[serr]

Jumping into OS XII a little late to investigate Atmos support. I see screen shots of an earlier version of Music app that installed with the MacOS 12.0.1 installer showing lossless audio and Atmos dropdown menus. These features are missing in the 1.2.2 version that installed with 12.2.1! I'm aware that Dolby is going to length to keep the playback decoder codec out of consumer hands in order to keep forcing hardware AVR sales. So I'm not too shocked.

Is it possible to get a link for the version of Music app that includes the Atmos decoder? (Or appears to? Or at least has these dropdown preference menus?) It looks like people are doing this based on seeing screen shots. Hard to say for sure. You can put standard 5.1 or stereo or mono into Atmos and use it for copy protection or forced obsolescence - which is what appears to be going on. And some people "listen to Atmos" with shitbars or other toy devices and aren't really listening to the discrete surround with 7.1 on the ground and 4 height channel speakers in their ceiling.

Anyway, this v1.2.2 of the Music app is missing the Atmos enable controls in preferences and further seems to be limited to 5.1 audio.

Thanks!

 

[SymeonArgyrus]

Hey, Serr! I am running 12.2.1 with Music 1.2.2.40 on an intel Mac... it shows the Atmos control in Music>Preferences.

 

[serr]

 

[serr]

Hey, Serr! I am running 12.2.1 with Music 1.2.2.40 on an intel Mac... it shows the Atmos control in Music>Preferences.

Hey SymeonArgyrus,
Do you have any hardware like an AVR with the Atmos decoder connected? I wonder if this is a 'version' thing or a 'talking to some hardware and hiding options' thing?

 

[SymeonArgyrus]

Nothing plugged in at the moment, and no atmos compatible hardware on our network. Just a 2019 MacBook Pro 13” (i5, 16/1TB, not that it matters, I suppose). What Mac are you using?

 

[chrfr]

Is it possible to get a link for the version of Music app that includes the Atmos decoder? (Or appears to? Or at least has these dropdown preference menus?)

Does your computer meet the system requirements for Atmos? About spatial audio with Dolby Atmos in Apple Music - Apple Support

 

[serr]

Does your computer meet the system requirements for Atmos? About spatial audio with Dolby Atmos in Apple Music - Apple Support

Hi chrfr!

Yep. MacOS 12.2.1 (21D62). I'll be setting up a 7.1.4 system. I have more than 12 channels of output available with several audio interfaces. I'm testing this at the moment with Blackhole 64 channel virtual audio device selected as the audio output in Audio MIDI Setup and 7.1.4 Atmos speaker array selected.

I'm grabbing the output in Reaper DAW to look at meters at the moment. Taking inventory on this as it were before physically hanging 4 speakers from my ceiling!

VLC player will send 7.1 audio out but it doesn't decode the height channels in the metadata for the Atmos files. That's expected if there's no Atmos decoder available - ie. passing the 7.1 base only. If I switch Audio MIDI Setup to 5.1.2 to test, the sides and rears are folded together and I see a 5.1 output exactly as expected. So that part works.
The Music app appears limited to 5.1 output no matter what. But then the Atmos preferences I see screen shots of are fully hidden on my system! So there's some handshake with firmware in some hardware that something's looking for here! I've seen another claim that this is locked out unless you have an Apple Music paid account and further is locked out to anything but the lossy remains of Atmos files on Apple Music.

So I'm being stubborn and I refuse to purchase a new AVR just for decoder software! Nor will I pay for access to the stepped on lossy Atmos streams on Apple Music. So I "get it" that this is a difficult and restricted path right now! (And I have nice DACs in my audio interface collection and nice amps for my speakers. A sideways move for some AVR of the quality I'm used to would be $$$$!)

What has to be plugged in or spoofed to unlock the Atmos menus?

Or... Is there a media player out there without those restrictions?

Is there actually an Atmos decoder in core audio? Having the speaker selection option in Audio MIDI Setup suggests it.
That speaker management is working as expected in Audio MIDI Setup sure suggests that would follow to Atmos. That might suggest the decoder lives in core audio. That might suggest any media player app that's allowed to play an Atmos file can work here.

 

[chrismac2]

Do you have an Apple Music subscription? I think you have to subscribe to Apple Music to unlock the Dolby Atmos setting

EDIT: Nevermind I see you acknowledged that possibility in your last post. I believe that's the case and why you are not seeing the Atmos preferences

 

[serr]

Do you have an Apple Music subscription? I think you have to subscribe to Apple Music to unlock the Dolby Atmos setting

EDIT: Nevermind I see you acknowledged that possibility in your last post. I believe that's the case and why you are not seeing the Atmos preferences

I do not. Yeah, I suspected this is what was going on! Thanks for conforming that! (Greedy bastards!) I've talked with another person who has an account and thus his controls are unlocked but he tells me that ONLY the lossy streaming is allowed and he's still locked out of playing his own files (eg lossless Atmos from bluray). Can you conform that too?

I'm not interested in their streaming content in any way shape or form. I'd consider paying a subscription to unlock this software in the early days of the format here. But only if I could play my own content.

Anyone working on "liberating" this?

 

[chrismac2]

I don't have official knowledge on this subject matter, but I would bet money that the option is only available for Apple Music files, once a subscriber, and NOT for your own content.

 

[serr]

I don't have official knowledge on this subject matter, but I would bet money that the option is only available for Apple Music files, once a subscriber, and NOT for your own content.

I'd say that's pretty much confirmed at this point.

The promising take away from this is it really looks like the Atmos decoder codec (that decodes the height & object channel data delivered in the metadata back into audio channels) must be either in the Music app or core audio. My guess is core audio based on the speaker array selection and older dolby decoders living there. Also the height and object channels need to be downmixed on systems with fewer speakers which would cue off the speaker array selection in Audio MIDI Setup.

Apple locking out playback of all lossless user content follows Dolby keeping this out of consumer hands to force sell new AVR products. But the codec almost has to be in core audio and that leads to the possibility of some 3rd party media player app supporting Atmos playback from file.

Obviously this format is being skewed into a new copy protection scheme requiring hardware purchases. The streaming content includes standard 5.1 mixes. Just hidden behind the Atmos codec to copy protect them. Still, it expands surround to include height speakers and there are a handful of genuine music mixes starting to appear. A paid media player would be pretty fair to me. Not a whole freakin AVR with expensive DACs just for the decoder though! Otherwise someone needs to liberate this with a shareware media player.

 

[prime17569]

Out of curiosity, what happens if you try to open your Atmos files with QuickTime?

 

[serr]

Out of curiosity, what happens if you try to open your Atmos files with QuickTime?

It outputs only 5.1 just like Music app. (With known at least 7.1 content)

The expected result if the media player or system can't decode the metadata is to play the 7.1 base. The file looks like a 7.1 TrueHD file with "mystery" metadata. So Music app and QT are extra broken here. VLC plays 7.1

 

[J.Gallardo]

...I'm not near my DolbyAtmos-enabled mac, but I think CoreAudio decodes Atmos since Catalina OS.
The only way I have to test is with my MacBook Pro, and still plays D.Atmos in Music app, with streamed files from Apple Music in 12.3 . My Intel iMac in 12.3 offers me the setting in Music to listen in Dolby Atmos, but my HiFi connected system isn't capable to reproduce the "effect"; but it sounds different, worse.
I don't know how to make it sound depending of equipment, but Monterey (not just Music) should be able to decode Atmos (even in QuickLook!).