Disney+ still not offering Atmos through the Homepods (confirmed to me by Disney+ tech support)

[B/D]

Its July 2021, and still we get no Atmos from the Disney+app when the homepods are set as the default audio output of the Apple TV 4K. Its limited to 5.1, and also the overall volume and the dynamic range is inferior to Netflix, Amazon, or Apple TV app.


Disney says that due to the fact that they use a custom A/V player and not the native tvOS player, this is harder to implement. They are still looking into it but there is no ETA at all.

This is absolutely not acceptable. If those of you who have social media don´t mind to do so, please ask Disney+ for this feature.

 

[oneMadRssn]

HomePods don't have up-firing speakers. Does Atmos even matter for them?

 

[JBaby]

HomePods don't have up-firing speakers. Does Atmos even matter for them?

There are sound bars that can do Atmos too and they also don’t have up-firing speakers. My TV’s built in speakers can do Atmos too and it doesn’t have up-firing speakers. The point I’m making is Atmos can be scaled up and down. The best experience will be with up-firing speakers, but that doesn’t mean the experience is bad on the other devices aforementioned. The exception being my TV’s speakers because they’re trash in general. The experience is pretty awesome on the HomePods though!

 

[oneMadRssn]

There are sound bars that can do Atmos too and they also don’t have up-firing speakers. My TV’s built in speakers can do Atmos too and it doesn’t have up-firing speakers. The point I’m making is Atmos can be scaled up and down. The best experience will be with up-firing speakers, but that doesn’t mean the experience is bad on the other devices aforementioned. The exception being my TV’s speakers because they’re trash in general. The experience is pretty awesome on the HomePods though!

Technically the best experience would be with proper down-firing ceiling speakers in a proper 7.2.1 AVR system.

Yes there are TVs and soundbars that claim Atmos, and they're all crap from an audio perspective. Many of them are no better than what some sketchy guys will sell you out of a van. I would not be pointing to those as justification for anything. It's like those overpriced crappy polarized sunglasses that claim to make your vision "HD." Just because they claim it in marketing does not make it so.

Setting aside a proper component system, there some fancy things you can do with phase shifting and bounding sound of walls. So I will not be the elitist that says anything with two pieces can never be better than stereo. But at the very least, those two pieces need side-firing and up-firing speakers to fake their way through simulating a sort of half-attempt at surround and atmos. At the end of the day, it's physics. If I'm to believe there is sound coming from above me, something has to be putting it there above me, whether it's a speaker in the ceiling or a speaker in front of my tv pointed up and reflecting off the ceiling -- something has to do it. And a speaker just facing straight at me cannot ever do that.

 

[TonyC28]

Sorry this isn’t exactly related. Do any of you guys notice volume issues with certain content from Disney+? I was watching Iron Man and I have to turn it to about 75% to comfortably hear dialogue. But then of course action is super loud.

 

[angelofioren]

I noticed today that Disney Plus no longer shows something as being offered in Dolby Vision, even though if I start something that does have Dolby Vision, it does put my TV in that mode. I was wondering if that’s the case with Atmos, but I guess not.

 

[B/D]

Sorry this isn’t exactly related. Do any of you guys notice volume issues with certain content from Disney+? I was watching Iron Man and I have to turn it to about 75% to comfortably hear dialogue. But then of course action is super loud.

With the homepods?. Yes, i do too.

 

[TonyC28]

With the homepods?. Yes, i do too.

Yea sorry I should have been more specific. HomePods as stereo pair with Apple TV 4K.