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Films with Dolby TrueHD???

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scouser75

macrumors 68030
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Oct 7, 2008
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Hi guys,

Are there any films on the iTunes store with Dolby TrueHD? I've been scouring for a while and all those I've looked at have been Dolby Digital 5.1.

I would love to purchase Wonder Woman and Mad Max Fury Road on iTunes but these also are DD 5.1. Bought them instead as physical blu-rays off Amazon.
 
Hi Scouser75!
Great question and in 2017, NO! No, there isn't as yet Dolby TrueHD on iTunes films. Dolby Atmos is coming but that's a different thing anyway.
Strange that it hasn't as yet been implemented as it is 100% essential if iTunes is going to replace physical disc. Who knows. Apple have done a lot of work to the ATV 4K but sadly, Apple have never seemed that bothered about sound quality over a certain scope (iTunes is still 256AAC for music - surely 320AAC might of made it better?).
Certainly in todays and tomorrows super fast broadband, it's something that they need to look at.
It's a shame that it can't match a 12 year old disc format for sound - surely the richest and definitely most greediest company in the world would of added it by now if they thought that it could increase sales?
If it's audio you love, do what many do and rent a film on iTunes (although the price increase has stopped me from doing that now), sound is DVD quality so a bit flat, it's OK just never exciting or truly alive sounding (its made for TV speakers/iPads) (Not good enough for Apple quality standards IMO) AND if you love it, head over to Amazon and buy the BluRay disc!
 
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scouser75 said:
Are there any films on the iTunes store with Dolby TrueHD? I've been scouring for a while and all those I've looked at have been Dolby Digital 5.1.
Click to expand...
No. A typical TrueHD (or DTS-HD MA) 24-bit/7.1 soundtrack has an average bitrate of 2-3 Mbps, with peaks up to about 9 Mbps. That obviously doesn't make sense if your total bitrate budget including video is just around 5-8 Mbps like iTunes HD movies. But many iTunes movies stream in 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus on the Apple TV 4/4k.
 
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Rigby said:
No. A typical TrueHD (or DTS-HD MA) 24-bit/7.1 soundtrack has an average bitrate of 2-3 Mbps, with peaks up to about 9 Mbps. That obviously doesn't make sense if your total bitrate budget including video is just around 5-8 Mbps like iTunes HD movies. But many iTunes movies stream in 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus on the Apple TV 4/4k.
Click to expand...

I keep seeing mention of the 7.1 DD but i've never come across any so far in the new films that i've been looking at. None in my collection. 7.1 seems very very rare on iTunes.
 
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BODYBUILDERPAUL said:
I keep seeing mention of the 7.1 DD but i've never come across any so far in the new films that i've been looking at. None in my collection. 7.1 seems very very rare on iTunes.
Click to expand...
There are many. Some recent examples include "War for the Planet of the Apes", "Cars 3", and "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2". Note that you can only see 7.1 tracks in the store on the ATV, i.e. they don't show up in the iTunes desktop application (similar to UHD movies).
 
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Rigby said:
There are many. Some recent examples include "War for the Planet of the Apes", "Cars 3", and "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2". Note that you can only see 7.1 tracks in the store on the ATV, i.e. they don't show up in the iTunes desktop application (similar to UHD movies).
Click to expand...
I rented Guardians of the galaxy 2 recently in HD but it was in 5.1.
 
Rigby said:
How did you play it back? You can only use the 7.1 tracks when you stream from the Internet on an ATV 4 or 4K. Downloaded movies and older ATV models are limited to 5.1
Click to expand...

Apologies. It's not the latest Apple TV. I decided to go for the older model as I don't yet have an up-to-date TV.

So 7.1 is only available when streaming 4k?
 
scouser75 said:
I just checked itunes and you're right. But when I rented it a few weeks ago it was only in 5.1. It seems they've updated it since.
Click to expand...
In addition to all of above, you need to understand one thing - DD+ 7.1 will never be streamed to your AVR or surround decoder (ie you will not read Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 on the display of your AVR).
aTV 4/4K has internal DD+ 7.1 decoder, but passes it out to HDMI as Linear PCM 7.1, and only if Audio Output has been set to "Best Quality Available".
 
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scouser75 said:
I just checked itunes and you're right. But when I rented it a few weeks ago it was only in 5.1. It seems they've updated it since.
Click to expand...
I was confused too but I discovered a while ago that you get 7.1 only if you BUY the movie not if you rent it. It’s not written anywhere but this is unfortunately how it works. I rented Deedpool and I tried everything and couldn’t get 7.1. I then bought it and magically, along with the iTunes extras, came the 7.1 stream identified by my Denon Avr 1200 as Multichannel 7.1 since the AppleTv decodes the stream internally. Hope it helps!
 
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Speak said:
I was confused too but I discovered a while ago that you get 7.1 only if you BUY the movie not if you rent it. It’s not written anywhere but this is unfortunately how it works. I rented Deedpool and I tried everything and couldn’t get 7.1. I then bought it and magically, along with the iTunes extras, came the 7.1 stream identified by my Denon Avr 1200 as Multichannel 7.1 since the AppleTv decodes the stream internally. Hope it helps!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. The next 7.1 film I want to watch I'll buy jut to check ck out how good the audio is.

As for deadpool - I was in HMV yesterday and bought it on blu-ray.... along with gravity, interstellar, bad lieutenant and revanant. All for £30. All were a fair bit cheaper than on iTunes.

I still.cant understand why a non-physical and in-superior product can cost more!!
 
scouser75 said:
Thanks for the info. The next 7.1 film I want to watch I'll buy jut to check ck out how good the audio is.

As for deadpool - I was in HMV yesterday and bought it on blu-ray.... along with gravity, interstellar, bad lieutenant and revanant. All for £30. All were a fair bit cheaper than on iTunes.

I still.cant understand why a non-physical and in-superior product can cost more!!
Click to expand...


Hi Scoucer,
I kind of see your point - I once got 2 bluray on Amazon for £10 :) Again, iTunes do also have really great offers - 1 or 2 week offers for £4.99 / £3.99 instead of £9.99/£7.99.
BUT I was thinking today £7.99 or £9.99 for a 4K HDR/DV iTunes film which will get updated is pretty amazing especially when compared to £25/£30 for the 4K BlURay if it ever finds its way onto a disc.
My Why Him? iTunes has just been upgraded to 4K HDR and i'm hoping that the beautiful MOONLIGHT film which really touched my soul will become 4K before I buy it. (is already in the USA). Although i'll make it perfectly clear that there is NO WAY that i'd pay over £9.99 for a film and i do tend to wait for the iTunes offers.

I no longer rent film from iTunes due to the price increase to £5.49. It just is not worth it for me. I won't pay that. I can happily live without it and watch from another platform.

What I can't understand is how Waitrose is doing so well in the UK selling DVDs at £9.99 in 2017. For a start DVDs play at 4% speeded up in the UK (& Europa). All I can think is 1. The people are super old and stuck in a weird tradition. 2. They are not super slick urbanites - They live in some country village with super slow broadband = no 4K or even HD streaming.

£7.99 for a 4K HDR iTunes film is pretty good isn't it. Although, it has to be as we are in a time were people (under 45s) are buying far less film now thanks to Netflix & other means.
 
Yup, I tunes do have some good deals - both rental and to buy.

Regarding the 4K pricing - You're absolutely right about the £7/9.99 Vs £25/30 pricing scenario. My personal concern though about this is the quality of Apple's 4k and audio. I know most people won't notice the picture quality difference, but audio I'm not so sure about.

Also, having bought 5 blu-rays from HMV, I now have 3 UV codes to swap with someone :)

PS Bodybuilderpaul, just clocked your signature - I definitely am with you on that! I too would rather be in the wild, travelling, hiking, biking and most of all, surfing!
 
scouser75 said:
Yup, I tunes do have some good deals - both rental and to buy.

Regarding the 4K pricing - You're absolutely right about the £7/9.99 Vs £25/30 pricing scenario. My personal concern though about this is the quality of Apple's 4k and audio. I know most people won't notice the picture quality difference, but audio I'm not so sure about.

Also, having bought 5 blu-rays from HMV, I now have 3 UV codes to swap with someone :)

PS Bodybuilderpaul, just clocked your signature - I definitely am with you on that! I too would rather be in the wild, travelling, hiking, biking and most of all, surfing!
Click to expand...

I'm totally with you with regards to audio if iTunes 4K is to eventually replace the physical disc. Whilst it doesn't effect me personally as I live in a city apartment where if I had my TV too loud, it would echo around the building, I can truly appreciate offering the best possible sound quality - often iTunes films sound very quiet/compressed and really need to TV turning to near max volume to create any soundstage. Maybe Apple will in time offer Dolby HD audio - I guess that it depends on sales of iTunes films.

I'm obsessed with surfing and always has been - my Father was Norwegian, so I grew up in the water and boats were very part of my daily lifestyle. I go to the Barcelona Surf Film Festival, Amsterdam & Berlin ones every year with friends. I've bought a lot of amazing surf documentaries over the last few years from both iTunes & Vimeo! - Today we were mountain biking in North Wales - incredible!!! (PS When biking & Surfing, the iPhone is left at home - so nice to be free from WiFi signals and all that unhealthy stuff!)
 
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