Agree. Not surprised about hd audio for streaming content. Also I would would not think Apple would necessarily publish if it can or can't bitstream hd audio as the use for this is primarily those of us that rip our blu rays. Atv 4 hardware can actually bitstream dts and DD untouched using infuse. Infuse can play hd audio but that has to be decoded by infuse first and sent as lcpm hence no Atmos metadata. So still keeping fingers crossed that this hardware can actually bitstream hd audio. That being said Plex (what I use) uses native atv player so may still need to use something like infuse.
Many iTunes title are in fact DD+. Only way to get it is streaming through ATV. Since atv will decode to LPCM only way to know is to see that your avr is inputting pcm/multichannel at 7.1 as plain DD only supports up to 5.1.
I will have to check out Infuse and Plex.
I did not know this about DD+/iTunes...whenever I rent or purchase iTunes movies/TV, I prefer to download to my Mac and then I don't have to stream it, but, use home sharing to play it on my ATV from my Mac, (I don't have the best internet ATM), and I still prefer to use my Mac to find them, so, there I only see DD 5.1.
Someone may have pointed it out already but Atmos can ride along via DD+. HD audio is not required. Roku supports it. Vizio even has it working over ARC. They could certainly support DD+ via streaming over HDMI.
I did, but, it was in the middle of other stuff I wrote. I saw that VUDU was already doing DD+ Atmos a couple years ago or so. So, yeah, Atmos does work over DD+, except, ATV implementation of audio... (see below)
That is the hope although you would think it would be mentioned in specs that it supports Atmos. They would still need to change how ATV handles audio as Atmos metadata requires bitstreaming of DD+ which ATV4 currently does not do - it decodes and sends as LCPM which would loose Atmos metadata.
ah, I get it, this sucks
(Also explains why my AVR shows PCM instead of DD or DD+.)
I wouldn't expect Apple to provide Atmos support until it was clear Atmos was going to take off in the home theater market...
I would prefer Apple spend their efforts improving sound quality in general.
Atmos is taking off, especially with the new UHD blu-rays, and in AVRs.
Well, about the only thing they can do is allow for bypass of audio so our AVRs can handle decoding. No VOD or streaming service is going to do lossless audio with video until we get much higher internet speeds (on the low end, not what the wealthiest can buy). This is why I still prefer blu-ray discs, much higher quality audio, and video (no color banding or noise caused from compression).
More like 2-3Mbps (depends on the content though).
Most streaming providers use DD+ in low-bitrate mode (typically a few hundred kbps).
Actually many iTunes movies have 7.1 DD+ tracks now. You only get them when streaming them from the Internet via an ATV4 though. The downloaded version typically has a DD 5.1 track at 384kbps (probably for backward compatibility with the ATV3, which can't play DD+ via Homesharing).
Sorry, but, no, LPCM, DTS-MA (& X) and Dolby True HD (& Atmos) lossless run much higher, with a maximum of 18-24Mbs, which is why you only find them on Blu-ray discs. DD 5.1 (AC3) typically runs at 640kbs on blu-rays, but can run at 448kbs (DVD max), or 192kbs for 2.0 channels (384 is the MP3 rate, and the max for Laserdiscs). while DD+ (E-AC3/EC3) should be running at a higher bitrate than that, typically 1.7Mbs, it maxes out at 6.1Mbs, depending on number of channels and sample rate. Although, DD+ can run at lower rates, so, for streaming, you may be correct, depending on source, but, DD+ is supposedly a better compression than DD, (or at least more flexible).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Digital
What is 'Dolby Atmos'? I don't think it's as simple as saying it's surround sound with additional height channels as I've seen 'simple' soundbars and now even laptops touting 'Dolby Atmos' speakers. I'm wondering if Dolby might be allowing people to refer to Dolby Atmos in the same way as Dolby Digital Plus - i.e. can be low bitrate and 2.0 or high bitrate and 7.1 - no guarantees of a certain quality. As mentioned, VUDU yout Dolby Atmos on some of their 4K streams, but I'm fairly certain this isn't the same as you'll get on a UHD Blur Ray disc.
Atmos is object oriented audio, rather than balancing sound into specific channels, sound objects have an axis they can be moved through. A proper home configuration would include 2 or 4 ceiling speakers or speakers pointed at an up angle to bounce off the ceiling. Sound bars or laptops with Dolby Atmos, might be decoding it, but, not sure how it's implemented, gimmick. While DTS-X touts itself to be able to work with 2.1 or more speakers, I doubt the effect is anything more than "virtual". Both do have headphone versions, not sure how that works without extra speakers, but, whatever (I think it might be psychological.
). Here is a basic description, but, there are better reads on it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Atmos
https://www.dolby.com/us/en/brands/dolby-atmos.html
