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Netflix Rolling Out Spatial Audio Support

hammie14 said:
It’s due to the face the AirPods Pro and AirPods Max have additional hardware to track the movement of your head. Other headphones like the AirPods do not have the hardware to support head tracking!
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Thanks, I know that, so in the article the important information is missing that Netflix is rolling out Spatial Audio Support with/for dynamic head tracking.
 
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Nice! Just tried it with the latest version of Netflix (14.2.0) and it's working! If you're not hearing it, make sure to turn spatial audio on.

How to Turn on Spatial Audio
1. Put on your AirPods Pro/Max and make sure it's paired to your iPhone/iPad
2. Bring up control center
3. Long press the volume bar
4. Tap spatial audio if it isn't already on.

I hope Apple will bring this feature to Macs in the future.
 
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hammie14 said:
It’s working for me in the UK 😀



Try watching something and then turn your head 90* left and then 180* left, you should here the audio change as you are moving you head!

It’s definitely and improvement for myself when listing to spatial audio on my AirPod Pro‘s
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And snap your head off.
 
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murdoc2k said:
Nice! Just tried it with the latest version of Netflix (14.2.0) and it's working! If you're not hearing it, make sure to turn spatial audio on.

How to Turn on Spatial Audio
1. Put on your AirPods Pro/Max and make sure it's paired to your iPhone/iPad
2. Bring up control center
3. Long press the volume bar
4. Tap spatial audio if it isn't already on.

I hope Apple will bring this feature to Macs in the future.
Click to expand...
It’s coming to MacOS Monterey.
 
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wwinter86 said:
But not on the Apple TV box?
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I’ve had it on the tvOS 15 beta for at least a month.

Also, this isn’t the same thing as Dolby Atmos for Apple Music. The AirPods Pro and AirPods Max have components in them like accelerometers to make this work.
 
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Used it this morning on latest tvOS15 beta, works great.

It’s great news, assumed Netflix weren’t going to bother based on past statements. I watch more stuff on Netflix than ATV+ & Disney+, it did irk me that spatial audio was available on the latter two but not Netflix.

Via headphones (AirPods Max) I’m not a fan of spatial audio for music. With the odd exception, it sounds more lossy than ever with an awful mix, like it’s weirdly focussed on the centre stage. I read some people evangelising how good the Beatles content was in spatial audio - I could not disagree more, IMO they’ve butchered the classics! I’ve disabled it completely for music.

Different story for video, it sounds great with AirPods Max. Notably wider sound stage and a genuine sense of surround.

On the previous tvOS beta the audio was slightly out of sync on the TV+ app. Oddly, Disney+ was fine then also started sounding out of sync. Not tried either with the new beta, hopefully this is fixed.
 
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On TVOS 15, is there any way to keep spatial audio, but turn off the head tracking? iPhone and iPad allow you to do it in the settings, but I can't find the equivalent in TVOS.
 
pbbfm said:
On TVOS 15, is there any way to keep spatial audio, but turn off the head tracking? iPhone and iPad allow you to do it in the settings, but I can't find the equivalent in TVOS.
Click to expand...
Go to Settings>Accessibility>AirPods (under Physical And Motor)>Your AirPods>Turn Off Center Audio on TV
 
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LoganT said:
Go to Settings>Accessibility>AirPods (under Physical And Motor)>Your AirPods>Turn Off Center Audio on TV
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Thank you!

Is anyone else having a weird issue with this, or maybe specifically Disney Plus...

If I open the D+ app with my AirPods already connected, it only shows 5.1 as the available soundtrack and will only play 5.1 in spatial audio.

But if I open the app with just my TV audio (LG OLED), it shows and plays as Atmos, and then I can connect the AirPods and the audio then shows as Spatial Audio + Dolby Atmos via AirPods.

Yet, if I quit out of the app and go back in, it's back to 5.1 as available.

Not only that, but when I do disconnect my AirPods, I have to go back into the Apple TV settings to change it back to Auto, Atmos Available, because it has now reverted to just Auto, even though the TV itself is still capable of Atmos.

I don't know if this is a beta bug or a Disney+ bug, because it hasn't done this with any of the other Spatial Audio-enabled apps that have Atmos.

EDITED TO ADD:

It may be a TVOS beta bug, because any time you switch to AirPods and back to TV speakers, the settings go from 'Auto, Atmos Available' to just 'Auto' and you have to manually turn Atmos off and back on to have it go back to 'Auto, Atmos Available'.

It doesn't appear to affect any other app (that I know of), because Netflix, Prime, Apple TV+ etc will all still play Atmos if available, no matter what the Auto settings say.

But there's something unique about the D+ app that means you literally have to make sure 'Auto, Atmos Available' is in the settings, launch D+, start the movie, THEN connect the AirPods to get Spatial with Atmos. Even if you back out of the movie and go to another, it reverts to 5.1. Then you have to quit the app, change the setting again, relaunch and repeat.

EDIT AGAIN

Anyone know where I can report this as a public beta tester? I can only find report options for actual developers.
 
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shady825 said:
Do you see any kind of icon on shows like how you’ll see a “4K” badge or something like that? Or do you just have to try it on different shows/movies?

EDIT: Working for me on breaking bad. No icon or any indication that the show supports it but it’s for sure working.
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No badge at all, yeah, but it works!! So great
 
yegon said:
It’s great news, assumed Netflix weren’t going to bother based on past statements. I watch more stuff on Netflix than ATV+ & Disney+, it did irk me that spatial audio was available on the latter two but not Netflix.

Via headphones (AirPods Max) I’m not a fan of spatial audio for music. With the odd exception, it sounds more lossy than ever with an awful mix, like it’s weirdly focussed on the centre stage. I read some people evangelising how good the Beatles content was in spatial audio - I could not disagree more, IMO they’ve butchered the classics! I’ve disabled it completely for music.
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This. I thought I was the only one noticing how spatial music was aimed at center stage. Also glad that Netflix did a 180 on spatial audio.
 
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How do you enable spatial audio on the apple tv?

I watched a movie on my iPad with spacial (Netflix), and it was incredible. I'd love to have the same effect on my Apple TV....
 
beanbaguk said:
How do you enable spatial audio on the apple tv?

I watched a movie on my iPad with spacial (Netflix), and it was incredible. I'd love to have the same effect on my Apple TV....
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I don’t know if the latest tvOS14 supports it, but the 15 beta does enable it. Never used a beta before on Apple TV, but I really wanted spatial audio so did it when the public beta became available. Not had any problems.
 
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yegon said:
I don’t know if the latest tvOS14 supports it, but the 15 beta does enable it. Never used a beta before on Apple TV, but I really wanted spatial audio so did it when the public beta became available. Not had any problems.
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I have the tvOS 15 beta installed but I can’t find any references….
 
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