Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Spatial Audio with Apple TV 4K
- Thread starter Mikeeee
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Spatial audio on AirPods max works for me for Disney+, Apple+, Amazon Prime, and Netflix. Accessing AirPods max settings not obvious-need to hold down the menu key to get to the control panel. The headphone icon is at the bottom of the control panel grouped with other speaker sections. Sounds better than my home theater speakers! I installed the latest TVOS 15 update yesterday
Great. Plugging my iPad into my tv for the spatial audio effect is getting old.
Spatial and Dolby atmos working great on my AppleTv 4k with AirPods Pro and AirPods max. Really nice upgrade to tvos15!
Is there something I am missing with this feature, or perhaps a setting I need to enable on my Apple TV 4K? For me, it just seems to direct the sound towards my display when I move around the room. It doesn’t in any way recreate a surround sound experience.
I have found this too and you can hear it happening. You get a micro stutter/audio drop every few minutes and it gets more out of sync with each stutter. Hit Pause and it restarts back in sync.
I love this feature. It as if the sound is coming from out in front of me rather than directly into my ears. Several times I actually forgot that I was wearing buds and almost turned down the volume as to not disturb anyone.
Yes, I've noticed synch issues as well which is something that has never happened with AirPods + Apple TV. As mentioned, a quick pause/restart fixes that issue.
Yes, I've noticed synch issues as well which is something that has never happened with AirPods + Apple TV. As mentioned, a quick pause/restart fixes that issue.
spatial audio is nice on apple tv and I've used it to watch Foundation with AirPods Pro. I like the 3d effect and the fact that the audio is l"locked" to the TV position, but voices become metallic with an artificial reverb on them. Overall quality also seems to become more compressed (lower bitrate per channel)
Yes, it is working with my AirPods Pros and Apple TV 4K. With TVOs 14 it was not very convenient to setup but is much easier with TVOs15. I have my AppleTV set for automatic updates but it did not update to TVOs 15, I had to do that manually. After that it all works as advertised. I have used it on Netflix and the latest Infuse. I doubt it is as good as a full blown 7.1 or 5.1 started but I am impressed.
I was thinking the same. Locking the sound in one spot is neat, but not at the cost of odd-sounding dialogue. Dialogue is pretty important.
for me the worst about it is the lack of presence of dialogue. if you switch off spatial audio voices are much more defined and intimate. but 3d effect is also nice so I keep turning it on and off...
Has anyone been able to compare the Airpods MAX with Spatial Audio on Apple TV with their actual surround sound speakers?
Of cos surround is better, Curious to know how much, how far is the difference
Of cos surround is better, Curious to know how much, how far is the difference
For me the principal difference is soundstage inside my head (headphones) vs around me (speakers).
Spatial in Atmos makes the soundstage 3-dimensional, but I feel it is still small and around the head.
Resolved issue with lip sync on spacial audio..unit was connected to processor which in turn connected to tv. Re plugging hdmi so direct to tv and no lip sync issue on Bluetooth! I assume some sort of feedback issue, but now great.
It's like going to Disney and comparing a real rollercoaster with one of those VR rides. Both are vastly different experiences, but each can be great in their own way.
Personally, I'm really enjoying spatial audio on my AirPods Pro when I'm on-the-go. At home though, it's 7.1.4 all the way!
(Unless it's Netflix. Then I guess it's just 5.1 ??)
It's like going to Disney and comparing a real rollercoaster with one of those VR rides. Both are vastly different experiences, but each can be great in their own way.
Personally, I'm really enjoying spatial audio on my AirPods Pro when I'm on-the-go. At home though, it's 7.1.4 all the way!
But when you listen to spatial audio through your home theater speakers, you are getting spatial effects as well, no? How does it sound compared with the standard audio of the same content?
What do you mean by "standard content"?
As of today*, Apple spatial audio content is actually Dolby Atmos. And Dolby Atmos is designed to translate to both speakers and AirPods. The same Dolby Atmos file is used in either case. In the home theater the audio and object data (spatial audio effects) get translated to speakers. In AirPods, iOS translates the audio and object data into binaural stereo playback.
*It is entirely possible Apple could switch to another object-based audio format, or even design their own. Hence the "spatial audio" label vs calling it Dolby Atmos.
As of today*, Apple spatial audio content is actually Dolby Atmos. And Dolby Atmos is designed to translate to both speakers and AirPods. The same Dolby Atmos file is used in either case. In the home theater the audio and object data (spatial audio effects) get translated to speakers. In AirPods, iOS translates the audio and object data into binaural stereo playback.
*It is entirely possible Apple could switch to another object-based audio format, or even design their own. Hence the "spatial audio" label vs calling it Dolby Atmos.
Spatial Audio is Apple’s headphone based Atmos presentation or surround sound virtualisation. If it’s not on a head phone, it’s not known as spatial audio.
The sound coming out of home theatre speakers is just known as Dolby Atmos, or surround sound.
There was discussion somewhere else that Apple missed out on a major marketing opportunity by calling spatial audio Dolby Atmos, and creating some confusion. Some people say it has to do with trademarks, etc. but my understanding that with spatial audio available on every Apple headphone/device, Apple has already paid the “Dolby Atmos for Headphones®“ licensing fees.
I think it’s more that Apple wanted to put their “Apple“ touch on things.
I keep thinking about that rumor from a while back where Apple was developing their own spatial audio format...
Here's a random link: https://appleinsider.com/articles/2...udio-format-for-apple-glass-and-other-ar-uses
If there's anything we've learned about Apple's M1 chips, is that Apple doesn't like to rely on 3rd-party suppliers for essential technology.