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Tidal Debuts Dolby Atmos Music Support for Apple TV 4K

konqerror said:
768 kbps is the standard maximum bitrate for DD+ with Atmos.

Technology Dolby Audio Dolby Digital Plus | Dolby Developer

Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC-3) provides up to twice the efficiency of Dolby Digital while adding new features like 7.1-ch audio, support for descriptive video services, and support for Dolby Atmos. Dolby Digital Plus is widely used by streaming and broadcast services to deliver surround sound audio...
developer.dolby.com developer.dolby.com
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Oh. So it's like thermodynamics thing? They all start off around 1000 kbps but the hotter tracks lose more bits as they travel to the listener.
 
4jasontv said:
Oh. So it's like thermodynamics thing? They all start off around 1000 kbps but the hotter tracks lose more bits as they travel to the listener.
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What are you talking about? The Dolby Atmos over Dolby Digital+ standard has a maximum bitrate of 768 kbps. For compatibility, Tidal has to stick to the spec or else some devices may not be able to play it.

Because some devices, like Fire TV, must pass Atmos audio streams directly to the external device (TV, AV Receiver, Soundbar), there's hundreds of devices the stream must remain compatible with.
 
Meh, Tidal is hanging for Apple to buy them once there finished dissolving the beats brand... :cool::cool::apple::apple:
 
DD+ (E-AC3) can actually go up a lot higher (up to 6Mbps) according to this page. Also discussed here

I’ve definitely seen much higher DD+ bit rates in the past on other media.

The other link just said 768kbps was a typical rate. The same rate is used for Atmos soundtracks on films purchased from iTunes.

I just assumed the rate would be higher for a premium service advertising sound quality. Especially when stereo ‘master’ files are already streaming at a higher rate (meaning bandwidth isn’t the issue).
 
Was a subscriber 3 years ago, liked it but I decided to thin the streaming herd. Now with military discount the HiFi cost drops to 12/month. When I was a subscriber MQA was only available on desktops. Now APP processes first pass MGA any IOS post 11 device , whatever that means. Says master in lower corner of APP screen, is that like 5Ge on AT&T? Signed up again to try it.
 
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macsound1 said:
What's the compelling advantage for stereo music with Atmos?
Is it doing like ProLogic where it just distributes the two channels based on phase?
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An Atmos enabled AVR can potentially upmix stereo, 5.1, or 7.1 mixes to utilize all speakers in the Atmos system in a way similar to but more advanced than Pro Logic. The compelling advantage is really with actual Atmos content.
 
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konqerror said:
What are you talking about? The Dolby Atmos over Dolby Digital+ standard has a maximum bitrate of 768 kbps. For compatibility, Tidal has to stick to the spec or else some devices may not be able to play it.

Because some devices, like Fire TV, must pass Atmos audio streams directly to the external device (TV, AV Receiver, Soundbar), there's hundreds of devices the stream must remain compatible with.
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Think it’s humor , could be wrong 🤭
 
I have a nice pair of floor standing speakers an atmos compatible AV receiver and an appleTV 4k ... is Tidal worthwhile for me without the full atmos speaker set up?

thanks
 
MAcNIAC said:
I have a nice pair of floor standing speakers an atmos compatible AV receiver and an appleTV 4k ... is Tidal worthwhile for me without the full atmos speaker set up?

thanks
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It depends what you can hear and what you are sensitive to? I have zero tolerance for cymbal wash and the loss of shimmer, decay, and place of percussion instruments. I find that's the very 1st thing to go when you start compressing audio. I don't have extremely expensive equipment, but I do use a dedicated DAC, amp, and have decent IEM's by Campfire Audio.
 
djphat2000 said:
I may be switching from Qobuz to Tidal mainly for the Hi-Res audio. Qobuz was less at $15 per month. This is $20. Have to see if I will want to keep paying that price for 1 user account. However, adding it to my AppleTV 4k is helping that cause along now. I would totally be only apple music if they did this too. But, we will have to wait and see. I hope Apple does an HD add-on SOON!
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likewise, the HomePod does support Hi-Res audio; supposedly.
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derbothaus said:
While not perfect, Tidal is the best balance of catalogue and quality for me. Been a subscriber for over 4 years. Spotify never rolled out their higher quality tier (no idea why) and Apple music is DOA to me due to lackluster sound quality. There are some others worth checking out like Amazon HD and Qobuz, but Tidal's integration has the best options right now. Apple Music and Spotify are adequate for folks who are fine with wireless audio over the anemic bluetooth bandwidth, but it frustrates and angers me that people are ok and actually pay for this. It's nice to see Apple not forcing users to adopt their current philosophy of low quality audio only and continue to let users decide what they like.
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you’re ignoring that not everybody can hear the difference of quality. Not to mention convenience and speeds of several catalogs for synching betweeen iPhone & Watch shiv I wish would used Wi-Fi over Bluetooth- yet I think recently has finally been enabled. Let’s hope a change occurs.
 
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MAcNIAC said:
I have a nice pair of floor standing speakers an atmos compatible AV receiver and an appleTV 4k ... is Tidal worthwhile for me without the full atmos speaker set up?

thanks
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You really ask more for than one question here. And depends Also on what audio sources/services you have today.

If you are asking specifically about Atmos Music and not Tidal, if your receiver is good at virtual speaker setup, you will get some more effect of the spatial objects in the mix.

For Tidal Hifi like the other “HD”/“Hires” audio services, the benefit is the higher quality 2-channel stereo formats. It offers lossless audio formats, higher bit depth/sampling frequency as well as also/or better mastered files.

the latter benefits will for most two channel setups be of more value than Atmos Music in my opinion. But it all depends on what matters to you.

A few extra inexpensive speakers to fill the spaciousness of Atmos can do quite much, and many modern receivers have gotten much better at calibrating the sound response from even more inferior speakers.
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pob42 said:
DD+ (E-AC3) can actually go up a lot higher (up to 6Mbps) according to this page. Also discussed here
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It is also important to note that e-ac3 compression is much better than normal ac3 as well as mp3 and other older compression formats.
 
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I'm going to go out on a limb and guess the Atmos mix of Abbey Road isn't available?
 
So, to be clear, these “Atmos” songs are still being streamed in 2-channel and not multi-channel surround sound?
 
Fun fact: it’s 2020 and still not possible to author Atmos content using Logic X or any Apple pro software.

From one point of view it’s not surprising as only two DAWs in a world with dozens (ProTools and Nuendo) are capable of authoring Atmos, and that while not new Atmos is still not super accessible to developers and consumers.

But when you consider Apple‘s wealth and capability, and surveys that show more people use Logic than Pro Tools, it’s obvious Apple has misplaced priorities. It should be embarrassing to Apple that they advertise “Atmos” on their devices (even iPhones, whatever that means), but you can’t develop that Atmos content using Apple software.
 
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