(28-06-2024, 02:22 PM)king1 Wrote:(28-06-2024, 12:25 PM)nzoomed Wrote: Yes you need to install Dolby access to enable it, i think all that does is encode the signal over the HDMI, but as far as I can tell, it wont work through an existing sound card with the speakers connected to it.
From what that reddit page suggests, it still needs to go through an HDMI AVR.
I was hoping I could avoid that, since I have been using my own custom amplifiers (I build a ton of tube amps)
there is a pretty decent write-up about what Atmos actually is here for anyone interested...
https://www.whathifi.com/advice/dolby-at...you-get-it
Quote:But unlike traditional channel-based systems, Dolby Atmos doesn't just send audio at discrete levels to each speaker. The technology can also produce up to 118 simultaneous sound objects, allowing the sound designer to place each sound and voice to exact points within the sound field rather than simply assign them to specific channels. These objects can be manipulated and moved around within the space creating a convincing 3D soundstage.
It does seem to me that it necessarily needs to be hardware enabled within the amplifiers driving the speakers to be able to do all that object placement stuff it talks about...
Not sure how that is different from some kind of a Atmos enabled sound card that feeds a non-atmos enabled amp...
Maybe it is purely a licensing issue, perhaps the fee is too high to make it viable adding Atmos to a $50 sound card...
Yeah, it seems to be through licenced hardware from what I can tell.
That being said, I have been reading a bit this evening and found this.
https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/immersive...cos-r1092/
Looks like you need to install the Dolby True HD codec and purchase the Dolby media encoder. 400 dollars per year for the license, buy you can keep running the included Dolby reference player which is what you need to play the content.
Also there is an open source solution that may be worth trying out.
https://cavern.sbence.hu/cavern/downloads.php
Don't think I will worry about it too much at this point as it appears that the soundtracks on many films have not been mixed too well for atmos on the home releases from what I'm reading.
Also the cinema standard for atmos is far different to the consumer specifications and requires much more speakers etc.