Apple Joining the Atmos streaming game!

[BananaSlug]

But so many more Apple exclusives I'd kill to have on Tidal. Oddly many of those are in Sony 360 on Tidal which is of course useless.

The weirdest most recent example of that is the Porcupine Tree 'Harridan' track. Is there any obvious link between Porcupine Tree's label and Sony?

I thought I read that PT are now on Sony.

 

[fredblue]

Yes, but knowing you Adam, you probably already have the BD don't you?

you know me too well!

 

[myhikingboots]

Sorry if this the wrong place to ask this, but is Apple Music and Tidal the only two ways to stream surround music to an avr? And what hardware do you need for that?

 

[Cheezmo]

For Apple Music, you need an AppleTV 4K. Not sure about Tidal.

 

[elee532]

Sorry if this the wrong place to ask this, but is Apple Music and Tidal the only two ways to stream surround music to an avr? And what hardware do you need for that?

I’m not aware of any of the other major music streaming services that offer Atmos or surround. Amazon has some fake 360 thing going on that only works on an Echo speaker. Beyond that, i don’t believe there is anything else.

 

[myhikingboots]

I’m not aware of any of the other major music streaming services that offer Atmos or surround. Amazon has some fake 360 thing going on that only works on an Echo speaker. Beyond that, i don’t believe there is anything else.

I have amazon music unlimited and I noticed the 360 badge on some songs after an update on my PC and iPhone, but so far it only works on my Sony headphones. You can switch back and forth between stereo and 360, but it's hard to do an A and B comparison though because so far all of the stereo songs are noticeably louder when switching. Did not work with my 4K Firestick hooked up to my avr.

 

[pat bateman]

But so many more Apple exclusives I'd kill to have on Tidal. Oddly many of those are in Sony 360 on Tidal which is of course useless.

The weirdest most recent example of that is the Porcupine Tree 'Harridan' track. Is there any obvious link between Porcupine Tree's label and Sony?

If you have a Mac, you can rip using Audacity. The Atmos metadata won't be there, but you will at least be able to keep a copy of the 5.1 forever. With all this licensing BS, some releases will almost certainly disappear after a while. It's already happening on Tidal. Booka Shade - Dear Future Self went off of Tidal and on to Apple Music.

The Porcupine Tree thing is an odd decision. Maybe its a record label thing, but Steven Wilson seems to be a control freak, so I doubt it. Obviously Apple Music is reaching a larger audience than Tidal. He released his last solo album on Tidal Atmos, but maybe that was because Apple Music just didn't have Atmos yet. But Tidal also pays 2X per stream than Apple Music to the artist. Hard to figure out why.

 

[pat bateman]

For Apple Music, you need an AppleTV 4K. Not sure about Tidal.

For Tidal

ATV 4K (either generation)
Nvidia Shield 2019 (either standard or Pro)
Fire Stick 4K (don't recommend - buggy at best)

 

[Radsen]

<<edit: don’t worry I’ve waded through this post and a million other links and see there’s not much chance unless Apple release the app for android tv, or I suppose if I can pick up an Apple TV and split the hdmi signal into my soundbar>>

If I have an Nvidia shield pro connected to Samsung tv capable of airplay and atmos soundbar plus an iPhone (albeit a 6s plus) am I right in thinking I can’t play atmos through Apple Music? I’ve just tried the tv app and the phone app through airplay and got nothing.

If I connected an Apple TV I understand that would work. Would a better iPhone on airplay work?

Can I sideload the Apple Music app to Nvidia shield to get hi res and atmos sound?

would it work played through windows 10?

 

[pat bateman]

<<edit: don’t worry I’ve waded through this post and a million other links and see there’s not much chance unless Apple release the app for android tv, or I suppose if I can pick up an Apple TV and split the hdmi signal into my soundbar>>

If I have an Nvidia shield pro connected to Samsung tv capable of airplay and atmos soundbar plus an iPhone (albeit a 6s plus) am I right in thinking I can’t play atmos through Apple Music? I’ve just tried the tv app and the phone app through airplay and got nothing.

If I connected an Apple TV I understand that would work. Would a better iPhone on airplay work?

Can I sideload the Apple Music app to Nvidia shield to get hi res and atmos sound?

would it work played through windows 10?

You are SOL. Sell the shield and buy an ATV 4K. ATV is a better experience in every way with the exception that the Shield passes through TRUE-HD audio, etc to an AVR which really only matters for uncompressed Blu-ray movies. Airplay does not support Atmos.

Set your expectations though. Atmos through a sound bar is not very impressive.

 

[popshop]

@myhikingboots the cheapest method is a free trial through Tidal and the Firestick 4k, but your AVR has to be Atmos-capable. Mine wasn't (and is 5.1.2) but I did a software update and it works pretty well. Tidal doesn't have all of the releases that apple does (no beatles, pearl jam, or floyd).
Apple is $10/month plus the $180 for the ATV4K dongle thingie. As this thread shows, it's buggy based on the OS version (15.2 may still be buggy?) and whatever handshake is happening with the each listener's AVR.
Long story short, the future is here but it doesn't work very well yet!
I personally think spotify or someone else will swoop in with lossless atmos... or at least something better than what it is. Basically scalable dolby digital.

 

[myhikingboots]

@myhikingboots the cheapest method is a free trial through Tidal and the Firestick 4k, but your AVR has to be Atmos-capable. Mine wasn't (and is 5.1.2) but I did a software update and it works pretty well. Tidal doesn't have all of the releases that apple does (no beatles, pearl jam, or floyd).
Apple is $10/month plus the $180 for the ATV4K dongle thingie. As this thread shows, it's buggy based on the OS version (15.2 may still be buggy?) and whatever handshake is happening with the each listener's AVR.
Long story short, the future is here but it doesn't work very well yet!
I personally think spotify or someone else will swoop in with lossless atmos... or at least something better than what it is. Basically scalable dolby digital.

I think Amazon maybe close, but I worry about the hardware. I love the precious few music Atmos blu-rays I have, and I am salivating for the wave of newly accessible music when it finally happens.

 

[Radsen]

You are SOL. Sell the shield and buy an ATV 4K. ATV is a better experience in every way with the exception that the Shield passes through TRUE-HD audio, etc to an AVR which really only matters for uncompressed Blu-ray movies. Airplay does not support Atmos.

Set your expectations though. Atmos through a sound bar is not very impressive.

“Shield passes through TRUE-HD audio, etc to an AVR which really only matters for uncompressed Blu-ray movies.”

what would happen on the atv in this scenario?

 

[himey]

“Shield passes through TRUE-HD audio, etc to an AVR which really only matters for uncompressed Blu-ray movies.”

what would happen on the atv in this scenario?

Lossy audio...

 

[Cheezmo]

If you have a Mac, you can rip using Audacity. The Atmos metadata won't be there, but you will at least be able to keep a copy of the 5.1 forever.

Rip what? It sounds like you are saying you can rip a Dolby Atmos track from Apple Music. Surely not.

 

[adamschoales]

If you have a Mac, you can rip using Audacity. The Atmos metadata won't be there, but you will at least be able to keep a copy of the 5.1 forever. With all this licensing BS, some releases will almost certainly disappear after a while. It's already happening on Tidal. Booka Shade - Dear Future Self went off of Tidal and on to Apple Music.

The Porcupine Tree thing is an odd decision. Maybe its a record label thing, but Steven Wilson seems to be a control freak, so I doubt it. Obviously Apple Music is reaching a larger audience than Tidal. He released his last solo album on Tidal Atmos, but maybe that was because Apple Music just didn't have Atmos yet. But Tidal also pays 2X per stream than Apple Music to the artist. Hard to figure out why.

I would LOVE more information on this. Would love to preserve some of these mixes for the future. Especially after what we saw happen with Mayer's "Sob Rock".

 

[benfolds5]

New Atmos mix to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Air's 2nd album.
https://music.apple.com/il/album/10-000-hz-legend-2021-remastered/1589310076
I gave it a quick spin and it sounds like they did a great job with it.
There's also an interview with Zane Lowe in which the duo talks about the new Atmos mix at the 15min mark.
https://music.apple.com/il/artist/air/5641488

 

[popshop]

Friends, I impulsively bought a $129 apple tv 4k 32gig box today with the 6 month trial from best buy. Set it up, doesn't play in atmos on the same system that does with firestick 4k/tidal. On apple I see the version is still only 14.4, so I assume I should upgrade.
Where do you upgrade? I can't find anything in the app on the apple tv box.
Newbie over here, sorry. My first piece of apple anything...

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Friends, I impulsively bought a $129 apple tv 4k 32gig box today with the 6 month trial from best buy. Set it up, doesn't play in atmos on the same system that does with firestick 4k/tidal. On apple I see the version is still only 14.4, so I assume I should upgrade.
Where do you upgrade? I can't find anything in the app on the apple tv box.
Newbie over here, sorry. My first piece of apple anything...

Do not update yet!!!! Let's see if we can get you going first, the newer versions have a bug for the Atmos.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Friends, I impulsively bought a $129 apple tv 4k 32gig box today with the 6 month trial from best buy. Set it up, doesn't play in atmos on the same system that does with firestick 4k/tidal. On apple I see the version is still only 14.4, so I assume I should upgrade.
Where do you upgrade? I can't find anything in the app on the apple tv box.
Newbie over here, sorry. My first piece of apple anything...

Hmm, you might be in os no man's land Ian; just reviewing some earlier posts, you might need a minimum of 14.6 to get it to work, but probably don't have control over version. It will probably dump you into 15.2