Best Dolby Atmos ®™️ Demos for My New System?

[Eggplant]

Said I wouldn’t, but I did.

After shelling out for a new LG 77” OLED with Dolby Vision®, I had to upgrade everything:

Apple TV 4K
Yamaha 7.2 Atmos® receiver. See, my five-year old Sony won’t pass thru the HDR data, and it’s no longer upgradeable. So off to Costco for that at $489 (missed a $90 instant rebate).

From there, it’s only a small skip to Dolby-approved NHT Atmos® Minis to go atop my front NHT towers for ceiling-firing “presence.”
No Surround Backs at this time, even though I do have another unused pair of NHT towers somewhere.

Now that it’s all set up and running (except my NHT powered sub, which lights up but puts out nothing), I’ve been scouring the online services for Atmos® demo material. Started with a four-minute cartoon on Prime called Dolby Presents: Escape with music by Imogen Heap. Nice effects — some stuff firing overhead. Then took on Netflix’s Rim of the World, starring kids fighting aliens but made for adults. Your usual slam-bang-boom. In the movie, no music came from the presence speakers. But the short demo did have music “presence.” Remains to be seen how effective these effects will be from ceiling-firing speakers. I suspect wall-hung ones at height would do better.

Any suggestions for demo-quality Atmos® musical content — albums, concerts, or maybe just movie clips? Rim had a clip with the first surround mix I’ve heard of Nelly. How about musicals like Bohemian Rhapsody or La La Land? Or the new Halloween? With my Apple TV 4K I can get dang near anything available.

 

[HomerJAU]

The problem with an AppleTV is getting to play your own files. I used a Kodi embedded app called MrMc on my ATV. That’s is not free but it does allow me to play my own files.

The ATV with MRMC app is great for movies on my server or hard drive and will play hires MCH FLAC. It will also play Atmos files (MKV with Atmos), DTS:X, DTS-HDMA, TrueHD etc) via HDMI pass through to my AVR.

Is there anyway you’ve found to play files from your ATV?

 

[Eggplant]

Not sure what you mean by “play files from your ATV.”
FLAC files?
I don’t use a PC — only iPad and iPhone.
Don’t know if they can download and play those files through ATV.

 

[edisonbaggins]

This might help:

Music in Atmos - Worst to Best



Albums discussed:
Sgt Pepper's - The Beatles
Live in Madrid - Michael Schenker's Temple of Rock
The Dolby Atmos Experience - Luca Turilli's Rhapsody
RPWL - A New Dawn
Hans Zimmer - Live in Prague
Roger Waters - The Wall Live
Metallica - Through the Never
Booka Shade - Galvany Street
INXS - Kick 30th Anniversary
Kraftwerk - Numbers (The Catalogue)
R.E.M. Automatic for the People (AFtP)

More info, including links to Atmos music lists, in video description.

 

[HomerJAU]

Not sure what you mean by “play files from your ATV.”
FLAC files?
I don’t use a PC — only iPad and iPhone.
Don’t know if they can download and play those files through ATV.

My last post was about the ATV ‘closed world’ - restricting playback/streaming to online content only Apple approves.

Atmos can’t be converted to MCH FLAC and retain the object data and number of discrete objects (like channels).

There’s not too many ATV apps that can play Atmos and very few Atmos Music releases as of now. You may be able to find a couple of bit starved Atmos concerts on Netflix (or Amazon Prime if that supports Atmos?).
Otherwise it’s going to be buying BDAs or BDVs with Atmos and playing them back on your BD player to your AVR. Or buying another media player that supports file playback.

The upcoming Universal Music Group Atmos Music releases may find their way onto a streaming service in the future but that’s not yet confirmed.

 

[Eggplant]

There’s not too many ATV apps that can play Atmos and very few Atmos Music releases as of now. You may be able to find a couple of bit starved Atmos concerts on Netflix (or Amazon Prime if that supports Atmos?).

Bit starved?
4K HDR streaming requires much higher bandwidth than Blu-Ray, so there’s no reason to save a few bits on the audio. Netflix offers possibly the highest quality signal available today.

Netflix, Prime, and hulu apps all support Atmos.
YouTube app may also support it as it now does 4K HDR.
iTunes music also has lots of Atmos movies for sale or rent.

What media player that is not a PC can play Atmos files through HDMI?

 

[HomerJAU]

Bit starved?

Netflix Atmos is 640kbs (Max) (based on lossy Dolby Digital). BD Atmos is usually around 6000 to 7000kbps (based on lossless Dolby TrueHD).

Listening to Atmos concerts on Netflix, Amazon or Hulu is probably the only option for music currently for the ATV.

Take a look at the Media Player sub forum here on QQ for some media player info. I use an Intel NUC with Kodi. You can install Windows on a NUC and then run any media player app that supports HDMI Passthrough. JRiver, Kodi not sure what others do HDMI Passthrough but posting there you may get more responses. Neither of these support HDR yet. That’s coming in late 2019. Mind you you don’t need HDR for Atmos Music.

The new Raspberry Pi 4 will be the cheapest device but it’s a DIY kit (like the NUC although you can buy a NUC preassembled with Windows installed from Amazon) or you can use a Linux based OS with Kodi (LibreElec which is free). I use LibreElec on two Intel NUCs for MCH music and videos.

 

[Eggplant]

Thanks, but not interested in anything Windows. Microsoft and PC’s are out of my life forever, with good riddance. If there’s no small plug-and-play device yet, I’ll just wait till there is.

 

[salsdali]

What media player that is not a PC can play Atmos files through HDMI?

Nvidia Shield (android based) running Kodi. I play mkv rips of BD discs thru it via HDMI out to my atmos receiver.

 

[bluelightning]

Bit starved?
4K HDR streaming requires much higher bandwidth than Blu-Ray, so there’s no reason to save a few bits on the audio. Netflix offers possibly the highest quality signal available today.

Netflix, Prime, and hulu apps all support Atmos.
YouTube app may also support it as it now does 4K HDR.
iTunes music also has lots of Atmos movies for sale or rent.

What media player that is not a PC can play Atmos files through HDMI?

A lot of Android based media players , such as NVIDIA shield can play atmos. Just need Kodi or an app like that.

 

[4-earredwonder]

Said I wouldn’t, but I did.

After shelling out for a new LG 77” OLED with Dolby Vision®, I had to upgrade everything:

Apple TV 4K
Yamaha 7.2 Atmos® receiver. See, my five-year old Sony won’t pass thru the HDR data, and it’s no longer upgradeable. So off to Costco for that at $489 (missed a $90 instant rebate).

From there, it’s only a small skip to Dolby-approved NHT Atmos® Minis to go atop my front NHT towers for ceiling-firing “presence.”
No Surround Backs at this time, even though I do have another unused pair of NHT towers somewhere.

Now that it’s all set up and running (except my NHT powered sub, which lights up but puts out nothing), I’ve been scouring the online services for Atmos® demo material. Started with a four-minute cartoon on Prime called Dolby Presents: Escape with music by Imogen Heap. Nice effects — some stuff firing overhead. Then took on Netflix’s Rim of the World, starring kids fighting aliens but made for adults. Your usual slam-bang-boom. In the movie, no music came from the presence speakers. But the short demo did have music “presence.” Remains to be seen how effective these effects will be from ceiling-firing speakers. I suspect wall-hung ones at height would do better.

Any suggestions for demo-quality Atmos® musical content — albums, concerts, or maybe just movie clips? Rim had a clip with the first surround mix I’ve heard of Nelly. How about musicals like Bohemian Rhapsody or La La Land? Or the new Halloween? With my Apple TV 4K I can get dang near anything available.

Congrats on your new LG 77" OLED ...... TOP RECOMMENDATION: https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Saving-Private-Ryan-4K-Blu-ray/200172/#Review [Dolby Vision/HDR/ATMOS]

Bohemian Rhapsody UHD 4K review: https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Bohemian-Rhapsody-4K-Blu-ray/217775/#Review

Spiderman: Into the Spider Verse UHD 4K: https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Spider-Man-Into-the-Spider-Verse-4K-Blu-ray/222810/#Review

 

[HomerJAU]

MRMC app (contains Kodi) for ATV is an option but you need a small server to access the files. Maybe a small wireless hard drive would work but you still need a PC or MAC to rip your BDs to files.

 

[edisonbaggins]

Rocketman had some good Atmos music, when I saw it in the theater.

 

[HomerJAU]

Wouldn’t it be sensational if the Rocketman BD release had those complete songs as Atmos Music only (or Music Videos) as extras!!

 

[4-earredwonder]

Wouldn’t it be sensational if the Rocketman BD release had those complete songs as Atmos Music only (or Music Videos) as extras!!

The only 'rub' Homer is that Taron Egerton who plays Elton is doing all his own singing. Would be better, IMO, if those unreleased Elton John remixes would be re~purposed for Dolby Atmos and released on BD~A!

 

[Eggplant]

Rocketman had some good Atmos music, when I saw it in the theater.

About that ...
Any of them studio original versions?

Is Hollywood actually mixing movie music in Atmos — using all channels? Odd, since until most directors were too conservative to even mix music in surround — even in a musical (2007’s “Across the Universe” had not one goddamn song use the rears at all). Maybe that’s finally changing.

 

[Eggplant]

Thanks to all for telling me about Nividia Shield.
That looks like something that might work if I can solve the storage issue.
I will be running mostly music-only.

 

[weekendtoy]

Remains to be seen how effective these effects will be from ceiling-firing speakers. I suspect wall-hung ones at height would do better.

I started with up-firing speakers fore and aft. After experimenting with height speakers (SVS Prime Elevation) I found the 3D immersive effect to be a lot better both for music and movies. I have them tucked away in the bookshelves in the back and wall mounted up front. I would suspect that in/on ceiling would up things another notch or two.