Dolby Audio?

[austinsignal]

Pulled up Jeff Beck’s, Wired on Apple Music. It was designated ‘Dolby Audio’ vs ‘Dolby Atmos’. Anybody know what that’s all about?

 

[sbrom]

Answer from rom Perplexity AI, this correlates with my experience with Apple Music’s terminology.

• Dolby Audio is a traditional channel-based technology, typically supporting formats like 5.1 surround or quadraphonic (4.0). It enhances audio clarity and adjusts volume for a better listening experience but remains limited to 2D sound.
• Dolby Atmos, on the other hand, is object-based and creates a 3D spatial sound experience. It allows audio elements to move freely in a three-dimensional space, adding height channels for immersive listening, making it feel like sound comes from all around you

 

[MrSmithers]

It's just a branding thing I think, there's nothing really new about 'Dolby Audio', just a convenient tag for EAC-3 encodes in quad/5.1?

So the Jeff Beck Wired is the old 70s quad mix that then came out on SACD from Sony Japan in cool 7" Mini-LP packaging around 2016.

Most (if not all?) of the content named 'Dolby Audio' on Apple Music is actually from Sony Music - originally released on Tidal, Deezer and Amazon Music in MPEG-H as '360 Reality Audio'.

And in that, they're all actually previously mixed Quadraphonic and 5.1 mixes from yesteryear... Some of the old quad mixes are absolutely brilliant to listen to. How music should be mixed in surround with the handbrake fully off!

Amazon Music is the only one of those to still offer 360 Reality Audio. Interestingly the bitrate is double that of the Dolby Audio stuff on Apple Music. Even some albums that were originally released physically on DVD or DTS CD - like David Gilmore - On An Island, Weird 'Al Yankovic - Straight Outta Lynwood, Poco - Crazy Eyes etc... will have a better bitrate from the 360RA stream on Amazon.

Good on Sony for going back in the archives and releasing it. Hopefully the other labels could follow suit...

I'll try and cobble together a full list of albums available in quad/5.1, listed under the 'Dolby Audio' banner in Apple Music at some point...

 

[austinsignal]

It's just a branding thing I think, there's nothing really new about 'Dolby Audio', just a convenient tag for EAC-3 encodes in quad/5.1?

So the Jeff Beck Wired is the old 70s quad mix that then came out on SACD from Sony Japan in cool 7" Mini-LP packaging around 2016.

Most (if not all?) of the content named 'Dolby Audio' on Apple Music is actually from Sony Music - originally released on Tidal, Deezer and Amazon Music in MPEG-H as '360 Reality Audio'.

And in that, they're all actually previously mixed Quadraphonic and 5.1 mixes from yesteryear... Some of the old quad mixes are absolutely brilliant to listen to. How music should be mixed in surround with the handbrake fully off!

Amazon Music is the only one of those to still offer 360 Reality Audio. Interestingly the bitrate is double that of the Dolby Audio stuff on Apple Music. Even some albums that were originally released physically on DVD or DTS CD - like David Gilmore - On An Island, Weird 'Al Yankovic - Straight Outta Lynwood, Poco - Crazy Eyes etc... will have a better bitrate from the 360RA stream on Amazon.

Good on Sony for going back in the archives and releasing it. Hopefully the other labels could follow suit...

I'll try and cobble together a full list of albums available in quad/5.1, listed under the 'Dolby Audio' banner in Apple Music at some point...

Wow - thanks for the information…had no idea what it meant!

 

[J. PUPSTER]

It's just a branding thing I think, there's nothing really new about 'Dolby Audio', just a convenient tag for EAC-3 encodes in quad/5.1?

So the Jeff Beck Wired is the old 70s quad mix that then came out on SACD from Sony Japan in cool 7" Mini-LP packaging around 2016.

Most (if not all?) of the content named 'Dolby Audio' on Apple Music is actually from Sony Music - originally released on Tidal, Deezer and Amazon Music in MPEG-H as '360 Reality Audio'.

And in that, they're all actually previously mixed Quadraphonic and 5.1 mixes from yesteryear... Some of the old quad mixes are absolutely brilliant to listen to. How music should be mixed in surround with the handbrake fully off!

Amazon Music is the only one of those to still offer 360 Reality Audio. Interestingly the bitrate is double that of the Dolby Audio stuff on Apple Music. Even some albums that were originally released physically on DVD or DTS CD - like David Gilmore - On An Island, Weird 'Al Yankovic - Straight Outta Lynwood, Poco - Crazy Eyes etc... will have a better bitrate from the 360RA stream on Amazon.

Good on Sony for going back in the archives and releasing it. Hopefully the other labels could follow suit...

I'll try and cobble together a full list of albums available in quad/5.1, listed under the 'Dolby Audio' banner in Apple Music at some point...

Thanks MrSmithers!

It will be important IMO to have that quad/5.1 ‘Dolby Audio’ listing.

Don’t know if you have ‘Amazon Music Unlimited’ as well? ($9.99 a month required to receive Atmos/HD/360RA) But that would be great to have the Quad/5.1 titles of the Sony 360RA, listed also.

 

[haikubass]

If anyone's interested, here's my playlist of all the non-Atmos surround mixes available on Apple Music, compiled with the help of the collective wisdom on QQ.
Used the UFO logo just for fun to entertain myself.

 

[jimfisheye]

I've heard a handful of these "360" rips. Every one of them is extreme lo-fi. What you might expect from 64 bit mp3 or similar. At the same time, you can tell they came from a studio master. (ie. No telltale artifacts from decoded matrix encoded vinyl or tape.) Super frustrating to hear someone has access to the master when it's out of print and not available anywhere in full fidelity!

Or if it is possible to receive a full fidelity stream in some format with some "approved" device and possible to decode it, I haven't found any stream service or instruction that lands there and no one is sharing (instructions or full rips).

Kind of has the vibe of some of the bootleggers that put intentionally lowered quality copies of their recording on Youtube to flex (but not actually share). Or put up a recording with several tracks held back. You're listening to something I will not be able to. Congratulations I guess?

 

[privateuniverse]

There's also this thread dedicated to what 5.1/4.0 mixes folks are streaming.

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...ming-on-apple-music-in-5-1-dolby-audio.31315/

 

[barfle]

Hmmm. Got me thinking, which could be dangerous.

I have a fair collection of laserdiscs, and a handful of them have logos indicating “Digital Sound” or “Digital Audio.” Does anyone have an idea how that is encoded? Has anyone hacked a laserdisc player to extract the bits and store them directly in a rip?

I know the video is just analog NTSC or PAL on an FM carrier with two other FM carriers for the stereo audio, but I’ve never actually dug into that “digital” aspect.

Ant the thread goes off-topic.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Hmmm. Got me thinking, which could be dangerous.

I have a fair collection of laserdiscs, and a handful of them have logos indicating “Digital Sound” or “Digital Audio.” Does anyone have an idea how that is encoded? Has anyone hacked a laserdisc player to extract the bits and store them directly in a rip?

I know the videomis just analog NTSC or PAL on an FM carrier with two other FM carriers for the stereo audio, but I’ve never actually dug into that “digital” aspect.

Ant the thread goes off-topic.

As far as LD digital sound, it could be Dolby AC-3 (carried on one of the analog chs), DTS carried on the 2 ch 16/44.1 LPCM chs, or just 16/44.1 LPCM. Most likely if there are no Dolby/DTS logos on the cover it is probably the last one.

No need to get inside an LD player to extract those bits. My Pioneer DVL700 has an SPDIF output & my Delta 1010 "sound card" has an SPDIF input. Along with a pro level Black Magic video cap card, I've digitized many LD as uncompressed AVI video & original digital audio. The streams are completely separate so usually so I can upmix or alter the audio in AA 3 and save as 16/48 LPCM (or DTS if I'm doing upmixing). Then I MPEG encode the video at high bit rate and merge the audio video in DVDLab Pro. Easy peasy.

I have never captured audio from an LD using the AC3 or DTS streams.

 

[Owen Smith]

I have never captured audio from an LD using the AC3 or DTS streams.

The DTS streams should be able to be captured over SPDIF input same as LPCM provided the capture is bit perfect. It's hideous noise LPCM but it's still valid LPCM data.

To capture AC3 from laserdisc you would need an AC3 demodulator somewhere in the chain. Some late laserdisc players had these built in.

 

[barfle]

I’ve digitized a handful of my laserdiscs, but my player apparrently doesn’t see the digital audio, so it’s just three analog signals into the bitmaker. I’ll have to look into that Black Magic video card, but with Win 11 looming, I wonder if it would work with Ubuntu.

 

[jaybird100]

Hmmm. Got me thinking, which could be dangerous.

I have a fair collection of laserdiscs, and a handful of them have logos indicating “Digital Sound” or “Digital Audio.” Does anyone have an idea how that is encoded? Has anyone hacked a laserdisc player to extract the bits and store them directly in a rip?

I know the video is just analog NTSC or PAL on an FM carrier with two other FM carriers for the stereo audio, but I’ve never actually dug into that “digital” aspect.

Ant the thread goes off-topic.

Laserdiscs replaced one of the analog audio channels to carry the bitstream, rendering the analog sound from the disc to mono. The Dolby Digital bitstream was also handled by an RF carrier, requiring a demodulator connected between the player and the receiver. DTS LD's replaced both analog audio channels with the bitstream, and no demodulator needed.

 

[adspink]

If anyone's interested, here's my playlist of all the non-Atmos surround mixes available on Apple Music, compiled with the help of the collective wisdom on QQ.
Used the UFO logo just for fun to entertain myself.

Great playlist! I need to check some of those out. I’m a huge Pink Floyd fan and I had noticed the releases labeled “Dolby Audio” in Apple Music previously, and wasn’t sure what that was about. But then I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were 5.1 mixes. In particular, the 5.1 mix of the Division Bell is hard to find on disc, so the availability of that in streaming multichannel is very cool. I’m going to check out the rest of your playlist since I see it has Birds of Fire by Mahavishnu Orchestra and other cool albums.

With Apple Music really pushing Dolby Atmos, I hope they also go back and make available more of the 5.1 and quadrophonic releases in streaming, since they have the technical capability to do that for people who have the right equipment.

My setup for streaming surround is an Apple TV 4K device that goes into an Onkyo receiver with a 5.1.4 speaker setup.