Just curious, is there a reason you chose Tidal over Apple for your streaming service? Having used both Tidal/Nvidia Shield 2019 and Apple Music/Apple TV4k connected to my Denon AVR, I prefer the Apple setup.
Listening to in Dolby Atmos Streaming, via Tidal/Apple/Amazon
- Thread starter beerking
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Not OP, but if you like nerdy in-depth credit information, Tidal is fantastic. If that’s not your thing, then Apple Music seems to be the clear winner in the content category. Tidal *may* have a larger Atmos library since they were first in the game, but many artists are starting releasing Apple Music exclusives, and I cannot recall Tidal having any exclusives recently. Tidal is also very bad at actually showing/finding new releases, while Apple Music is basically spot on. Tidal may actually have the album Apple Music has, but it won’t appear on Tidal’s “just released” or “new” section. Basically, Tidal puts in very little effort in this area.
You definitely hit on some of the reasons I like Apple better. I also found the volume level differential between Atmos and stereo less extreme with Apple. I hated leaving Tidal, in part because i was also using Roon. If I recall correctly, Apple getting Pearl Jam Ten when Tidal didn’t have it is what pushed my to try it. I used both side by side for a few months until Apple emerged the clear favorite.
Fear is the main reason. I am actually a Mac guy for a few years, and I have over 18,000 songs on my phone and my iTunes app on my Mac (non-streaming) but when I tried a trial of Apple streaming 4 months ago, somehow they wiped out all of my years of ripped CD’s and getting the music back even from my backup has been a 4 month nightmare, still have lost about 1/3 of the artwork which iTunes doesn’t recognize. Their artwork lookup program sucks. Even ripping brand new music from a CD with embedded artwork, since they don’t sell it at Apple, they don’t associate the artwork with it. I don’t want or need a streaming service except to get Atmos versions of songs that you can’t own, like on Blu-Ray, etc.
Also, it seems that at least on the phone app for Tidal, the Atmos songs and albums are way more clearly marked. I have not had any luck trying to find Atmos music on Apple unless I have heard about it from someone else and then you have to search for it. Is there a easier way to find Atmos mixes on Apple?
If you buy the Apple TV4K do you need the one that has Wi-Fi and Ethernet? I’m guessing you have the Denon ARV connected to Apple TV via a HDMI cable like the fire stick setup with Tidal? Do both versions have a HDMI input? If so then what the advantage to the Ethernet port?
Is there anyway to search out what’s in Atmos on Apple Music that’s user friendly?
Is there anyway to search out what’s in Atmos on Apple Music that’s user friendly?
Speed and reliability are the two main reasons one might prefer Ethernet. My house has terrible WiFi, plus sometimes I play 4K UHD remuxes using Plex, which takes a fair amount of bandwidth.
Either model of the current (and last gen! But only the current generation can duck vocals on songs for a karaoke mode) Apple TV 4K works with Atmos, as long as it’s the 4K version, and not the HD version. Yep, Apple TV to receiver/eARC. Advantage for the Ethernet port version is that you can get gigabit internet to it for streaming movies and the like, and the Ethernet version has more storage if you want to get into using the Apple TV as a gaming device.
As for searching... there kind of… is none? I use a combo of checking the Spatial Audio “genre” page (underneath search), the new releases under ”Browse”, this very thread, the Reddit subreddit r/spatialsongs, and this site by Ben Dodson which scrapes across Apple Music artist by artist trying to find new atmos mixes. You can see the scraping in action (until twitter changes their API rules next week) via the linked twitter account on that site. The hope is that Apple is working on some sort of big overhaul of the UI/UX for Apple Music, considering Tim Cook has responded to An open letter by a UX designer, and also Apple bought the classical music streaming service Primephonic with the intent to use it’s metadata tech to improve Apple Music
harync
Senior Member
Yeah, that’s the one downfall of Apple Music. I experienced a converse problem, when I inadvertently linked my AppleTV to my 500GB iTunes library. Instead of being able to quickly just listen to Atmos music (my only reason for having the AppleTV), the library was a cluttered mess.
In the end, the solution was to have a Windows PC that runs iTunes without being logged in to Apple. That connects to my iphone, which is the only device that can have both my music library and access to Apple Music without causing problems. I also have a MacBook with Apple Music only to edit folders, etc which you can’t really do on AppleTV.
Apple really needs to make a decision on what Apple Music is trying to be. Right now it ends up doing everything sub-par.
So if you use the Ethernet version, you still connect the Apple TV to the AVR with an HDMI cable AND an Ethernet cable to your router I’m assuming? If I go that route, I’d buy the newest one, but will the Apple TV4K automatically recognize their is a wired connection, or do you need to tell it during setup?
So if I get an Apple TV can I avoid it linking to my iTunes library, but still stream Atmos?
The ethernet version also can connect via Wi-Fi, but for best performance you’d connect to your router, correct. It will automatically recognize that there is a wired connection if you go that route. I believe it might do a “are you connecting wired/wirelessly” prompt, but once you select wired, and assuming it’s already plugged in, it will handle the rest.
If you go with Wi-Fi it will pair the same way any Wi-Fi device does: bring up a list of nearby connections, you select the one you want and enter your password
By default, your iTunes library is tied to your Apple ID, which you created if/when you ever bought music from iTunes, or set up another apple device, etc. And that Apple ID is how you log in to Apple Music. In theory iTunes Libraries and Apple Music are separate, however some users have reported that the cloud synced version of their iTunes library (a feature of Apple Music) got deleted if they stop subscribing to Apple Music for 30 days. My understanding is the files on your physical hard drive for whatever computer has your iTunes library now should be unaffected by this.
To be completely certain, you could create a brand new Apple ID that you use *just* on the Apple TV, but any movies, tv shows, music purchases etc tied to your old Apple ID wouldn’t show up under the new one
harync
Senior Member
Yes, you just gave to make sure that the pc that has the library does not connect to Apple Music. It’s easier to do this with a Windows pc as they still use iTunes. Not sure if that is possible with a mac since they eliminated iTunes and both library and streaming functionality is in the same Music app.
himey
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AM on a Mac will get Atmos I hear.
That's an idea, a new Id just for the Apple TV!. Thx! I don't need to deal with that hassle again!
I was using the ethernet port on my Apple 4k TV but I switched to wi-fi because when using the ethernet it was requesting a DHCP from the router every 30 seconds or so. I tried various ways to stop it by putting it to sleep, powering down, letting it put itself to sleep (does it do that?) but still kept hammering the router.
I was hoping the same, but I'm only able to find it in stereo on both Apple and Tidal. I really loved Depeche in 5.1 (from discs). Some very enjoyable mixes. Hope both new and old material show up in Atmos soon.
heavensolid98
Active Member
bit more tricky to set up but its doable (capped at 7.1.4)
Seems to go to 9.1.6 now. Tricky is of course in the eye of the beholder
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/dolby-atmos-on-macos.31880/post-673860
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