Tidal Adds Dolby Atmos Music

[perzon57]

Amazon Fire TV 4K Tidal App needs to see an Atmos capable system via its HDMI.
)
When it happens that he don't see it, for whatever reason, a new HDMI handshake and/or Tidal App handshake has to be launched.

This may be done by rebooting, better disconnecting the Fire TV. Reinstalling the app also works.

When i used my Firestick 4K for Tidal Atmos and this problem arose, I tried both restarting and disconnecting,but neither worked.I asked about it here on QQ (after trying Tidal support ) and got the answer that I had to uninstall/reinstall and that worked and has ever since.But I couldn't risk my speakers anymore so I quit Tidal.Several times the the Atmos went away in the middle of an playlist/album.A little silence and then bang, +20db non Atmos music.The other main problem is when I played an playlist and it ended without me noticing, then Tidal decides to play a non Atmos song becouse they think I'll like it, even if I have only Atmos music in my playlists.
If they fix this problems I will be back, but I don't really suppose that will happen.

 

[Albert Dagger]

Great News. My LG TV has just suggested me to download the new Tidal App (LG TV BX 55 OLED). I can now listen to the Atmos albums via TV and AVR, bypassing external devices (such as an Apple TV or a Fire Stick, which I don't own). My set up is with 5 channels only, so I'm only hearing the bed channels, but that's good enough for me.

 

[AYanguas]

Great News. My LG TV has just suggested me to download the new Tidal App (LG TV BX 55 OLED). I can now listen to the Atmos albums via TV and AVR, bypassing external devices (such as an Apple TV or a Fire Stick, which I don't own). My set up is with 5 channels only, so I'm only hearing the bed channels, but that's good enough for me.

Nice,

But don't think you 'only' hear the bed channels and lose the heights. You hear the whole music content in your available speakers.

In my second house (5.1 Non Atmos), I had to fool the Fire TV 4K, with the aid of the HDFury Vertex 2 taken from my main house, to make TIDAL app see an Atmos capable system. Then I could listen Atmos Tidal tracks in MCH 5.1.

Your solution is good. I have also an LG TV, but no ARC/eARC to my old 5.1 AVR.

 

[marpow]

Nice,

But don't think you 'only' hear the bed channels and lose the heights. You hear the whole music content in your available speakers.

In my second house (5.1 Non Atmos), I had to fool the Fire TV 4K, with the aid of the HDFury Vertex 2 taken from my main house, to make TIDAL app see an Atmos capable system. Then I could listen Atmos Tidal tracks in MCH 5.1.

Your solution is good. I have also an LG TV, but no ARC/eARC to my old 5.1 AVR.

I agree 100%. The Tidal surround option including Atmos is a worthwhile monthly investment. Some of the Atmos releases are not that good from an Atmos perspective, but all of them are great from a 5.1 surround experience. I assume some of these Tidal Atmos selections will never get released in a proper Atmos physical disc?
I think the most radical Atmos releases in Tidal are the few old Jazz releases, Herbie Hancock, etc. They are cool.
I have to believe that this surround streaming service will continue to improve, so far Tidal has improved from it's inception.
I continue to use Tidal for previewing music that is mentioned on QQ to find out if I like the music or not.

 

[Albert Dagger]

I’ve been using tidal for four years and I love it. The possibility to hear atoms mixes is just a plus for me, but also a nice surprise, since I don’t need to purchase an external device anymore... as many have said, the volume is much lower than usual. I also think that the lossy stream is not as good as multichannel played back via disc. But it’s still nice.

 

[Albert Dagger]

Nice,

But don't think you 'only' hear the bed channels and lose the heights. You hear the whole music content in your available speakers.

In my second house (5.1 Non Atmos), I had to fool the Fire TV 4K, with the aid of the HDFury Vertex 2 taken from my main house, to make TIDAL app see an Atmos capable system. Then I could listen Atmos Tidal tracks in MCH 5.1.

Your solution is good. I have also an LG TV, but no ARC/eARC to my old 5.1 AVR.

You’re totally right! I meant that I can only experience atmos using five speakers at the moment but you’re right. There’s no loss in content.

 

[AXington]

I'm about to cancel my sub. I've emailed their customer support multiple times. There's a form they sent me to request adding music, but that's about it.

It's not even just the lack of content, it's so hard to even find the content in the first place... And on Android TV it's so much worse.

But that's what you get when you pay crap loads of money for proprietary formats like MQA. I mean, Atmos clearly is too, but there's not a real alternative to Atmos... DTS:X doesn't really have much content and so far Sony's 360 Audio doesn't work except on headphones right now... Whereas FLAC and ALAC are both objectively better than MQA, and FLAC is free.

MQA is pretty much nothing more than DRM. And that's why Tidal costs so much more than everybody else, and can't afford to spend more on development.

Qobuz does actually support 5.1 FLAC, but they have little (practically no) content. But at least their customer support seems to give a crap. Of course they don't have a ton of money because they're smaller so, who knows if/when they'll get more content. But they did tell me that they're interested, I just don't know if they think there's enough interest to make it profitable.

 

[himey]

I'm about to cancel my sub. I've emailed their customer support multiple times. There's a form they sent me to request adding music, but that's about it.

It's not even just the lack of content, it's so hard to even find the content in the first place... And on Android TV it's so much worse.

But that's what you get when you pay crap loads of money for proprietary formats like MQA. I mean, Atmos clearly is too, but there's not a real alternative to Atmos... DTS:X doesn't really have much content and so far Sony's 360 Audio doesn't work except on headphones right now... Whereas FLAC and ALAC are both objectively better than MQA, and FLAC is free.

MQA is pretty much nothing more than DRM. And that's why Tidal costs so much more than everybody else, and can't afford to spend more on development.

Qobuz does actually support 5.1 FLAC, but they have little (practically no) content. But at least their customer support seems to give a crap. Of course they don't have a ton of money because they're smaller so, who knows if/when they'll get more content. But they did tell me that they're interested, I just don't know if they think there's enough interest to make it profitable.

I think Tidal is great to supplement my CD collection. Used in conjunction with Squeezebox server software it is a pleasure to browse the catalog.

 

[jberq]

I was excited when I fired up my LG (OLED65C9PUA) yesterday and got the notification on the new TIDAL app. As it was installing it displayed that my device was ATMOS compatible, double-yea! Then when trying to play ATMOS content my AVR (Onkyo TX-NR797) was telling me the incoming audio signal was DD 2.0. After an email to Tidal I received a prompt response advising me that although my LG monitor was compatible with TIDAL ATMOS my AVR was not. Crap!!! Wasn't aware there were different flavors of ATMOS. So close.

 

[zimmy]

Great News. My LG TV has just suggested me to download the new Tidal App (LG TV BX 55 OLED). I can now listen to the Atmos albums via TV and AVR, bypassing external devices (such as an Apple TV or a Fire Stick, which I don't own). My set up is with 5 channels only, so I'm only hearing the bed channels, but that's good enough for me.

This is very interesting as i too have an LG TV. As i have bought an 4K stick and an adapter i already have access to Atmos and have enjoyed it. The negative thing is as somebody wrote that Tidal hasn´t added any for me interesting music in Atmos for a long while. If the reason for that is that the older generations haven´t used Atmos so much i think they are doing the same mistake as the music industry has done for a long time. What i mean is that you can´t excpect any improvement in interest in multichannel if you don´t offer new material. If you aren´t hooked already it is unlikely that you will invest in an multichannel equipment just for the hope that someday in the future there will be an big flood of multichannel music in the market. I know this is not new thoughts but i couldn´t resist saying it. If i am lucky somebody in the music business reads this and reacts

 

[bracelis]

I was excited when I fired up my LG (OLED65C9PUA) yesterday and got the notification on the new TIDAL app. As it was installing it displayed that my device was ATMOS compatible, double-yea! Then when trying to play ATMOS content my AVR (Onkyo TX-NR797) was telling me the incoming audio signal was DD 2.0. After an email to Tidal I received a prompt response advising me that although my LG monitor was compatible with TIDAL ATMOS my AVR was not. Crap!!! Wasn't aware there were different flavors of ATMOS. So close.

Does Atmos work with other streaming apps (example Netflix), either on the TV connected to the AVR through HDMI ARC,
or using other devices like the Firestick connected to the AVR's HDMI ?
It wouldn't make sense if that specific AVR supports Atmos with other streaming apps such as Netflix but not with Tidal.

 

[zimmy]

Does Atmos work with other streaming apps (example Netflix), either on the TV connected to the AVR through HDMI ARC,
or using other devices like the Firestick connected to the AVR's HDMI ?
It wouldn't make sense if that specific AVR supports Atmos with other streaming apps such as Netflix but not with Tidal.

If i understand you right you are asking about what i described in my post before you? I am hearing Atmos sound thru an firestick connected to my AVR

 

[marpow]

Does Atmos work with other streaming apps (example Netflix), either on the TV connected to the AVR through HDMI ARC,
or using other devices like the Firestick connected to the AVR's HDMI ?
It wouldn't make sense if that specific AVR supports Atmos with other streaming apps such as Netflix but not with Tidal.

I own the Amazon 4K Fire Cube, works great. All the Apps, Tidal, Netflix, Prime, Disney+, etc that do deliver Atmos content all work perfectly.
Most important is your AVR supports Atmos.
My Cube setup is Ethernet in for content, HDMI out to AVR for video and sound, and the TV is eArc HDMI connected between TV and AVR.
A couple times I had to restart the cube, but that is really just a minor internet glitch.
I have listened to some Tidal Atmos vs physical disc of the same music and the physical disc is better.
Some times I have been disappointed by the Atmos experience, like when I watched The Mandolorian on Disney+, I was disappointed in the weak signal of the heights.
This all has to do with the bit streaming, from what I learned here at QQ.
As far as function goes, I never really have any problems and is an added good experience for home enjoyment.
One little tip, that has worked for me, is adjusting the DB's (volume) in all the speakers but even more so the heights.
Even though initial set up, Auddessy, pressure meter, distance, etc, all set perfectly, I have found that increasing the DB's in the heights to be beneficial, mainly because with everything equal Atmos is certainly an immersive experience, but I like to hear the sounds coming down at me more rather than less.
Hope that helps.

 

[jberq]

Does Atmos work with other streaming apps (example Netflix), either on the TV connected to the AVR through HDMI ARC,
or using other devices like the Firestick connected to the AVR's HDMI ?
It wouldn't make sense if that specific AVR supports Atmos with other streaming apps such as Netflix but not with Tidal.

Yes. Netflix, Amazon, etc. (native WebOS apps) all pass ATMOS audio through the Onkyo AVR using HDMI eARC no problem. The response from TIDAL was:

The issue you're seeing is likely due to the connection to a device that is not compatible with TIDAL's Dolby Atmos.

To use Dolby Atmos on TIDAL you'll want to first make sure your device is compatible with Dolby Atmos on TIDAL.

While a device may be compatible with Dolby Atmos in general, this does not always mean it's compatible with the format on TIDAL.

You can find the listing of compatible devices here:

https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004255778-Dolby-Atmos-Music
https://www.dolby.com/experience/tidal/#tidal devices
The Onkyo device you've included in your message is not currently compatible at this time.

We are working to add more devices to this list though!

I've forwarded a request to our Product Team about including your device.

Didn't make sense to me but what do I know other than I'm not getting ATMOS audio even though the new TIDAL app for LG WebOS shows the ATMOS label on tracks. Only DD 2.0 is being output to my AVR.

 

[bracelis]

While a device may be compatible with Dolby Atmos in general, this does not always mean it's compatible with the format on TIDAL.

You cannot always trust what the the Tidal Support rep says.

While there is a list of streaming devices (Firestick/Fire Cube, Apple 4K TV, Sony TV running Android, etc), which support Tidal Atmos, there is no list of AVRs that support Tidal Atmos -- the only requirement is that the receiver (or Soundbar, etc) supports Atmos. Even the links that you pasted with the list of Atmos compatible devices do not mention any AVR brands/models.
Netflix, Tidal, Vudu, Amazon, etc. all use the same format for Atmos for streaming: Dolby Digital plus with Atmos.

When you installed the Tidal app on the TV, did you have the TV set to output to ARC / receiver at the time ?
If not, can you try reinstalling and logging in again, while the TV is set to ARC and the receiver turned on.
This way the app will check if your AVR which the current audio path (not the TV's own audio/speakers) supports Atmos.

This is what I did when installing the Tidal app on my Sony TV, connected to a receiver via HDMI ARC.

 

[jberq]

You cannot always trust what the the Tidal Support rep says.

While there is a list of streaming devices (Firestick/Fire Cube, Apple 4K TV, Sony TV running Android, etc), which support Tidal Atmos, there is no list of AVRs that support Tidal Atmos -- the only requirement is that the receiver (or Soundbar, etc) supports Atmos. Even the links that you pasted with the list of Atmos compatible devices do not mention any AVR brands/models.
Netflix, Tidal, Vudu, Amazon, etc. all use the same format for Atmos for streaming: Dolby Digital plus with Atmos.

When you installed the Tidal app on the TV, did you have the TV set to output to ARC / receiver at the time ?
If not, can you try reinstalling and logging in again, while the TV is set to ARC and the receiver turned on.
This way the app will check if your AVR which the current audio path (not the TV's own audio/speakers) supports Atmos.

This is what I did when installing the Tidal app on my Sony TV, connected to a receiver via HDMI ARC.

Yes, when the TIDAL app was installed the LG was set to HDMI ARC output (the only audio output setting it's ever been at). As I mentioned in my original post when the app was installing there was notification that my device was ATMOS enabled. The app itself identifies individual tracks as ATMOS. But what comes to my AVR is DD 2.0. I've tried to find any settings in the LG that might be altered but can't find anything. only HDMI ARC which again is the only setting I've ever used. There are no settings in the TIDAL app.

Those links were all embedded in the TIDAL email response. I never even looked. It didn't make sense to me that all the other apps output ATMOS but TIDAL didn't. Yet that is where I'm at.

So after proofing this entry I decided to delete the tidal APP, power down all equipment and reinstall the app. Same result. At installation TIDAL app tells me my device is ATMOS enabled. But what comes to my AVR is DD 2.0.

I was waiting for a native LG WebOS app for TIDAL to get access to ATMOS content. Hence my frustration.

And also thank you very much for taking an interest in my problem.

 

[jberq]

I guess an additional question to ask the forum is.......

Have you installed the LG WebOS TIDAL app this week and NOT had any problems passing ATMOS to an ATMOS-capable AVR?

I mean this IS Ver. 1.0 of the app right??? Problems are to be expected? Because it's gotta be the app.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

While a device may be compatible with Dolby Atmos in general, this does not always mean it's compatible with the format on TIDAL.

Didn't make sense to me but what do I know other than I'm not getting ATMOS audio even though the new TIDAL app for LG WebOS shows the ATMOS label on tracks. Only DD 2.0 is being output to my AVR.

This seems deceptive, confusing problematic and just not a smart way to disseminate ATMOS; that's a big reason why the original Quad formats only flourished for a short while- they never learn

 

[AXington]

@J. PUPSTER

So, this is why everytime somebody asks me about SmartTVs I tell them to get a separate, dedicated streamer. They will ALWAYS be more capable than your TV as long as you don't completely cheap out.

I use Tidal on my nVidia Shield TV Pro, which may be overboard for some, but the new Chromecast with Google TV or whatever it's called and/or Rokus are more inexpensive and way better than any smart TV.

Another main benefit is that you can upgrade them independently from your TV, and they will almost certainly be better supported long term. And they generally have better hardware specs than the TV does when you buy them.

Further, eARC is notoriously fickle. And if you don't have the right HDMI cables in your chain it will make normal HDMI problems amplified. And those are a lot of times very hard to troubleshoot.

Also, if it's Android based OS, and generally speaking a lot of other OSes, they treat audio differently from video. And some devices like the Shield TV devices compensate for this with OS level drivers. Though Tidal uses it's own decoder. Same as Kodi which of course does multichannel.

 

[himey]

@J. PUPSTER

So, this is why everytime somebody asks me about SmartTVs I tell them to get a separate, dedicated streamer. They will ALWAYS be more capable than your TV as long as you don't completely cheap out.

I use Tidal on my nVidia Shield TV Pro, which may be overboard for some, but the new Chromecast with Google TV or whatever it's called and/or Rokus are more inexpensive and way better than any smart TV.

Another main benefit is that you can upgrade them independently from your TV, and they will almost certainly be better supported long term. And they generally have better hardware specs than the TV does when you buy them.

Further, eARC is notoriously fickle. And if you don't have the right HDMI cables in your chain it will make normal HDMI problems amplified. And those are a lot of times very hard to troubleshoot.

Also, if it's Android based OS, and generally speaking a lot of other OSes, they treat audio differently from video. And some devices like the Shield TV devices compensate for this with OS level drivers. Though Tidal uses it's own decoder. Same as Kodi which of course does multichannel.

From what I have read about the newest generation of affordable Atmos receivers, eARC is much more solid than directly connecting streaming devices to HDMI inputs of the receiver, because of a bug in the chipsets. A promised firmware update to these new HDMI 2.1 products have been promised but not yet implemented. Connecting a device to the TV and using eARC overcomes the issues if you use the correct, updated, HDMI cables.