Hey all,
I recently got a new sound bar with Atmos, and DTS-X support. While it doesn’t physically have upward speakers it’s able to play ATMOS, DTSX, and all lossless codecs. Considering I’m in an apartment where a true ATMOS physical setup would not be possible. I went this route to at least get the simulation. and compatibility. Anyway The titles and sources I’ve tested have sounded quite good and gives a decent immersion of surround. It’s true 5.1 that spreads the Atmos and other effects over those speakers.
Anyway, I have an Apple TV 4K, that I’ve been thinking of moving into the bedroom where this new setup is, currently in there is an Apple TV HD. I have Infuse 7 Pro (lifetime) so I know software and hardware wise I’m good to go.
What I’m wondering about is, I just read a thread regarding E-AC3 and infuse, and EAC3 being different from Atmos over trueHD. All my movies are direct rips from blu-ray to MKV using MakeMKV so I have the same TrueHD tracks in the files that are on disc. With this said, would the Apple TV +Infuse even work for me in this situation, or should I just stick to streaming, or playing ATMOS from blu-ray? I have confirmed that Atmos plays via streaming e.g. the demos on VUDU, and I tested a movie known to have an AtMOS track from blu-ray (Pixels). Both worked great. How is this going to translate into me being able to use my ripped copies with Infuse on this setup now?
Is it even worth moving the Apple TV 4K to this setup? it’s a 1080p TV, and the Apple TV HD works fine, so the move would simply be to get the upgraded audio features. Would I only be limited to the lossless regular surround tracks? meaning, I’d have no benefit over the Apple TV HD.
I can’t answer you directly but I had a full setup of Nvidia shield, Full Atmos and 7.1.2 speakers.
I personally found Atmos underwhelming. But we all have different eyes and ears and room acoustics.
I since moved house and there was no longer room for that setup (plus I hated the Shield.)
I also now have to have consideration for neighbours.
And then something magical happened. I saw a post here in some recent release notes about spatial audio.
It’s the first time I have actually heard anything that sounded like it was coming from above me.
My Soundbar and rear speakers hardly ever get turned on nowadays. Had I heard of spatial audio when I bought the Soundbar I probably never would have.
But everyone’s different.
There are clearly those who hear the benefit of Full HD Atmos. But I’m fairly sure there are more that see the benefit of Atmos cos their AVR says it’s Full Atmos. I actually used to be the latter.
I wouldn’t swap my AirPods Pro (I have AirPods Max too)for anything since infuse gave us spatial audio.
Thanks for your response.I consider having Atmos a bonus here. My main reason for purchasing the Sound bar I did was because it’s a full 5.1 setup with separate speakers, and it can read the lossless codecs from Blu-ray which is what I was looking for at some point. The only way I could do lossless in the past was having a device send 5.1 PCM. Beyond that I was having stability issues, so that’s the biggest reason for the upgrade. Anyway having tried Atmos from the sources I already did, sounded good, but I’ll have to hear more sources to see. That’s why I was curious about infuse because now I can consider those features.
Although Apple TV can do eac3 atmos you are losing significant quality compared to truehd and only gaining minor directional improvements, if any. And considering you have a soundbar simulating it then it is less of reason. I would recommend sticking with what you have unless you want the gigabit Ethernet or additional processing of the newer Apple TV
Yes, I’ve heard that Atmos can be hit or miss, and the environment has to be just right, even with a dedicated setup to really hear the difference. I’ve only tried a couple sources of Atmos, I have heard some difference, but haven’t played enough to really have a full experience.
I’ll put my Apple TV 4K on the setup at some point just to test. It’s faster, and has 64GB vs 32GB storage as well. So, even if Atmos isn’t that great, the system performance might be worth retiring the older ATV for, as well as the new music features that only the 4K supports.
Apologies.
I actually misread your first post as you had an ATV and where considering a 4K and not that you already had one
But that said… Infuse nor any Apple device can do the Full Atmos metadata.
If you want it then it’s pretty much an Nvidia Shield and even then any audible difference will be down to your Soundbar.
Thanks for your correction, and feedback. Sounds like since I already have the Apple TV HD in the setup, moving the 4k would not really help much in this case, and that Infuse would be better served for just standard 5.1 playback. No worries, I have a Blu-Ray Player in the setup, and a Roku, so of course the physical media player will be the best for Atmos, I’m sure, and then the Roku as it can get Atmos from Dolby Plus streams.