Dolby Atmos is everywhere, from the best soundbars to Amazon's latest smart speaker, the Amazon Echo Studio.
And while the Dolby Atmos format is very exciting, it is a bit difficult to understand.
In short, Dolby Atmos is a new audio format that allows you to hear sound in a 360-degree bubble. With its object-oriented audio engineering and high and low speakers, Atmos is changing the way home theaters are set up and, more importantly, how sound is distributed throughout the room.
In the past, we explained how Dolby Atmos was the future of movie sound and how technology was hacking our ears. But we've never really sat down to explain what technology is, how important it is, and most importantly, how you can get it at home. Up to now
The Basics: What is Dolby Atmos?
Dolby Atmos is a new audio format, like stereo or surround sound, that extracts recorded audio from a movie or video game soundtrack and spits it out in a more immersive way. Dolby Atmos gives the sound a more three-dimensional effect - imagine the difference between hearing a helicopter flying a few hundred meters away and passing it directly overhead.
The technology is being developed by Dolby Laboratories, an audio company specializing in sound encoding and reproduction. You've probably seen your logo on DVD or Blu-ray discs or the latest audio equipment.
Audio mixing occurs in sound studios where sound engineers take sound effects on film and move them digitally in three-dimensional space. When you watch the movie using Dolby Atmos compatible audio devices, you will hear the effects moving around you, exactly as the sound engineers had intended.
Of course, to listen to Dolby Atmos, you will need a Dolby Atmos compatible movie or TV show file (available on Netflix and now iTunes), as well as a Dolby Atmos compatible player and a built-in video system. Dolby Atmos compatible speakers or soundbar. .
So how does Dolby plan to create a sound bubble? To answer this question, all you have to do is look.
Dolby Atmos creates a sound bubble by bouncing audio beams off the ceiling and then into the ears. As you can imagine, this requires a bit of calibration and a fairly flat ceiling. As long as you have the last one and don't mind doing the first one when the time is right, let's move on.
Step 1. Find the system
So how do you get Dolby Atmos? The first part is getting the right hardware: audio equipment that supports Dolby Atmos and a player that supports Dolby Atmos.
Of course, if you find it too difficult, you can always buy a system that integrates both - the OLED-compatible LG W7 Dolby Atmos is fantastic with a built-in 5.0.2 soundbar that makes it just happy to drop you off - Add-on for just € 6,999 (€ 6,999 or AU € 13,499).
However, if you don't have € 7,000, you'll find plenty of cheaper entry points: an Xbox One S Blu-ray player or an Oppo UDP-203 4K drive connected to an LG SJ9 39 soundbar; case. .
If you simply want to expand your existing home system, major audio manufacturers such as Onkyo, Denon, Yamaha, and Pioneer make audio / video receivers that can handle Dolby Atmos audio tracks, with little difference to the uninitiated. Models.
The key point here is that as long as you have Dolby Atmos content streamed through a Dolby Atmos player to a pair of Dolby Atmos speakers, you're good to go.
If you still don't know where to start shopping for Atmos products, Dolby offers a convenient catalog of all current Dolby Atmos-compatible products.
Step 2. Find content and test it
Turn on the system and connect it to a Dolby Atmos compatible player (Xbox One compatible Blu-ray player or Dolby Atmos). Good job! All that remains now is Dolby Atmos content.
Fortunately, this task becomes easier and easier every day. The best way to test the new system is to use DeathNote, BLAME from Netflix. o Okja (available with Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision, a version of HDR that enhances the color and contrast of your favorite movies).
How do you know it plays in Dolby Atmos? Look for the Atmos icon next to the movie title.
If you're looking for more content to watch, check out one of the 100 titles available on 4K Blu-ray equipped with Dolby Atmos. (For a complete list, click here.)
For gamers, however, the native Dolby Atmos content is still a bit lacking. At the moment, only two games are mixed for Dolby Atmos: Overwatch and Star Wars Battlefront, both of which require the PC version of the game.
However, there is another way to get Dolby Atmos in games.
Dolby recently released the Dolby Access app on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs that mix stereo and 5.1 surround mixes in Dolby Atmos format. The app is free and available to purchase for € 14.99. Remixed content never sounds as good as a native Atmos, but hey, € 15 costs a lot less than a new soundbar or receiver, that's for sure.
So what are you looking for once you have your content? Dolby Atmos creates a sound bubble. You should be able to hear raindrops falling from the sky and thunder in clouds that sound like they are 10 feet above your head. Ideally, you should feel like your room is filled with sounds from all directions. If this is not the case, check the connections again or go back to setup.
Dolby Atmos works best in a smaller room with a flat ceiling. Changing the slope of the roof interferes with the angle of reflection of the surround sound.
Atmos is a bit like 4K, in a way
Dolby describes three other main sources of Atmos content: PC-based games like Star Wars Battlefront and Battlefield 1, Blu-ray discs that support Dolby Atmos, and movies from streaming services like Netflix and Vudu. Walmart.
Problematically, you may not have everything on hand. The landscape is still a bit scattered at the moment. It's something that Dolby went to great lengths to fix, but because it relies on partnerships to bring content to the masses (see: Microsoft, LG, Netflix, Vudu, Oppo, etc.), find all the content in a place is, at this point, a technical impossibility.
The good news is that the technology is still in its infancy. During discussions with top Dolby engineers, they admitted that the distribution process still had some flaws that they hope will be resolved when the platform becomes larger and more robust. In our opinion, this is still a really smart and interesting technology that will revolutionize home theater once it becomes the norm, rather than something reserved for audiophiles like me.
Like Ultra HD, there is not much content available to support the technology, but if you do a little research, you will discover real strengths.
Should you go to Dolby Atmos?
The big question: do you need to upgrade your system to Dolby Atmos?
If you are an entertainment lover and you want the latest and most powerful technology, you already have a 4K TV and a really cool surround sound system, so yes. But if you're a movie or TV buff, I'd expect the technology to start to normalize and drop a bit more in price.
The technology is almost ready for general consumption. Several game developers are working on Atmos-compatible titles and Hollywood seems to love this technology, which means now is the best time to jump on the bandwagon.
Like 4K TVs a few years ago, Dolby Atmos isn't for everyone. It is not the easiest thing to understand, and the content is not as good as a buffet, it is a good three course dinner. This is an investment in the future of audio technology, an investment that will pay off in the future, but right now it's a bit risky.