Playing Dolby Atmos discs on non-Atmos systems

[Gary Cook]

Jan 30, 2018 13:01:31 GMT -5 KeithL said:

From the information I have - specifically...
- if you were to play the same Dolby Atmos encoded track on two processors
- BOTH OF WHICH ARE CONFIGURED WITH 7.1 MAIN AND SURROUND SPEAKERS AND NO "ATMOS" HEIGHT OR WIDTH SPEAKERS
- one of which supports only up to Dolby TrueHD
- and the other of which supports both Dolby TrueHD and Atmos
- neither will DO ANYTHING with the additional Atmos information, and the outputs of both will be the same
- (nothing will be missing from the non-Atmos version or added to the Atmos version)

Whilst that maybe true for Atmos, using the DTS-X track we had the added bonus of being able to control the "dialogue" volume which we obviously couldn't do using the DTS-HD track. Of course we could adjust the centre speaker volume but it's not as good as being able to adjust the dialogue volume. So my view would be that the additional DTS-X information allowed us to do something that DTS-HD track didn't.

Warning, at the time we only had one DTS-X enabled movie to test which was The Huntsman Winter's War, so the other bonus of "better" sound (clearer, cleaner, more location distinct) may not apply to other DTS-X movies. The mix choices ultimately have an effect.

For Atmos testing/playing we used Deadpool, it's a killer sound track in Atmos.


Cheers
Gary