What are Dolby Atmos and DTS:X?
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2018-05-06
·
1,005 words · ~5 min read
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so 360 degree virtual reality movies
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aren't quite mainstream yet i mean who wants to strap on the headset every time
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there's another disappointing justice league movie but at least 360 degrees
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surround sound has long been the mainstay of not just movie theaters but
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home theaters as well where a typical setup will be a subwoofer or two for
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bass and five or seven speakers surrounding the viewer to help the sound
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well surround the viewer now traditionally the way this is worked is
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that depending on the surround audio encoding scheme used by the publisher a
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device called the receiver would decode and playback discrete audio tracks for
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each speaker that would correspond to the action on the screen assuming a high
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quality mix so the idea is that if you're looking at the scene featuring a conversation the
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voices will probably be coming mostly out of the center channel while the
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satellite speakers behind you focus on let's say ambient background noise this
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one track for one speaker paradigm has been powering surround sound systems for
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a long time and it's worked pretty well but we've increasingly seen a different
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method of surround sound delivery both in theaters and on blu-ray that's
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actually based around encoding sounds as objects instead of channels the
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principle behind dolby atmos and dts x
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but hold on a minute sounds as
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objects okay so it means that instead of each audio track corresponding to only
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one speaker the tracks are encoded with data that indicate some location in
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space instead of a specific channel so let's say you're watching a scene where
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a plane is flying overhead toward you instead of for example the tracks match
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to the front speakers getting quieter and the tracks for the back speakers
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getting louder as the plane passes by the plane's engines will instead be
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encoded as a spot in space above you that moves around in real time now this
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may not sound like too much of a difference but the idea here is that
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atmos and dtsx scale very well
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traditional surround setups had no way of knowing much more than distance from
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your couch about the physical placement of the speakers in your room so results
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can be very inconsistent from setup to setup but because atmos and dtsx allow
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sounds to be coded with location data like above the listener halfway between
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the screen of the chair and against the right hand wall rather than just right front speaker a
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decoder compatible with these formats will then take this positional data and
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the specific speaker configuration into account to produce sound that's more
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accurately reflective of where it's supposed to be in space whether it has
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five speakers propped up on two by fours around your computer to represent this
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data or 50 professional grade loudspeakers in a large cinema and it
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even includes support for sounds above you something traditional surround
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doesn't offer atmos supports up to 118
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objects and dtsx supports an unlimited number of objects and both technologies
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can work with your conventional 5.1 and 7.1 speaker setups with atmos boasting
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support for up to 34 speakers for home theater now that might sound excessive
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and it probably is but more speakers will enhance the sense of space and
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realism you'll get now as for those of you who aren't the type to install
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speakers everywhere you can find an empty spot on your wall or ceiling there
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are a number of upward firing speakers that reflect off of your ceiling to
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simulate a real speaker above you and you can even upgrade your existing power
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speakers just by plopping one designed to fire upward on top of them we checked
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out a sound bar that uses this technique recently over on Linus tech tips and the
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effect was fairly convincing of course like with any new standard not
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everything is atmos or dtsx capable you'll need a compatible receiver though
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the good news is that most receivers support both and some atmos or dtsx
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encoded media fortunately the technology is becoming
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more and more common on blu-rays streaming services and even game
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consoles so maybe at some point we'll feature atmos support right here on
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techwiki and envelop you in the velvety tones of my voice coming at you from 118
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different angles no no takers at all all right
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