Gravity uses Dolby Atmos in great ways! (1 Viewer)

[JediFonger]

http://gizmodo.com/the-sound-of-gravity-total-realism-1441954725?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_facebook&utm_source=gizmodo_facebook&utm_medium=socialflowi can't wait for BD to have Atmos and also to have Atmos come to the AVRs at home!

 

[schan1269]

http://gizmodo.com/the-sound-of-gravity-total-realism-1441954725?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_facebook&utm_source=gizmodo_facebook&utm_medium=socialflowi can't wait for BD to have Atmos and also to have Atmos come to the AVRs at home!

That would be the only real thing I would care about with HDMI 2.0.

 

[JediFonger]

HDMI 2 is required? not enough bw?

 

[schan1269]

The cables themselves won't change.2.0 is coming, doubt there is going to be a 1.5.Regardless...4k will require 2.0(because the HDMI "people" say so)On the audio front...we already have lossless. I would assume the additional discrete Atmos channels would create a newer need than the current 7.1.

 

[schan1269]

The real issue will be whether 1.4 AVR will be "firmwared" to 2.0.As it is now, 1.4 will only do 8bit color. How soon into the "4K rollout" Will 10 and/Or 12 bit color show up?Next year? 5 years? Never?The one "big plus" for 2.0?CEC goes from afterthought to an "industry standard".

 

[JediFonger]

Atmos shouldn't require more bw than current lossless iterations right? i'll be looking for both the DTS implementation and Dolby's. i think DTS calls theirs MDA.

i also can't wait for the eventual remastering of everything in these newer formats >)

 

[zoetmb]

http://gizmodo.com/the-sound-of-gravity-total-realism-1441954725?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_facebook&utm_source=gizmodo_facebook&utm_medium=socialflowi can't wait for BD to have Atmos and also to have Atmos come to the AVRs at home!

Really? Are you going to put 30 or more speakers in your living room or home theatre? It's great in a movie theatre, but I think it's impractical in the home (although I suppose people said that about quad, 5.1, 7.1, etc.)

In the home, unless you've got a room at least 50' long, you'd have to place each speaker so close together that I'm not sure you'd really hear the effects that well. Also, some Atmos installations return to five screen channels. That works in a theatre because the speakers are behind the screen, but what are you going to do at home (unless you use projection)?

I'm sure Dolby will license some form of Atmos for the home which will "steer" the object model sounds to the closest correct speaker, just so they can have something new to sell, but consumers will use it with the same 5.1, 7.1 or 9.1 (or .2) systems that they have today and it will be a bit silly.

 

[JediFonger]

it's less than the # of speakers... than the technology to positition things exactly as it should. the premise behind atmos/mda isn't to add spaekers (although you can) but to dislodge sound from radiating from a single speaker.

that's the big thing i feel has been missing from HT is sound is often localized (no matter how expensive of HT demos i've been to). i know it's that way in cinemas too but at least with proper calibration it can sound like it doesn't come from it. but with atmos/mda, we can finally realize audio that isn't locked to the speakers (like center speakers) that's alawys been a pet peeve of mine. that dialogue is always locked in the center. it might make sense for dialogue heavy films but films like gravity it should be localized to 'objects floating in space'.

 

[JediFonger]

BTW i do have a front projector 7.1 for now.

 

[zoetmb]

it's less than the # of speakers... than the technology to positition things exactly as it should. the premise behind atmos/mda isn't to add spaekers (although you can) but to dislodge sound from radiating from a single speaker.

that's the big thing i feel has been missing from HT is sound is often localized (no matter how expensive of HT demos i've been to). i know it's that way in cinemas too but at least with proper calibration it can sound like it doesn't come from it. but with atmos/mda, we can finally realize audio that isn't locked to the speakers (like center speakers) that's alawys been a pet peeve of mine. that dialogue is always locked in the center. it might make sense for dialogue heavy films but films like gravity it should be localized to 'objects floating in space'.

I can't tell if you're complaining that sound is localized or that it's not localized. In Film Sound mixing, the first rule of thumb is to never distract the audience from the screen.

In the 1950s 6-track 70mm mixes, dialog was frequently panned with the action, but like "ping-pong" stereo in records, that was soon considered "déclassé" and abandoned. It was also more expensive to mix that way. Aside from off-camera sounds, dialog is always going to be mixed center channel.

When the original 70mm version of "Close Encounters" was released, even though it had mono surround, the scene where the alien craft blasts an audio signal and blows out the glass in the viewing tower had that crashing sound appear in the right surround. It did this by panning it to the right front and mono surround. In the theatre when I saw it, everyone's heads turned to the right. That's considered a big "no-no". IIRC, that was changed for the special edition.

Dolby Atmos most certainly locks sound to particular speakers. That's the whole point. The difference is that at least for the objects, it's done at playback time by the system finding the closest appropriate speaker based on the location of the sound in 3D space rather than by pre-determining the channel/speaker at mix time.

My previous post point was that, if one is mixing a flyover, for example, and using Atmos the end result is that at some point the sound is primarily in the 4th side surround and then it moves to the 5th side surround, that works in a theatre, because those two speakers are separated by at least several feet, but in a home, they're probably going to wind up being right next to each other and you won't get much differentiation between them anyway…..unless you have a REALLY BIG theatre room.

IMO, unless you add a bunch of speakers the Atmos mix wouldn't sound any different from a 5.1 or 7.1 mix. And if you did add speakers, but they were each right next to each other and especially if they have a wide dispersal pattern, you wouldn't hear much of a difference either.

Again, IMO, Atmos should be left for theatrical presentation. Putting it in most homes is like trying to race a Ferrari on a go-cart track in a back yard. You can do it, but why would you want to?

 

[schan1269]

The main reason I dread Atmos showing up for home use is the people(^^^) who apparently haven't gotten the slightest clue how to set up a proper 7.1 in the first place.

If your room is properly setup, you have no problem at all with Yamaha doing front and rear presence already(that would be 11.1 already).

A few AVR have DSX and DTS that allow height and wide together at the same time(again...11.1)

If you space your room out correctly, you can run 11.1 in your 10x12 bedroom.

 

[zoetmb]

I didn't think Dolby Atmos was ever going to get pushed to the home, but I attended an AES meeting at the Dolby Screening Room in New York during Thanksgiving week and the reps said it would probably eventually wind up in the home. The late Ray Dolby's business strategy was always to develop for the pro market and license a version to the consumer market. Most of the profit was in consumer licensing.

So good idea or bad idea, it does look like Atmos will get licensed to receiver manufacturers, although I doubt that we'll see anything in 2014. I think 2015 would be the earliest we'll see Atmos in a home receiver and of course there would have to be some kind of distribution format for the Atmos soundtrack. DCPs for movie theaters are formatted differently than Blu-ray for the home. If Dolby does do this and consumers buy into it, the speaker manufacturers should be kissing the feet of the Dolby executives.

I would like to be there when the first Atmos enthusiast tells his wife that he's running speakers around the entire living room, including the ceiling.

 

[Phil A]

Don't have that problem - not married I have multiple systems but will probably wait on a receiver upgrade this year and live without a receiver or use a pre-HDMI one in a system for a bit. I had pre-wiring done in the new place so 9.1 or 9.2 (height channels and screen are already mounted and sitting there) is easy and it should not be too difficult to add overhead speakers, either one or two pair. Years back, the surround I was using is the room were big bookshelves (19 inches tall) in black laminate finish hanging on the rear side walls about 9 feet up in the 19 foot tall ceiling. The owner of the local audio store came to install my screen, saw them and laugh and told me I'd never get away with that if I were married and I said if is the choice of the system or the significant other it is easy

 

[schan1269]

Am I lucky that the other half plays 3 instruments and they sit out...?Cello, keyboard and guitar.

 

[JediFonger]

i'm of the camp the audio should distract me... otherwise you might as well fold all the sound into MONO speakers. just like eye-popping 3D, that's the whole point of this entertainment system.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

I had a chance to watch this in Dolby Atmos at home the other day and it was amazing. I added my thoughts to the audio portion of Ken's original review here:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/topic/339954-gravity-diamond-luxe-edition-blu-ray-review/

Here is the video that was referenced in the first post: