Let me clarify: ”mainstream streamer” to me means tv, Chromecast/Google TV/Android TV, Fire TV, Roku, those are the devices/OSes most people have or that come preloaded on a TV and therefore the devices TV is competing against. There is one Fire TV device that will do it and it’s the least popular/portable. And the shield which runs Android, and is a niche device at this point.
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macOS Sequoia Supports HDMI Passthrough for Dolby Atmos Content
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4,000 kbps =1,800 MB/Hr so a True HD soundtrack (24 bit lossless Atmos with 20 stems) for a two hour movie is about 4G is space. That's less than 1 minute to download on good broadband.
I'm not saying Apple WILL do this, but that the infrastructure exists to make this possible if they CHOOSE to do so.
I'm glad to see they chose to do with with Apple Music.
Heck, I would be satisfied for now if they allowed the lossy audio and UHD to be downloaded to my computer.
This has nothing to do with licensing. If Apple passed through everything, then no Dolby license would be required at all. The reason why Apple doesn't passthrough audio on the Apple TV is because it has features that require the compressed audio to be decompressed so that the Apple TV has control. This is the same on most streaming devices.
And even the latest Fire TV's that do it will only passthrough TrueHD and DTS. Everything else is decoded and sent out as LPCM just as the Apple TV does. The reason why the Fire TV devices decode the audio is because the device has features that require it. Thats the reason why the Apple TV does as well.
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Does this mean that Plex or Infuse will finally be able to stream Atmos tracks in 7.1 from ripped files?
I am guessing you mean full fat non compressed Atmos tracks from rips? Alas very probably NOT. It appears that it's just adding the same EAC-3 functionality to Macs as is already present with AppleTV's so that they can pass EAC-3 (compressed atmos) via HDMI.
I think he's correct but was he playing a purchased movie? Would that even have a lossless audio track to test?
So basically exactly as I described above .... ie. to ensure Macs have same compressed audio capability as AppleTV.
I don't quite understand why the guy didn't then go on and test a full fat Atmos track ... but hey I did last night with my Samsung soundbar and this very Mac running latest MacOS beta and Infuse.... I tried a full full Atmos track of Apocalypse Now and .... it did not show up as Atmos unfortunately.
I suppose there is an outside chance that Infuse would need to update their app to deal with the uncompressed format ...and thats why it didn't work .... but I really doubt it.
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Hi, it would be great if you could kindly please help test these lossless audio mp4 in QuickTime/Safari, thanks! 🙂
Apple Lossless Test - Google Drive
drive.google.com
I just remuxed them to be Apple QuickTime compatible.
I will try them tonight and let you know.Hi, it would be great if you could kindly please help test these lossless audio mp4 in QuickTime/Safari, thanks! 🙂
Apple Lossless Test - Google Drive
They are available on demolandia.net.
I just remuxed them to be Apple QuickTime compatible.
No - the issue I'm referring to is how when producers and engineers mix music for spatial audio on AirPods (essentially, creating a binaural downmix of the Atmos master) they are using Dolby's renderer to create the headphone mix. Apple delivers and decodes the music using their own in-house renderer for spatial audio, and the resulting transcode from Atmos to Apple spatial audio often sounds quite different from the engineer's mix for headphones. So while an HDMI passthrough would work great for Apple TV and Mac users, AirPods users are still not hearing the Atmos binaural mix "as the producers intended."
I hope this makes sense...
+1, always nice to see somebody who actually knows what they’re talking about around here
Now bring back Front Row!!
In macOS Sequoia, several Apple apps have gained a new HDMI Passthrough feature that enables a Mac to send an unaltered Dolby Atmos audio signal to a connected AV receiver or soundbar.
The new functionality appears in various places in macOS 15, including Apple's TV, Music, and QuickTime Player apps. Apple says turning on the option lets users "Play supported audio in Dolby Atmos and other Dolby Audio formats using HDMI Passthrough when connected to a supported device."
The feature is likely to be welcomed by users who connect their Mac to an external device that supports Dolby Atmos, such as an AV receiver or soundbar. When conected via HDMI cable, the device will be able to decode and output the full immersive Dolby Atmos audio as it was meant to be experienced by the creators, while sending any accompanying video signal to a connected T
Article Link: macOS Sequoia Supports HDMI Passthrough for Dolby Atmos
So I've been ripping all my plex entries with only TrueHD/etc. I'm going to have to check what's playing on the receiver, as Plex is configured to do no transcoding/encoding.
I did in the AVS thread and they provided incompatible files.
Apple TV owners' thread. FAQ in first post
www.avsforum.com
Sorry .... only got around to it properly last night. Firstly, took me ages to figure out that Quicktime has the passthrough option in a completely different place than Music and TV apps ... very annoying.
None of those files show Atmos. 2 won't even play via QuickTime as I get the codecs error message. The other 2 simply don't pass any sound. Strangely, all 4 would play through Infuse on AppleTV but only 2 of them had sound.
I am even more convinced it's what we all suspect ... that the change is simply to pass compressed audio via HDMI. Playing my own compressed atmos track without Passthrough on QuickTime resulted in no Atmos being sent to soundbar. Switching to Passthrough immediately shows Atmos.
Let's be honest, Apple would be crazy to allow full fat audio to apps like Infuse whilst movies purchased through their own store would still only offer compressed. Incidentally, there is no reason why Apple couldn't allow none compressed files as this is exactly what Sony presently offer with their Sony Pictures Core service.
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I have an A80J and you don’t get uncompressed Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD MA from the Sony Core app either, you do get much higher video quality if you have at least an 80 Mbps connection but not the lossless audio-at least not on mine.
Sony Pictures Core does not offer lossless audio in any form. Both DTS and Dolby audio are lossless. In addition, from my testing, they haven't gotten any dtsx working.
Apologies. I see .... so it's only the video that is better quality? TBH that makes me feel better.
The video quality is better unless you want Dolby Vision. It doesn't offer that either.