[GeorgeA]

I always use the head tracker, either for watching movies or listening to music.

 

[Litlgi74]

I always use the head tracker, either for watching movies or listening to music.

Bummer... I'd hoped that might be quick fix.

 

[Eich1eeF]

My response was specific to a question whether a non Atmos 5.1 or 7.1 source could be rendered, up mixed to 'Atmos'.
Which is not possible as its only Dolby Surround.

It's the Dolby Surround Upmixer, which should be able to use all the speakers you have. Dolby is just trying to confuse you with their brands.

 

[Om ma Ni]

It's the Dolby Surround Upmixer, which should be able to use all the speakers you have. Dolby is just trying to confuse you with their brands.

Can anyone confirm that the dolby upmixer in the latest firmware still doesn't use or activate the LFW and RFW virtual spkrs?

 

[jk6661]

I also have a question about the upmixer (a very basic one): How does it work, exactly? I fed my 9.1.6 listening room a 5.1 movie with Dolby upmixing enabled, and low and behold, all 16 channels showed they were getting a signal during loud action scenes. But what signal were they getting? There's no unique information encoded in the 5.1 bitstream for anything beyond those six channels. Does it just duplicate the two surround channels and send them everywhere except L/C/R?

Edit: Ok, so the internet told me it uses some sort of algorithm to guess where all the various sound effects in the surround channels should go (including height, now that Dolby has apparently removed certain restrictions on third-party upmixers). Not sure how well this works, but I guess I'll find out.

 

[Thomasphoenix98]

I also have a question about the upmixer (a very basic one): How does it work, exactly? I fed my 9.1.6 listening room a 5.1 movie with Dolby upmixing enabled, and low and behold, all 16 channels showed they were getting a signal during loud action scenes. But what signal were they getting? There's no unique information encoded in the 5.1 bitstream for anything beyond those six channels. Does it just duplicate the two surround channels and send them everywhere except L/C/

From Dolby’s description of its upmixer


Dolby Surround upmixer
If you invest in building a Dolby Atmos home theater, you want to get full use of it, even if the content you’re playing isn’t mixed in Dolby Atmos. That’s where the Dolby Surround upmixer plays a big role.
When enabled, the Dolby Surround upmixer expands the audio of legacy channel-based content to take advantage of your entire system, including overhead or Dolby Atmos enabled speakers. The Dolby Surround upmixer processes and expands the channel-based soundtrack to create a highly accurate rendering of the environment in the movie while simultaneously honoring and maintaining the artist’s intent for the mix.
13

Unlike previous wideband upmixing technologies, the Dolby Surround upmixer operates in the frequency domain, decoding and processing multiple perceptually spaced frequency bands for a fine- grained analysis of the source signal. Dolby Surround upmixer individually steers these frequency bands, producing a highly precise surround-sound field with enhanced spacious ambience. The Dolby Surround upmixer is included in the Dolby Atmos technology bundle and replaces the Dolby Pro Logic II family of upmixers, offering greater flexibility and superior audio performance.
To maintain the frontal spatial audio image, the upmixer will not send upmixed audio to speakers that are located between the left, center, and right speakers or to the left wide and right wide speakers. Additionally, upmixed audio is not sent to the center surround speaker. Spatial imaging is complemented through the use of overhead or Dolby Atmos enabled speakers in these cases.

 

[jk6661]

Does anyone have an opinion about how well the upmixer works compared to native Atmos? 70%? 80%?

 

[Om ma Ni]

Does anyone have an opinion about how well the upmixer works compared to native Atmos? 70%? 80%?

Real genuine atmos tracks have base objects encoded .... The upmixer will probably be able to produce a more enveloping ambiance sound all around with the activation of the height channels etc but not render the exact base objects. The only device as i know to check and visualize Atmos base object activities is the Trinnov...

 

[sander99]

Question:
Did anyone with a 16 channel version (APM89L variant) A16 try to update to the new firmware 2.0? @audiohobbit maybe?
I tried to do this for the owner of the A16 that I borrowed last year and got the wrong version numbers for the APM board and the HDMI board.
I got APM firmware rev: v2.2.5 8901 Jul instead of v2.2.6 8909 Oct
plus HDMI firmware rev: v56.46.15 instead of v56.46.40
I am not so worried about the HDMI version number because the release notes don't say you have to check that, but it does say to check the APM version so that does worry me!
To be save I reverted back to 1.98.

Anyone else had similar results?
Anyone else got the right numbers (or at least the right number for the APM board)?

[Edit: actually, re-reading the release notes they don't say to check the APM number but "the APM firmware will show ...", but I am still worried.]

 

[Thomasphoenix98]

Question:
Did anyone with a 16 channel version (APM89L variant) A16 try to update to the new firmware 2.0? @audiohobbit maybe?
I tried to do this for the owner of the A16 that I borrowed last year and got the wrong version numbers for the APM board and the HDMI board.
I got APM firmware rev: v2.2.5 8901 Jul instead of v2.2.6 8909 Oct
plus HDMI firmware rev: v56.46.15 instead of v56.46.40
I am not so worried about the HDMI version number because the release notes don't say you have to check that, but it does say to check the APM version so that does worry me!
To be save I reverted back to 1.98.

Anyone else had similar results?
Anyone else got the right numbers (or at least the right number for the APM board)?

[Edit: actually, re-reading the release notes they don't say to check the APM number but "the APM firmware will show ...", but I am still worried.]

My 24ch Apm 110 hdmi version number didn’t match the release notes, but other users here confirmed it’s the same for them, it may be a mistake from Smyths documentation.

 

[sander99]

My 24ch Apm 110 hdmi version number didn’t match the release notes, but other users here confirmed it’s the same for them

I know, but nobody has mentioned how things went with the 16 channel version.

it may be a mistake from Smyths documentation.

That is one of various possibilities.
Another possibility is that they put the wrong APM 89 firmware in the update file, and then the question is: does it work with the other parts or is there a danger that it crashes into a total mess?
Or maybe this particular A16 does not hande the update as it should?
Or (and this I think mainly for the HDMI part) it doesn't matter much and different versions will work.

 

[audiohobbit]

I didn't update (yet?). I don't really have time for this at the moment, and there is no new feature that I'd need.
I'm just happy if the A16 works. So never change a running system...

It just still seems to forget my preset settings, or it "copies" the settings from one preset to the other.That's a bit annoying.
For example when I am in the preset menu where you set up which listening rooms are in this preset, and on the 2nd page the upmixer, audio delay etc.: I'm in preset 7, then I switch top preset 8, cursorin top row, press ADJ+, the settings of preset 7 remain, and do not change to those stored in preset 8. If I press reload then, preset 7 has the same settings as preset 8.

 

[mrmac]

Question:
Did anyone with a 16 channel version (APM89L variant) A16 try to update to the new firmware 2.0? @audiohobbit maybe?
I tried to do this for the owner of the A16 that I borrowed last year and got the wrong version numbers for the APM board and the HDMI board.
I got APM firmware rev: v2.2.5 8901 Jul instead of v2.2.6 8909 Oct
plus HDMI firmware rev: v56.46.15 instead of v56.46.40
I am not so worried about the HDMI version number because the release notes don't say you have to check that, but it does say to check the APM version so that does worry me!
To be save I reverted back to 1.98.

Anyone else had similar results?
Anyone else got the right numbers (or at least the right number for the APM board)?

[Edit: actually, re-reading the release notes they don't say to check the APM number but "the APM firmware will show ...", but I am still worried.]

I also got APM firmware rev: v2.2.5 8901 Jul but I got the correct HDMI firmware v56.46.40 after the 2.0 upgrade. I’m on the original APM89L 16ch version.

So far 2.0 has no new issues. Still som pops and annoying sounds when pausing and switching presets, but that’s been a pretty much permanent issue since the start.

Just upgraded to Apple TV 4K and atmos is working great. Although I find it annoying that atmos takes a long time to kick in once the program starts. You always miss the first 5+ seconds…

 

[CaptainFunk]

2.0 update also works great for me.

Does anyone know how to get the SW2 working? When I setup an 9.2.4 Atmos room, only the first SW seems to get a signal. I remember it worked last year or so, so not sure if this is a bug in the newer firmware or if something else changed.

 

[sander99]

2.0 update also works great for me.

You also have the 16 channel version?
And what revision numbers for the various parts do you have?