[motorwayne]

Anyone with skills able to tell me if the Creative Blaster AE-9 is a better board/Bits than the Titanium HD card?

Cheers

 

[PureViewer4t1]

I can't believe no one has tried Asus ROG Centurion here. If anyone has any questions about it (s)he can ask me. I use it for everything including listening to music, watching movies and of course gaming! Very satisfied with it

 

[Avean]

Anyone noticed Dolby Atmos for Headphones actually work now? Its been a long time since i tested it but the problem before it was only supported in games that specificly supported it. Also the problem was as soon as you enable it you present yourself to the game as a 2 channel device.

But now? It still changes your speaker settings to 2 channel but in the game itself it thinks you are 7.1 now. Works in Apex Legends and Star Citizen and i love it so far. Maybe they have updated it for a newer Windows 10 or something, it has definetely changed cause it wasnt working like this before.

 

[Glasofruix]

Yup, tested it in destiny 2 and got actual virtual surround instead of echoey stereo. Also there is no more checkbox in the settings to "force" surround (which did not work in the first place). Windows sonic seems to work now too, but it gives a narrower soundstage and generates a lot more reverb. Just to be certain i've tested in borderlands 2, because destiny's sound mix is actually quite good. Titanfall 2 also shows your audio configuration and it does confirm with a nice 7.1.

 

[Lausilxn]

Dolby Atmos work with Battlefied 1 specifically game supported, But it doesn't work for me in Apex Legend or Any unsupported game which version of Dolby Acces do you have

 

[Glasofruix]

You might need to have the latest windows 10 version for that.

 

[Avean]

Dolby Atmos work with Battlefied 1 specifically game supported, But it doesn't work for me in Apex Legend or Any unsupported game which version of Dolby Acces do you have

Thats interesting. Dolby Access 3.0.2002.0 and Windows 10 1903 (18362.239)

 

[hifinoob005]

Anyone noticed Dolby Atmos for Headphones actually work now? Its been a long time since i tested it but the problem before it was only supported in games that specificly supported it. Also the problem was as soon as you enable it you present yourself to the game as a 2 channel device.

But now? It still changes your speaker settings to 2 channel but in the game itself it thinks you are 7.1 now. Works in Apex Legends and Star Citizen and i love it so far. Maybe they have updated it for a newer Windows 10 or something, it has definetely changed cause it wasnt working like this before.

Does Dolby Atomos in Win10 decode DA signals?
Last time I checked it didn't, just another DSP.

None of the games listed above are listed in the supported games: https://www.dolby.com/us/en/categories/games.html

 

[Avean]

Does Dolby Atomos in Win10 decode DA signals?
Last time I checked it didn't, just another DSP.

None of the games listed above are listed in the supported games: https://www.dolby.com/us/en/categories/games.html

Its just an HRTF effect (Dolby Atmos for Headphones) but included in Dolby Access is also the possibility to decode Atmos streams.
The HRTF effect does work in games not listed there so something has changed. But its weird that Microsoft is not more open in what they are doing with this, its very confusing as this has never been working before and now suddenly it does.

Tested it several times with and without. Without i just get stereo and enabling it gives me a really really good HRTF effect which is much better than the ones from Sound Blaster and even Sennheiser i feel.

 

[hifinoob005]

Its just an HRTF effect (Dolby Atmos for Headphones) but included in Dolby Access is also the possibility to decode Atmos streams.
The HRTF effect does work in games not listed there so something has changed. But its weird that Microsoft is not more open in what they are doing with this, its very confusing as this has never been working before and now suddenly it does.

Tested it several times with and without. Without i just get stereo and enabling it gives me a really really good HRTF effect which is much better than the ones from Sound Blaster and even Sennheiser i feel.

But wasn't the Dolby Atmos Windows app applying it's HRTF algorithm before? To material that does not have Atmos information, a 7.1 (8ch) audio for example, and still getting a 3D effect?

How do you know if the current HRTF effect actually decodes the Atmos information?

The only way to make sure would be to test a game that is officially supported, like Overwatch, with W10's Dolby Atmos enabled vs it disabled.
If the sound is the same it means it decodes it.

I don't think Overwatch requires the DA app in order to output the decoded DA streams, so the W10 DA app needs to be disabled.

If it does, does the app decode DA streams for other medium, i.e. movie UHD discs?

 

[Glasofruix]

But wasn't the Dolby Atmos Windows app applying it's HRTF algorithm before? To material that does not have Atmos information, a 7.1 (8ch) audio for example, and still getting a 3D effect?

It was supposed to but it did not work as intended, it was seen as 2.0 by games and therefore they defaulted to stereo, which is not the case now (confirmed with titanfall 2 and nier automata which show your audio setup and never worked with DA and WS before).

How do you know if the current HRTF effect actually decodes the Atmos information?

It worked with dolby atmos before, just not with games.

The only way to make sure would be to test a game that is officially supported, like Overwatch, with W10's Dolby Atmos enabled vs it disabled.
If the sound is the same it means it decodes it.

I don't think Overwatch requires the DA app in order to output the decoded DA streams, so the W10 DA app needs to be disabled.

Overwatch has dolby atmos for headphones baked in, and it works better than applying the app to a 7.1 signal. The only games i know that support dolby atmos are battlefield V & 1 and Battlefront 2, but it has nothing to do with headphones.

If it does, does the app decode DA streams for other medium, i.e. movie UHD discs?

It does and it was doing it before.

 

[hifinoob005]

It was supposed to but it did not work as intended, it was seen as 2.0 by games and therefore they defaulted to stereo, which is not the case now (confirmed with titanfall 2 and nier automata which show your audio setup and never worked with DA and WS before).



It worked with dolby atmos before, just not with games.



Overwatch has dolby atmos for headphones baked in, and it works better than applying the app to a 7.1 signal. The only games i know that support dolby atmos are battlefield V & 1 and Battlefront 2, but it has nothing to do with headphones.



It does and it was doing it before.

Just because the settings in the game change from 2.0 does not mean it's decoding the Atmos information.

Maybe I have outdated information, but from what knew the Win10 Atmos decoder had very limited functionality: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=114861.0

My understanding of the situation now is that:

• Atmos via Media Center only works when bitstreaming to an HDMI device, and since MC does not identify Atmos tracks you have to bitstream all TrueHD tracks.
• Media Center's TrueHD decoding does not pass through Atmos data.
• Windows 10 has a built-in decoder for Atmos content that works with DAfH, but it can only decode Atmos inside an E-AC3 track. It cannot decode TrueHD+Atmos, and there's no way to get it working with Media Center even for content which uses E-AC3. You would have to use the built-in "Films & TV" app.

Hopefully someone can figure out how to use the built-in decoder with other applications, even if it's limited to E-AC3.
E-AC3 tracks are mostly used with streaming services rather than Blu-ray discs though.

How can you confirm that the Atmos information is actually being decoded, in a game or a movie audio?

 

[nraymond]

Overwatch has dolby atmos for headphones baked in, and it works better than applying the app to a 7.1 signal. The only games i know that support dolby atmos are battlefield V & 1 and Battlefront 2, but it has nothing to do with headphones.

So I play a lot of Overwatch, and can speak to that. The Dolby Atmos in Overwatch is internal to the game and only work properly with 2.0 (stereo) headphone outputs. The way it works is that the game does object-based (3D positional, including elevation) audio in the game engine and has a Dolby Atmos HRTF integrated such that it can create a sphere of sound for headphones and output that over two channel headphone output. There's no Atmos-encoded digital stream or anything like that coming out of the game. Upside is that this works with most any headphones. Downside is that this will not work properly with Waves NX headphones that do head tracking and positional audio themselves, such as the 1More Spearhead VRX (which I have) or Audeze Mobius, since those require a 5.1 or 7.1 multichannel output to do positional audio (and do that by presenting themselves as USB multichannel sound devices to the host computer). 5.1 and 7.1 audio on PC is audio all on the same plane (flat), there are no elevation speakers. So PC games that output at best 5.1 or 7.1 can't output sound with elevation to speakers. The only way to get sound output of speakers with elevation is via HDMI with an encoded Atmos audio stream from games that specifically support it. I know of no way to get an encoded Atmos stream from HDMI into Waves NX headphones, but it would be cool if you could, because then you could have head tracking positional audio with elevation! Right now, I have to choose - do I want Overwatch with Atmos for headphones and get elevation, or do I choose to loose elevation and gain head tracking by switching to 7.1 (non-headphone) output in Overwatch and using Waves NX built in to the Spearhead VRX? I have chosen to give up on elevation because I've found positional head tracking more useful overall when playing.

Now I don't have an Atmos-capable receiver, but I believe that if you had one hooked up to a PC via HDMI and were playing an Atmos game (like Battlefield V and Battelfront 2) and if you were to plug in headphones into the headphone jack on the receiver, the receiver would then apply an Atmos (or possibly other user-chosen, depending on receiver model) HRTF to the decoded Atmos stream in the receiver in order to create a virtual surround sound over headphone experience that includes elevation (and could likely also apply an HRTF in the receiver to any 5.1 or 7.1 stream coming over HDMI, similar to what Dolby Atmos software pack is supposed to do in Windows 10), though of course those 5.1 and 7.1 streams wouldn't contain elevation.

On the PC side, there are Creative EAX and OpenAL titles which I believe have object-based 3D sound engines which, when combined with a Creative card and ALchemy (for EAX backward compatibility via some DLLs deposited in the game executable's directory to intercept legacy Direct3D audio calls and re-route them to Creative's EAX engine directly) or Creative's OpenAL binaries (installed with SoundBlaster drivers) will retain elevation information and then if the Windows speaker configuration is set to 5.1 or 7.1 and a game is set to 5.1 and 7.1 and supports some level of EAX or Creative's proprietary implementation of OpenAL, and the SoundBlaster control panel is set to output to headphones, you can get a Creative-proprietary HRTF that includes elevation information from 3D positional audio in a game engine (much like Overwatch's Dolby Atmos for headphones). No way to use Waves NX head tracking in this scenario, though.

Also worth noting is that some games have baked in binaural/HRTF audio into two channel sound and expect you (and try to warn you) to play them in 2.0 headphone mode, because otherwise you could end up applying an HRTF to sound that already has an HRTF, that won't be good. An example of this is Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (which also means there is no way to play Hellblade, or other games that bake in HRTFs, with Waves NX head tracking positional audio heapdhones).

 

[Glasofruix]

Just because the settings in the game change from 2.0 does not mean it's decoding the Atmos information.

There is no "atmos information" to decode, since there are no games that supply it in the first place (but movies do), no, not even Overwatch. What dolby atmos for headphones is supposed to do is to take whatever surround information is available to it and turn it into HRTF stereo, which it wasn't doing until now (except for sound tracks on legally...cough...bought blu rays). And when a game shows "2.0" it means it does not supply surround.

• Atmos via Media Center only works when bitstreaming to an HDMI device, and since MC does not identify Atmos tracks you have to bitstream all TrueHD tracks.
• Media Center's TrueHD decoding does not pass through Atmos data.
• Windows 10 has a built-in decoder for Atmos content that works with DAfH, but it can only decode Atmos inside an E-AC3 track. It cannot decode TrueHD+Atmos, and there's no way to get it working with Media Center even for content which uses E-AC3. You would have to use the built-in "Films & TV" app.

Hopefully someone can figure out how to use the built-in decoder with other applications, even if it's limited to E-AC3.
E-AC3 tracks are mostly used with streaming services rather than Blu-ray discs though.

And this is irrelevant because dolby atmos for headphones is not supposed to act as a media player decoder for whatever exterior devices you're trying to use, except for good ol' headphones as a HRTF algorithm for virtual surround.

How can you confirm that the Atmos information is actually being decoded, in a game or a movie audio?

Again, no games supply atmos information outside of BF series and then it only works over hdmi with home theater typ setup, HOWEVER move tracks do go through the algorithm.

You're confusing dolby atmos with dolby atmos for headphones, which are different beasts and not made for the same purposes.

 

[Zenvota]

And this is irrelevant because dolby atmos for headphones is not supposed to act as a media player decoder for whatever exterior devices you're trying to use, except for good ol' headphones as a HRTF algorithm for virtual surround.

@hifinoob005 is correct though, per dolby, atmos for headphones does decode atmos tracks the ways he listed, "Any game, movie, Netflix show, etc. that is labeled "Dolby Atmos" will achieve the spatialization effect including height virtualization with Dolby Atmos for Headphones. Right now BluRays cannot virtualize the heights but there is some additional upmixing for an overall enhanced sound."