Apple AirPods Firmware

[Erehy Dobon]

During the WWDC keynote from June, it was clearly stated that Spatial Audio works with Dolby 5.1, 7.1 and Atmos content. It works fine with each.

The iPod Pros' Spatial Audio does not work with DTS-encoded multi-channel content (DTS is a Dolby competitor). One would have to transcode DTS video files to AC-3 using a utility like Handbrake.

Note that each work's audio is mastered differently. The most noticeable spatial audio effects should come from action-adventure type movies or TV show not dramas nor comedies.

 

[Benz63amg]

5.1, 7.1, or Dolby Atmos sources.
iPhone 7 or later, newer iPads.

So anything on Netflix pretty much would also work with spatial audio?

 

[CoronaOnTap]

So anything on Netflix pretty much would also work with spatial audio?

It technically would but 7.1 or better would give you the best experience.

 

[Henrik H]

So anything on Netflix pretty much would also work with spatial audio?

Netflix apparently does not support spatial audio yet. The information is a bit vague. I read Whathifi and Verge articles.

 

[Ralfi]

Here’s a good article on Spatial Audio..

What is Apple Spatial Audio? What devices support it, and is it like Dolby Atmos?

Everything you need to know about Apple’s immersive 3D audio tech, including how you can listen to it

www.whathifi.com

Doesn’t work with AppleTV yet & I’m not sure how it would, as you’d need a location-tagged device as your screen in order to have your AirPods Pros ‘line‘ up with them for the initial configuration.

Maybe they‘ll make it work by having you place your iPhone/iPad where your TV is & use that as positioning ’stamp’ for where your TV is...if they can get it to work in your living room, then I can see huge benefits for people living in confined apartment buildings or houses with little room for a full surround sound home theatre, as a Spatial Audio setup saves on the required equipment footprint & cuts noise to neighbours.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

So anything on Netflix pretty much would also work with spatial audio?

Not yet. The app playing back the content needs to be enabled by the developer to support Spatial Audio.

Right now Netflix, YouTube, Vimeo, VLC, Infuse, and many others do not support Spatial Audio. There’s a wiki post in this subforum tracking what works.

Several criteria are necessary:

• Compatible earbuds with correct firmware (right now AirPods Pro with firmware version 3A283)
• Compatible host device (recent iDevices, the list is too long to put here)
• Compatible version of iOS (minimally iOS 14.0)
• Compatible Spatial Audio-aware iOS/iPadOS app
• Content encoded in supported audio codec (Dolby 5.1, 7.1, Atmos)

If any one of these criteria is missing, you won’t get Spatial Audio.

 

[rxp]

The same spatial audio implementation won't work with the Apple TV due to the use case.

Phones/tablets are only 2-4 feet away from you. Synthesising a center channel is the hardest part of spatial audio - because you can't rely on inter-aural delay or phase shifts. That's why head tracking is needed. Because Apple hasn't done ear mapping to compute a custom HRTF for each user (like other implementations) it relies on head tracking. The brain might not be convinced that sound is coming from the phone but as it uses head movement it'll then learn that sound is indeed coming from the phone. This works with small distances. Waves MX is another good implementation of this, especially on the Audeze Mobius.

However, with a Apple TV the TV is far away from you - typically 1.5 to 4m away. The same synthetic center channel will collapse. The issue of not knowing where the TV is can be easily resolved by having a "center" button. Where you point your head towards the TV and press tell the algorithm "this is where center is". However, because the brain is expecting the audio to come from far away, even with head tracking it's no longer fooled. So it doesn't sound good.

I've got a ton of experience with all this. And as odd as it sounds, you do listen with your eyes. The eyes set the expectation for the brain. How do I know? I've used Impulcifer to create custom HRTF surround sound binural convolutions for me. I have to create a separate one for different use cases - on the desktop/laptop the TV and the projector. It's crazy but that's what you need. And the only way to achieve that is a proper model that simulates both ears independently. Sony's PS5 Tempest Binural rendering engine is the only thing that'll work properly.

 

[steakfries]

Only 1 person has the 0c80 firmware?

I have 0c80 firmware too, but i cant figure out what it is because i havent seen or heard anything about it