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awvickers

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 5, 2021
2
0
Since Apple TV decodes and then sends LPCM how does Atmos actually work? Right now I have my Apple TV hooked up to an old Onkyo 7.1 receiver. I can see that it is sending 7.1 multichannel PCM for supported music and movies. Since my Onkyo receiver's other 2 channels/speakers are considered "surround back" speakers, is the height channel in an Atmos supported tracks being sent to these speakers?
 

-Gonzo-

macrumors 65832
Nov 14, 2015
1,502
841
Some movies will have different audio formats available so your receiver will play out at whatever it’s capable of doing so ie Black Widow (Dolby Atmos, DD Plus 7.1, DD 5.1) A Quite Place 2(Dolby Atmos, DD 5.1)
On my receiver display it shows as Dolby Atmos Multichannel PCM.
 

priitv8

macrumors 601
Jan 13, 2011
4,078
660
Estonia
Pre-Atmos receivers are not able to decode additional information in the Atmos stream.
The AppleTV-version of Atmos (MAT2.0) is a special trick played on HDMI but it still needs an Atmos-capable receiver.

The only place I have seen a descripton of how MAT2.0 actually works, is here (obviously, there is no proof, that it is true or correct, just one insight):

Sending Atmos' 16/48 stream over HDMI as 16/192 actually quadruples the amount of bits sent. But the AVR needs to understand this LPCM's fake sampling rate and must compensate during MAT2.0 decoding process.
 
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