With its object-based sound system, Dolby Atmos is now the benchmark for at-home surround sound. Though it took some time to catch on, the format is now supported by Ultra HD Blu-ray discs and streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+. So, if you’ve got Dolby Atmos speakers, a Dolby Atmos-compatible AV receiver or soundbar, and access to Dolby Atmos content, you should be hearing Dolby Atmos sound, right?
Well, as it turns out, no, not necessarily. To understand if your Atmos system is delivering true Atmos sound — and not just really good surround sound — you need to understand how Dolby Atmos works with all of your media sources and components. It’s a bit technical, but we’re going to make it as simple as possible.
What exactly is Dolby Atmos?
Dolby Atmos isn’t actually a soundtrack at all. It’s metadata that is used by compatible audio gear to control which speakers are reproducing certain sounds. A good example is when a helicopter flies overhead in a movie. Without Atmos information, the sound of the helicopter is embedded in one, or many, of the surround sound channels. But so are all of the other sounds you’re hearing.
With Dolby Atmos, the helicopter is treated as its own discrete object, and a Dolby Atmos receiver can use that information to separate the helicopter sound from the background sounds and move it independently from one speaker to another. The result is a very convincing 3D placement of sounds for a much more immersive movie experience.
And what about Dolby Atmos Music?
Though it’s still just getting a toehold on streaming music services, Dolby Atmos Music does for music what Dolby Atmos does for movies. It’s impressive when you hear it, but to get it you’ll need a specific combination of apps and Dolby Atmos-capable devices. Chances are good that if you’re equipped for Dolby Atmos movies, you’re ready for Dolby Atmos Music, but to be sure, check out our full Dolby Atmos Music explainer.
So if Dolby Atmos is just metadata, what am I listening to?
As we said, Dolby Atmos isn’t sound, it’s information about sound. That information piggybacks on top of existing surround sound signals. At the moment, Dolby Atmos can only do this with two types of surround sound signals:
Dolby TrueHD is a lossless, very high-bandwidth format that is currently only available on Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray discs. It’s transmitted over an HDMI cable, from a Blu-ray player to an AV receiver, TV, or a soundbar that can pass through the video. Atmos via TrueHD is also supported by some media player apps, like Plex, that run on the Nvidia Shield TV family of streaming devices.
The combination of Dolby Atmos and Dolby TrueHD is the best possible surround sound you can get at home.
More on Dolby Atmos
Dolby Digital Plus is a lossy, lower-bandwidth format that has been optimized for use with streaming services and features like B-D Live. It’s currently supported by a wide range of devices, including laptops, tablets, smartphones, and streaming boxes like Apple TV and Roku. Dolby Atmos over Dolby Digital Plus will be the way most people experience Atmos.
Not only is it the format used by Netflix and Amazon, but it’s also the only version of Atmos that is compatible with HDMI ARC (more on this later).
Files, apps, and hardware
The tricky thing about Dolby Atmos is that, for it to work, every ingredient in your home theater setup has to support Atmos. In other words:
Another potential gotcha: Just because your app of choice supports Dolby Atmos on device X, that doesn’t mean it necessarily supports it on device Y. For instance, Plex running on an Nvidia Shield TV can pass through Atmos over Dolby TrueHD, and over Dolby Digital Plus, but Plex on an Apple TV 4K will only handle Atmos over Dolby Digital Plus, and Plex on a 4th-gen Apple TV can’t pass through Dolby Atmos at all.
Until recently, the Apple TV app for LG’s WebOS smart TVs could only provide 5.1 Dolby Digital, however, a June 2020 update added Atmos support.
If you’re playing an Atmos-encoded Ultra HD Blu-ray on an Ultra HD Blu-ray player that’s connected to an Atmos-capable TV, soundbar, or AV receiver via HDMI, we can pretty much guarantee you’re getting the full Dolby Atmos experience. We can’t say the same about some other device combinations.
Here are a few examples where you will not get Dolby Atmos sound:
Perplexed by Netflix
We recently discovered an extremely vexing situation for Netflix users hoping to enjoy Dolby Atmos sound. The Netflix app currently requires that playback devices be capable of decoding Dolby Atmos natively, instead of simply being able to pass through Dolby Atmos to an Atmos-capable soundbar or A/V receiver.
While several TVs meet this criterion, like 2018 or newer Sony Android TV models, 2017 or newer LG OLED TVs, 2019 or newer Toshiba TVs, and 2018 or newer Vizio TVs, only select streaming devices will work. So far, that’s a pretty limited list: Apple TV 4K, Nvidia Shield TV and Nvidia Shield TV Pro (2019), Amazon Fire TV Cube (first and second-gen), Fire TV Stick (third-gen), Fire TV Stick 4K Max, Chromecast Ultra, and Chromecast with Google TV.
Using the Netflix app on an Nvidia Shield TV (pre-2019) or select Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices — even though they can pass through Dolby Atmos — will still limit you to 5.1 surround sound.
There’s no real logic to Netflix’s insistence on Dolby Atmos decoding, as none of these devices can output audio without the help of a device with speakers, whether that’s a TV, soundbar, or A/V receiver.
Plus, Netflix makes the task of identifying which devices natively decode Dolby Atmos very difficult, because it does not maintain a master list of these devices. The only way to know if the Netflix app for a particular device supports Atmos is to search for it within Netflix’s help pages.
HDMI-only?
Unless you are satisfied with your TV’s internal speakers, HDMI is a requirement for Dolby Atmos. Whether your Dolby Atmos content is coming from a Blu-ray disc, a streaming box, or even a built-in app on your TV, the only way to get that signal to your AV receiver or soundbar is via HDMI. Both Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus contain more data than a digital optical connection (TOSlink) can handle.
If you want to transmit Dolby Atmos from your TV to your A/V receiver or soundbar, your TV must be equipped with at least HDMI ARC. As we mentioned above, HDMI ARC works with Dolby Atmos/Dolby Digital Plus, but if your TV is equipped with the newer HDMI eARC standard, it will also work with Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD. There aren’t many Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD sources yet, but you’ll be ready as they become available.
One thing to keep in mind if you’re using your TV between your streaming media device and your soundbar or A/V receiver is that not all TVs are equally adept at passing through Dolby Atmos content. For instance, the Apple TV 4K outputs a version of Dolby Atmos that, in its native format, is incompatible with HDMI ARC. Some TVs can transcode that Atmos signal into one that is compatible with HDMI ARC, while others can’t. If you have a TV that can’t do it, you may have trouble getting Atmos from the Apple TV 4K to the soundbar. TVs equipped with HDMI eARC, however, should have no trouble passing along that Atmos signal to connected equipment.
If you’re using an optical cable to connect your TV to your soundbar or your AV receiver, these signals will be converted into a simpler surround format, like Dolby Digital 5.1, before they get transmitted. The bottom line is that while the sound you hear will still be really good, it won’t be Atmos.
Do I need Dolby Atmos speakers?
Initially, Dolby Atmos at home required the use of “height” channel speakers (the “.2” or “.4” in the middle of the speaker configuration description), but that is no longer the case. In addition to the TV speaker-based Atmos available on some TVs, you can get Dolby Atmos soundbars, which include height channels.
However, there’s also something called “virtualized” Dolby Atmos, which can create a simulation of a 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos mix from as few as two front-facing left and right channels. How good is this virtualized effect? It varies based on the number of channels that are being virtualized and the quality of the speakers themselves. On a product like the Sonos Beam Gen 2, which virtualized height and surround sound channels, the effect is noticeable but mild.
It can, however, be awesome. Sennheiser’s superb Ambeo Soundbar possesses dedicated up-firing drivers for the height channels but uses its array of forward-facing drivers to virtualize the surround channels. It’s pricey, but it delivers a very convincing virtualized Atmos experience.
Though still not quite as good as a system with dedicated Atmos speakers, for many folks, the simplicity of a single soundbar plus a subwoofer will be worth it.
Virtualized Atmos is also showing up on new A/V receivers. This means that if you have an existing 5.1, 7.1, or better surround system, but you lack height channel speakers (and don’t want to add them), the A/V receiver will use those existing speakers to give you a very good approximation of the full Dolby Atmos experience.
How do I know if I’m getting Dolby Atmos?
Because Dolby Atmos systems will upmix any surround sound signals they get to use all of your speakers, it can sometimes be tricky to know if you’re getting true Dolby Atmos or upmixed 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound. From an audible point of view, if you’re getting Atmos, you should be able to detect sounds as they appear to move from one area of the room to another. Rainfall, bullet ricochets, and whizzing cars are all good candidates for this.
They won’t just move from front to back or side to side; they should also occasionally sound as though they’re coming from overhead, or somewhere above the screen.
Still not certain? The one surefire way to confirm Dolby Atmos is working is to check the information panel on the front of your A/V receiver or your soundbar (if it has one, or perhaps an on-screen display). It should display the kind of audio signal it’s currently working with. If the display doesn’t specifically say “Atmos” or “Dolby Atmos,” then the odds are that you’re not getting Atmos. Checking the display is likely easier than queuing up the right soundtrack for a rainfall or ricochet sound check.
Some Atmos soundbars, like the Sonos Arc, Bose Smart Soundbar 900, and LG SP9YA, will show you the audio signal within their respective mobile apps for iOS and Android.
One more thing …
We have one last troubleshooting trick up our sleeves for those of you who still can’t get Atmos to appear despite exhausting all the protocols mentioned above. TVs and streaming devices have different settings for their digital audio outputs. Most of the time, they’re set to “auto” by default, which is what you want.
But sometimes, they end up in PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) mode, for whatever reason. Perhaps you have troubleshot your device every way you know how and still can’t pick up Dolby Atmos. In that case, we recommend you navigate its settings to see if it’s in PCM mode. If it’s set to PCM, change it to Auto or Bitstream. Not all setups are compatible with Dolby Atmos, so if this doesn’t work either, you might have an incompatible system.
Achieving proper Dolby Atmos requires a bit of diligence and technical know-how on your part, but it’s totally worth it. The result is a clearer, richer sound that surpasses 5.1 or 7.1 surround. We have created the diagram above to provide you with the proper guidelines to ensure that your Atmos setup goes off without a hitch. Once you dial in your files, hardware, apps, and settings, you should be able to achieve impressive Dolby Atmos sound that’s worth all the effort.