Atmos finally decoded in PC/Mac

[Deleted member 50971]

I don't want to derail the thread, however I truly believe the problem with Marantz (as I have the AV7706) is their HDAM circuit. I've owned the Denon x4400H and gave it to my son when I moved to the pure prepro. I have mixed feelings about it as there are feature that I like but I believe the fidelity is off from the Denon. This brings us back to the ability to decode Atmos from a PC. If it were a one shot, and able to output the atmos channels through a 16 channel Dac...I'd be all for it. I believe that besides fear of piracy, the other reason that the industry purposefully handicaps PC's is they can't afford to destroy their own industry. I remember a few years ago I repaired a TCL flat screen that I had in my bedroom. I didn't feel like buying a new set at the time so I said what's to lose. I opened it up and I said "This is just a computer"!!! I identified the bad board and replaced it....boom, running perfectly. I'm one of those who believes in "right to repair".

Hi, I don’t claim to be an expert on Marantz but supposedly the SR 8015 from Marantz has the updated hdams and SINAD pushing 100.

I also thought that they were the cause of the lower specs for the Marantz AVR‘s/AVP’s now I’m not so sure. But that’s what people have been blaming it on the last 10 years.

 

[prerich]

I'm wondering if @Amir will ever get an AV7706 in to measure (last time he thought he was getting a 7706 and got another 7705.....and it performed worse than the original 7705 ).

 

[Aerith Gainsborough]

A simple rip with MakeMKV is enough.

If you feed the bitstream signal into an AVR.
Not sure if the likes of PowerDVD can actually decode ATMOS properly and send it as PCM to a generic multichannel DAC.

UHD Blu Ray on PC is dead anyway, since Intel nuked the SGX extension, so 12th Gen and up can't play them at all, so cracking the encryption and ripping is a must. Bleh, way too much effort. I want to watch a movie and not fiddle around with the software, copy protection and decoding for half an hour every time.

 

[prerich]

If you feed the bitstream signal into an AVR.
Not sure if the likes of PowerDVD can actually decode ATMOS properly and send it as PCM to a generic multichannel DAC.

UHD Blu Ray on PC is dead anyway, since Intel nuked the SGX extension, so 12th Gen and up can't play them at all, so cracking the encryption and ripping is a must. Bleh, way too much effort. I want to watch a movie and not fiddle around with the software, copy protection and decoding for half an hour every time.

This is an attempt to close the "digital hole". What they really want is everything to go to streaming, giving total control to the studios and streaming companies. What this also does is force lossy Dolby Digital+ with Atmos metadata (as its not really a "track" ). This reduces the resolution to that of HD-DVD, that used Dolby DIgital+. This is also an attempt to make the theater event and experience unique again (can't have people at home with an experience better than a theater). Well....I think since I'm done with purchasing amps...I think I will look at a kaleidoscape in the near future.

 

[Aerith Gainsborough]

What they really want is everything to go to streaming, giving total control to the studios and streaming companies. What this also does is force lossy Dolby Digital+ with Atmos metadata (as its not really a "track" ). This reduces the resolution to that of HD-DVD, that used Dolby DIgital+. This is also an attempt to make the theater event and experience unique again (can't have people at home with an experience better than a theater).

If that were the case, they would simply discontinue UHD disc mastering (AFAIK, it's bloody expensive to do).

As long as them players can be had for relatively cheap, your argument doesn't hold water. PC has always been fairly neglected as far as easy disc playback is concerned.

They are also not closing any digital holes. Both UHD disks and streaming media are being ripped all the time and will continue to be ripped in the foreseeable future. Streaming may be more convenient for most folks and, lets face it: most folks don't give a hoot about imperceptible differences in audio quality between a modern lossy codec and a lossless one.

 

[VoidX]

Just stumbled upon this topic, and I'm happy to say that I've made a solution, a free DD+ Atmos to PCM decoder (TrueHD is not yet possible as Dolby did not publish the necessary documentation which they did for DD+). It's downloadable (and open source) under the Cavern project, and if you have any feature requests, just reach out to me.

 

[prerich]

Just stumbled upon this topic, and I'm happy to say that I've made a solution, a free DD+ Atmos to PCM decoder (TrueHD is not yet possible as Dolby did not publish the necessary documentation which they did for DD+). It's downloadable (and open source) under the Cavern project, and if you have any feature requests, just reach out to me.

Something tells me I may have spent a lot of cash for no reason . Your QuickEQ looks very interesting indeed.

 

[prerich]

If that were the case, they would simply discontinue UHD disc mastering (AFAIK, it's bloody expensive to do).

As long as them players can be had for relatively cheap, your argument doesn't hold water. PC has always been fairly neglected as far as easy disc playback is concerned.

They are also not closing any digital holes. Both UHD disks and streaming media are being ripped all the time and will continue to be ripped in the foreseeable future. Streaming may be more convenient for most folks and, lets face it: most folks don't give a hoot about imperceptible differences in audio quality between a modern lossy codec and a lossless one.

I'll go along with you on most of this, except the difference in audio quality being "imperceptible" between streaming and Lossless UHD or BD.

 

[VoidX]

except the difference in audio quality being "imperceptible" between streaming and Lossless UHD or BD.

Depends on the decoder. Some apply the compression settings from the DD track (including the official Dolby IC, they sound worse), some don't (special FFmpeg option, they're transparent according to my double blind tests of 90 people).

 

[retro]

a free DD+ Atmos to PCM decoder

Wow, fantastic! Please stay on this forum..questions will come for sure...

 

[VoidX]

questions will come for sure

I'm ready for anything, including how exactly Atmos works, if that's what someone's interested in. You can also find my object viewer on the site or examples on YouTube, that reveals some funny stuff.

 

[retro]

@VoidX
Have you seen this thread on Audiophilestyle.com..?
https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/imme...olby-truehd-atmos-on-windows-and-macos-r1092/
I post there also, and have just linked to your site, hope that's ok.
Check it out, long thread, 7 pages.

 

[VoidX]

Have you seen this

Yes, but it's studio stuff, mine works on any hardware. I'm a Windows guy, so it wouldn't help.

 

[prerich]

I'm ready for anything, including how exactly Atmos works, if that's what someone's interested in. You can also find my object viewer on the site or examples on YouTube, that reveals some funny stuff.

I was very impressed with the object viewer indeed!!! Can't wait to try Cavern out.

 

[mkt]

Yes, but it's studio stuff, mine works on any hardware. I'm a Windows guy, so it wouldn't help.

Does Cavern work on mac?

 

[VoidX]

Does Cavern work on mac?

The code is cross-platform, the decoder can be built on a Mac, but I don't have one.

 

[tifune]

Just stumbled upon this topic, and I'm happy to say that I've made a solution, a free DD+ Atmos to PCM decoder (TrueHD is not yet possible as Dolby did not publish the necessary documentation which they did for DD+). It's downloadable (and open source) under the Cavern project, and if you have any feature requests, just reach out to me.

Can you speak a little as to how the upmixer works? Also, being your app is Windows only, how did you test output of more than 8 channels? Seems there's not many great options out there for Windows

 

[voodooless]

Very nice @VoidX! So all we need now is an HDMI capture card with eARC support and capable of receiving bitstream audio, and we can create out own AVP.

 

[VoidX]

Can you speak a little as to how the upmixer works? Also, being your app is Windows only, how did you test output of more than 8 channels? Seems there's not many great options out there for Windows

The old upmixer simply cut the signal to bands, and applied height by amplitude. The current upmixer is based on Spleeter for separating different kinds of sounds, and moves the ones marked as height to height channels.

Very nice @VoidX! So all we need now is an HDMI capture card with eARC support and capable of receiving bitstream audio, and we can create out own AVP.

Blackmagicdesign makes cards like this, that would be a great product indeed.

 

[voodooless]

Blackmagicdesign makes cards like this, that would be a great product indeed.

The cards are generally not the problem. There are many cards pci-e or even USB dongles. The problem is actually getting the bitstream audio out. Most are locked to only accept LPCM. This should just be a software issue though (as well as a licensing thing).