I have been borrowing an Xbox One S as a streaming box for Primie, Netflix and Plex.
Today I purchased an Apple TV 4K to try as a replacement.
Before I send it back can anyone confirm if Plex supports Dolby Atmos on the Apple TV 4K?
The Apple TV 4K itself supports it and Plex supports it on the ‘Xbox One S’ so I was thinking maybe I’m missing a setting somewhere?
Cheers!
The short answer is no.
If you want to direct play TrueHD or DTS-HD MA surround sound tracks on the Apple TV, your best bet is to use the Infuse app. Though it cannot play Atmos content as of right now either (a limitation of the Apple TV.)
The Long Answer:
The Apple TV does not support Dolby Atmos via a TrueHD stream. It only supports Atmos via an E-AC3 stream, which is how Apple, Netflix, Prime, VUDU, etc. stream Atmos to streaming devices. So if you are trying to play Atmos from a Blu-Ray rip that contains a TrueHD, then your best bet is a Nvidia Shield. I would not recommend a HTPC at the moment considering the state of Plex on the HTPC platform is uncertain for long term use right now.
Hi Scott,
Okay thanks for the detailed and definitive reply.
Just wondered then how come Netflix and Prime support Atmos (E-AC3) on the Apple TV but Plex cannot?
EAC3 is in the above quoted list…
AppleTV supports the following:
Dolby Digital Plus with Atmos metadata extension
It does not support Dolby TrueHD with Atmos metadata extension
Hi Guys,
So if ATV still supports a form of Atmos why can Plex not utilise this but other apps can?
Also, is the Atmos on the Plex app on Xbox One S true Atmos or another form of Atmos?
I may well stick with the ATV and use Infuse, i’m just working out my options.
Thanks.
From what I understand, Infuse has licensed the necessary codecs.
Ahh I see it’s a licensensing issue. Still I’m surprised Plex hasn’t licensed them!
So one last question then as the Xbox One S and Apple TV 4K are both similar priced devices and I can get Atmos, 4K and HDR with Prime and Netflix on both devices it comes down to Atmos… Is the Atmos on the Xbox true Atmos or E-AC3?
Thanks.
It does support bitstreaming if your content is EAC-3 with Atmos.
Its decoded and transcoded to lossless FLAC for the AppleTV Plex client (Plex Pass users only)
Supports TrueHD Atmos with the Blu-ray player
Supports Dolby Digital Plus Atmos for streaming apps
Okay sorry if this is wrong, I’m just trying to get my head around it…
From that it seems you said both the Apple TV and the Xbox support:
Dolby Digital Plus with Atmos metadata extension
If that’s the case and they both support the same why am I not able to play the Atmos from my Blu-Ray rips through the Plex App on the Apple TV but I can on the Xbox Plex?
Again, sorry but i’m still a little confused.
Define the Atmos version you are playing first. Post the section of media info that specifies the makeup of the audio track in question. The Xbox Plex app does not support passthrough bitstreaming of lossless Atmos.
Is this what you are looking for?
Basically if I play this through the Xbox Plex app it works fine and I get Atmos. But i’m not getting it through the Apple TV. It’s all setup correctly because I get the eac3 version of Atmos through Netflix and Prime on the Apple TV.
Thanks.
You can not get TrueHD Atmos bitstreaming from an AppleTV as this is limited by tvOS itself. In regards to the Xbox, are you sure that the Atmos you are seeing is not because you setup the Xbox to send out all audio as Atmos which is not passthrough bitstreaming. Plex Dashboard and or Tautulli will confirm the audio stream sent to the Plex app.
I’m not sure at all because I don’t understand it to be honest.
This is what it is showing in the Dashboard when playing it on the Xbox. Does that mean I’m getting Atmos? It’s coming through the Atmos speakers.
Nope that Audio track is being transcoded to AAC.
The ATV 4K converts any 7.1 HD audio to Lossless Flac 7.1
It all comes down to if you are happy with what you are hearing.
I own at ATV 4K and an Nvidia Shield (The shield can passthru Atmos).
I personally don’t get a lot from Atmos, but everyone’s systems and more importantly everyone’s ears are different.
There is absolutely no right or wrong in it.
The reason you see Atmos reported by your AVR is as follows:
along with achilles says, on the xbox when connected to atmos avr is always ATMOS/PCM out over hdmi.
all audio is converted to atmos/pcm (even if originally stereo or whatever)
NO audio is passed through, except a bluray played directly in the xbox bluray app.
so, it LOOKS like xbox supports atmos, but we never actually get the original, unmodified, truehd+atmos that a bluray rip uses.
the only way to get full 4k/hdr+HD audio is nvidia shield, or perhaps a properly configured HTPC.
Please read the whole thread @ Plex, 4k, transcoding, and you
I appreciate the replies and help guys.
It seem’s the only way to get true Atmos from Plex would be to buy the Shield which I don’t want to do because the Netlifx and Amazon Prime Video apps are lacking in the 4K HDR Departments.
There doesn’t seem to be any one system I can buy which supports everything on the 3 main apps, Plex, Netflix and Prime Video 
I also don’t want to buy 2 devices to mix and match.
what are you talking about? netflix and prime video support hdr on shield, as far as I am aware.
Sorry it’s Atmos it doesn’t support in Netflix on the Sheild.
