Then use the Netflix app on your 4K tv.
Thatās the point iām trying to find a one-stop-shop that supports everything. Would building a PC do it? Is there software out there I can run on the PC and on just one client device that will support Atmos, HDR, HDR10+ and 4K that I can run on my Apple TV or Xbox then I can enjoy everything on 1 device?
You are after the same dream everyone else is, and been here looking for, for years.
Nope.
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Okay sod it, Iāve juts bought the nVidia Shield. Iāll have to use that for Plex then and the Apple TV for Prime and Netflix. Just means I have to buy 2 of each (1 setup for the bedroom as well).
Thanks guys.
You really should consider the apps built in to your tv, for the bedroom and other non home theatre areas.
Also, are you that hard core that you require atmos for Netflix that itās worth the extra hassle and cost!?!?!
Are you going to have high end atmos receiver and speakers for every tv?
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Iāve just thought of a better solutionā¦
I have a HDFury Maestro TX and RX which the Harmony Elite Remote. I can just transmit it upstairs from downstairs and still get full 18Gbps 4:4:4 with Atmos, HDR10+, Vision and pretty much everything. As long as the TV isnāt being used downstairs (which it wonāt be) I can watch everything upstairs at max quality also.
You are mistaken. Infuse can play the Atmos check the attached screenshots. I was able to play the Atmos without any problem. The first photo is the direct stream of the Atmos through Infuse and second photo was played with plex.
This is what I was told when I asked Infuse:
āHi David -
Unfortunately, Infuse does not currently support Atmos, but you will be able to take advantage of the underlying audio, even lossless formats. A bit more info on the available options for this can be found here. https://support.firecore.com/hc/en-us/articles/217735707ā
So maybe your system is lying to you? I donāt know, but I wasnāt going to buy it when the developers themselves say it doesnāt support it.
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I am not mistaken, the Apple TV in fact does not support Dolby Atmos via TrueHD. It does not even support TrueHD.
I see no evidence from your screenshots that Dolby Atmos has been played, only a TrueHD stream, which Infuse locally decodes to LPCM and bit-streams to your receiver (refer to the link @Daskew78 provided)
I will say again, and refer to the information @Daskew78 gathered from the Infuse team:
TrueHD and Dolby Atmos are not the same thing. TrueHD is a lossless audio format/codec. Dolby Atmos is a metadata layer encoded into that audio codec, and can exist in (as of today) either a TrueHD or E-AC3 codec. If the playback device does not support the codec (in this case TrueHD) then it cannot playback the Dolby Atmos metadata either.
Infuse is able to play a TrueHD audio stream by decoding it to a LPCM format, and in doing so the Dolby Atmos metadata is lost in conversion (repeat of previous paragraph, refer to the Infuse support page 
)
If you are interested in Dolby Atmos support via LPCM in the Infuse app, refer to this link (spoiler, it might not be possible): https://firecore.com/forum/topic/20983
4 Likes
Hi,
since a couple of weeks I have trouble playing back content that has TrueHD audio. I know it was transcoded before and currently the PMS is showing that it transcodes the audio.
However, all movies I could play before (I really donāt know the last working version). Now the AppleTV app just hangs with the idle icon showing (rotating ring). When I switch the audio on the same movie to AC3 it just starts playing.
How can I solve this. I am on tvOS 13.2 and the latest Plex app as well as the latest PMS on Windows.
I think it all comes down to this:
- Dolby ATMOS can currently be provided with TrueHD (Blu-ray) or E-AC3 (Streaming, aka Dolby Digital Plus)
- Apple TV does not support TrueHD in the current tvOS. In theory, this could even be a hardware limitation, but I guess itās not.
- Any downloadable video with ATMOS you can currently find online comes from a Blu-ray disc and therefore cannot be played back WITH ATMOS on an Apple TV (no matter how you create a MP4/MOV from it)
- To my best knowledge, the ONLY way to transform TrueHD to E-AC3 at the time of this writing is to license the required software from Dolby Labs (e.g. Dolby Media Encoder SE), which is way more expensive than the additional hardware required to play TrueHD with ATMOS.
- Apple has no interest whatsoever to support TrueHD on Apple TV, as the sole beneficiaries will be people wanting to play ripped Blu-rays on Apple TV while enjoying ATMOS sound. This is directly against Apples interest of selling and renting movies themselves.
Bottom line: if you want to play videos with Dolby ATMOS, you have to cough up the money for some device that plays MKV with TrueHD directly, like an OSMC or whatever other options were mentioned in this thread.
If you think you can wait for this to change, donāt hold your breath. My bet is, this is not going to change in the foreseeable future.
Doest this clear everything up?
3 Likes
Just an addition:
In the meantime Iāve had the opportunity to try Dolby Media Encoder SE. I was unable to do a conversion from TrueHD to Dolby Digital Plus. It looks as if only the original creator of the TrueHD track is able to do that.
everything remains the same right?
Infuse on Apple TV or Buy a Nvidia Shield no?
Could I Get TrueHD + Atmos if I connect directly ATV to Atmos capable receiver and then it to the TV via ARC?
Your proposed solution does not work on my Atmos capable receiver.
I suppose the reason is that it does not solve the issue described by @stefantimm two post above.
The only Atmos that works on Apple TV is EAC3/DDP.
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Does Plex on Apple TV 4K support DDP files with Atmos? Not talking about TrueHD.
Not sure if Plex on Apple TV 4K supports DDP/EAC3 files with ATMOS. I will try and post results.
I did notice that there are now a few movies in MKV format with EAC3 and ATMOS flying around (e.g. Disneys Dolphin Reef). Iām pretty sure they originated from a stream, not a disc.
Plex does not, but Infuse does.
I did find something else. According to this article (english translation here), the Apple TV, other than most ATMOS capable media players who leave this to the receiver, does the decode of the DDP stream itself.
This could mean that there is an underlying architectural decision Apple has made that makes it even more unlikely that ATMOS with TrueHD will ever be supported unless it is needed for streaming. Iām not sure what the odds are that this will happen, the bandwidth requirements and licensing issues might prevent this for the foreseeable future.
AFAIK they use the Dolby Mat format to incorporate System Sounds and Siri which wouldnāt be possible if they just passed through the audio to your reciever /soundbar.
Iām also pretty certain theyāre not gonna support TrueHD or just bitstreaming in the near foreseeable future, because they wouldnāt gain anything from it. All the Streaming services and iTunes use DD+. I would be very suprised if apple would care for people like plex users that rip their own content.
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This. Iāve also read somewhere that the reason why TrueHD isnāt possible is because of Siri. And because streaming services wonāt use TrueHD, there is no reason for Apple to change this any time soon.
Fortunately Shield 2019 has Dolby Vision (for whenever Dolby Vision with lossless surround becomes easier to make) so there is an alternative that doesnāt have compromise unlike Shield 2017 (with exception of HDR in YouTube but that hardly matters IMO.)
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