ATMOS/DTS X Movie ratings by Overhead Channel usage

Montro25

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I want to start a thread about this subject. This is a big issue with Dolby ATMOS movies. Basically most movies don't have a good ATMOS Mix. They turn out to have just regular 360 degree sound field which you already get with Dolby Digital 5.1 and 7.1 for the most part.

ATMOS is supposed to add height to the sound so that you get a 3D effect but a lot of movie studios are barely using this feature specially after marketing ATMOS all over the place and having people spend a lot of money in these audio systems. We need to hold these movie studios accountable for their bad ATMOS mixes!

As far as I've looked there's no website that dedicates itself to rating or reviewing Dolby ATMOS content.

There's a lot of videos on YouTube about the best ATMOS movies recommendations etc. but I found a video that discredits those claims about best ATMOS movies with films like John Wick 2, Godzilla, Alita and Mad Max.

In this video "Stop the FOMO" guy disconnects all channels except the height channels to determine how much ATMOS height content there is in these movies. YOU WILL BE SURPRICED!

Dolby ATMOS Overhead Effects? You’re Not Missing Much


If anyone is able to continue to do tests like this on different movies and post their findings here in some form of rating or review this would help all of us 3D Audioholics choose the best movies for audio entertainment! Let the fun begin! Post your findings below!
 
Thanks for posting the video.

I have to admit I am underwhelmed by Atmos, and now I know why. Before watching the video I put it down to having tall front speakers and upwards firing speakers on top of them.
 
I want to start a thread about this subject. This is a big issue with Dolby ATMOS movies. Basically most movies don't have a good ATMOS Mix. They turn out to have just regular 360 degree sound field which you already get with Dolby Digital 5.1 and 7.1 for the most part.

ATMOS is supposed to add height to the sound so that you get a 3D effect but a lot of movie studios are barely using this feature specially after marketing ATMOS all over the place and having people spend a lot of money in these audio systems. We need to hold these movie studios accountable for their bad ATMOS mixes!

As far as I've looked there's no website that dedicates itself to rating or reviewing Dolby ATMOS content.

There's a lot of videos on YouTube about the best ATMOS movies recommendations etc. but I found a video that discredits those claims about best ATMOS movies with films like John Wick 2, Godzilla, Alita and Mad Max.

In this video "Stop the FOMO" guy disconnects all channels except the height channels to determine how much ATMOS height content there is in these movies. YOU WILL BE SURPRICED!

Dolby ATMOS Overhead Effects? You’re Not Missing Much


If anyone is able to continue to do tests like this on different movies and post their findings here in some form of rating or review this would help all of us 3D Audioholics choose the best movies for audio entertainment! Let the fun begin! Post your findings below!

His system is most likely badly setup. I get tonnes of overhead use!!
 
His system is most likely badly setup. I get tonnes of overhead use!!

Surely configuration has nothing to do with it if every other channel is disconnected? There's no other sounds to drown out the atmos channels. All he has to do is make sure they're plugged in and the AVR is set to an audible volume
 
I'm not surprised, the movie makers are quickly grabbing cash by 'remastering' stuff as cheaply as they can.

not exactly related, but still funny to me:
Lemmy wrote that when Motörhead were invited to Top of the Pops they were told to remix or re-record the song they were going to perform. So they stood in the 'studio' & drank beer instead of actually doing anything.
He claimed that's what every band did.
 
I'm not surprised, the movie makers are quickly grabbing cash by 'remastering' stuff as cheaply as they can.

not exactly related, but still funny to me:
Lemmy wrote that when Motörhead were invited to Top of the Pops they were told to remix or re-record the song they were going to perform. So they stood in the 'studio' & drank beer instead of actually doing anything.
He claimed that's what every band did.

Eh? Wasn't TOTP nearly always bands miming over a backing tape?
 
Yeah, I have no idea why they even wanted the artists to re-create the song, & I guess neither did the artists.
 
Surely configuration has nothing to do with it if every other channel is disconnected? There's no other sounds to drown out the atmos channels. All he has to do is make sure they're plugged in and the AVR is set to an audible volume
Atmos is only used to add atmospheric effects, go and stand outside and pay attention to how much stuff comes from a above your head, the answer is not much.

Atmos works brilliantly for me, anyone how disagrees is welcome to come and have a demo at mine, I’m 100% certain anyone who listens will agree with me.
 
Atmos works brilliantly for me, anyone how disagrees is welcome to come and have a demo at mine, I’m 100% certain anyone who listens will agree with me.

Can you cover my fuel and provide drinks, BBQ food and a platter of hors d'oeuvres?
 
Atmos is only used to add atmospheric effects, go and stand outside and pay attention to how much stuff comes from a above your head, the answer is not much.

Atmos works brilliantly for me, anyone how disagrees is welcome to come and have a demo at mine, I’m 100% certain anyone who listens will agree with me.

I think many people misunderstand how Atmos works - it's not supposed to be totally overhead stuff, but the overheads help 'lift' and direct sound within a 3D bubble - effectively like using a stereo pair to create a phantom centre and anywhere between. So many sounds emanating from the overhead speakers will naturally be subtle, they are helping some of what is being played in the base layer to be steered within the bubble - it would be rare indeed for all sound to come from an overhead speaker with little in the base layer.

One of the few times I've heard sound coming directly from the overheads, and little else, was when you demo'd A Quiet Place to me - this was a distinct 'alien walking' sound coming from above, and nowhere else - which captured perfectly, the sound of the alien moving around upstairs.

Even helicopters flying overhead aren't just going to light up the overheads and nothing else, that would be totally unrealistic - and yet it seems that is what some people are expecting to come from their system! :rolleyes: The system is designed to work as a whole - you can't just go switching parts of it off and expect any meaningful results!

My move to Atmos was one of the best things I've done sound-wise.
 
regarding ambient sounds:
There's a noise-canceling feature in my automobile's sound-system.
Unfortunately I had to disable it when I installed an after-market amplifier, because the noise-canceling sounds from my speakers were also amplified & very apparent when the sound-system wasn't even activated.
Before I installed the amp there was always ambient sound in reverse 'polarity' from the road noise.
 
Initially I was underwhelmed by Atmos. But after watching a few demo tracks where the overheads were more pronounced, I appreciated it a lot more.

I only have 2 ceiling speakers, (and that was with tricking the wife, so 4 or more is a definite no! :D ), but there are plenty of times I have been very impressed with overheads. I agree about A Quiet Place, the creature upstairs is very good, but then sound (or lack of it) is the main element of that film so you'd expect it to be very good.

Couple of movies that immediately spring to mind that have good examples of overhead sound are Dwayne Johnson's Jumanji & Deepwater Horizon. Both decent enough films.

In Jumanji, when the characters die and respawn, the respawn sound comes just from the overheads and is quite loud! Made us jump, then smile.

Deepwater Horizon is in the helicopter scene when they are travelling to the oil rig not long into the film. It's a good work out for your system. Front L & R and Surrounds are dealing with the rotors, very effectively, and the actual engine noise is coming from the overheads. Then your sub gets to show it's beans as well! I was very impressed with the separation and it is now one of my demo scene's to show friends and family.

No, Atmos is not an all action part of the sound track, it's meant to be more subtle and ambient. But when it's done right, it's very very good.
 
Good thread. I posted this in the other thread with a couple of examples


I would agree that most Blu-ray's with Atmos are a bit underwhelming, but there is definitely an additional layer of sound there. I almost prefer some of the upmixers which help enhance it.

A few examples I'd suggest are

Everest - Storm scene. Definitely wind and rain noises, thunder etc.
Deepwater Horizon - explosion scene. Atmos effects throughout
A Quiet Place - the bath scene after she walks down the stairs
Hans Zimmer in Prague - outstanding disc all round. Lots of crowd\instrument sounds

There used to be a brilliant YouTube channel where the guy played a Blu-ray but only had his Atmos speakers connected and he recorded the sound, which he then reviewed. From memory Aquaman was full of Atmos. I can't seem to see the channel now though?
 
Here's something of note about Quiet Place I & II.
Their UHD discs are just upscaled video, not Native UHD, but the HD blu-rays have the ATMOS soundtrack, so it's a win-win to just get the cheaper HD blu-ray.

For my ears, Cinderella with Camila Cabello made good use of Atmos for her vocals, it was incredible-sounding.
 
Here's something of note about Quiet Place I & II.
Their UHD discs are just upscaled video, not Native UHD, but the HD blu-rays have the ATMOS soundtrack, so it's a win-win to just get the cheaper HD blu-ray.

For my ears, Cinderella with Camila Cabello made good use of Atmos for her vocals, it was incredible-sounding.
Yeh, well 99% of all UHD discs are just upscales :)
 
If blu-ray.com is to be believed,
it's more like 44%.

If we narrow it to only ATMOS films on UHD, then it's about 50/50.

In the case of DTS:X, it's about 43% that are Native UHD.
 
Think i only have one or two native myself, but i only have around 50 discs, yeh 99% i just plucked out of the air, my point really is, that all UHD discs should be native.
 
The vast majority of my UHD collection on disc is Native, but I have messed up a few times & bought the upscaled by mistake, like the aforementioned QP films.
I'm starting to collect HD blu-rays now that have DTX:S or Atmos.

What's sad is that often I compare HD blu-ray to UHD blu-ray & sometimes the differences are just too minute to justify the extra cost, as if they just upscaled it the same way that my Sony player upscales HD.
 
Add 'Zero Dark Thirty' to the list.
I got it on blu-ray yesterday in DTS-HD & have watched it twice today.

The Dolby-Atmos (streaming) definitely has height atmosphere in the helicopter scenes.
 
Most Atmos movies with thunderstorms sound great they tend to be well-placed overhead and bass-heavy.
 
So I've been doing some research of my own into this and have found sometimes reviewers lie, but not intentionally. Wading through ATMOS reviews for Transformers: Age of Extinction and it's clear reviewers like the "new" addition of height speakers even if they're rarely used. I use this film because it was the first ATMOS title and hating the film or not is irrelevant: this was supposed to be the poster boy for the format.

So I fired it up on my own system and unplugged all the "floor" speakers leaving just the 4 ceilings and some review findings don't correlate to what I heard. By doing this, any sound MUST come from the ceiling as nothing else is connected or able to make a sound. In doing this, one review stood out, suggesting the heights added a lot of audio with ships flying overhead in the opening 5 minutes, yet in my own testing, this is nonsense as the channels are inactive. This then points to almost a placebo or "hearing what you expect to hear" effect from some reviewer's.

Unhappy with the data these reviewers put out, I'm working on a methodology to actually measure the usage of height speakers that might warrant it's own thread.

In essence, run the ceiling/height analogue output from my x6400h into a "club" mixer to downmix the 4 channels to stereo. I've tried doing this with 2 soundcards on Windows but it's not really designed to do it and I couldn't get 2 of the channels to record. While I could record each pair of channels 2 at a time resulting in 6 passes per movie for 7.1.4, I'm not prepared to go that far and I'm only really interested in the height data anyway. This was verified using the manual per channel, channel volume white noise tests from the amp.

Anyway, with the setup in toe, I can record the movie soundtrack as analogue, using the amplifier as an ATMOS decoder. Once the height soundtrack is recorded, I plan on using a custom python script to measure how much of the soundtrack is above 0db and represent that as a percentage of movie runtime, probably excluding credits. No more guess work, no more "this film uses it well", just a measurable number eg "Mad Max uses ATMOS height 76% of the time, Matrix 4K is 63%". These are just examples, I've not done any measuring yet.

Further, it should be possible to ascertain which part of a film uses height the most. E.g between 1:12:34 and 1:18:35 ATMOS height was used the most, letting you then pick specific scenes based purely on height use. I'll probably do something like a 1 second sliding window (if sound occurs at 1:08:35.000-999 did it also occur at 1:08:36.000-999 and so on) and then capture all of the "window" lengths when this was in use.

We have reviews for hifi and speakers with measurements, why no one has bothered doing this is beyond me, the process can be semi-automatic too meaning the film can be left running with the recording running while you do something else.

Welcome a discussion about the idea but it might be worth starting a new thread about it.
 

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