Dolby Atmos-PC Gaming

Animalfreeride

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Hi all,

I recently purchased a new AV receiver (Marantz SR7015) which I am very pleased with and am seeking to utilise its full potential whilst connected to my PC (via Asus 2080Ti OC GPU). I purchased the Dolby Access app and the receiver detects (displays) Atmos when playing Netflix or the demonstration film clips provided in the app, but when I play Forza Horizon 4 or Resident Evil 2 (both are supposedly Atmos), the AV receiver shows them as Multi Channel In? Suffice to say I've tinkered with all possible settings within Windows 10 and the receiver itself, but will not show as Atmos.

I've done loads of searching on the Internet but there are lots of conflicting views and I'm still unsure whether I'm actually getting Atmos?!

Can anyone provide me with a definitive answer please.

Thanks in anticipation.
 
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From my own personal experience PC games are not bit streamed this will always show multi-channel/lcpm. The audio is identical if not more superior this way, you just don’t get the “Dolby” stuff showing on your AVR.

That said I don’t have atmos, so no idea if lcpm would still replicate this or not but you should quickly be able to tell by playing a game you know supports this.
 
From my own personal experience PC games are not bit streamed this will always show multi-channel/lcpm. The audio is identical if not more superior this way, you just don’t get the “Dolby” stuff showing on your AVR.

That said I don’t have atmos, so no idea if lcpm would still replicate this or not but you should quickly be able to tell by playing a game you know supports this.

Grangey; that is my understanding too. I believe that Dolby support recognises that AV receivers will not show as Atmos, even though it will be output in this format. I may have read somewhere this was deemed to be a ‘cosmetic’ issue which they were seeking to remedy.
 
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There is a version of Atmos called Dolby MAT this is PCM + Atmos which is whats used by Xbox and AppleTV 4K.

I'm unsure if the Dolby app on Windows enables Dolby MAT but it looks like it should given there are technical docs for windows outlining Dolby MAT support.

There are some receivers that do not label Dolby MAT correctly, so it's possible, one way to know for sure is if you have another box that is MAT capable and see what pops up on the receivers info screen.
 
There is a version of Atmos called Dolby MAT this is PCM + Atmos which is whats used by Xbox and AppleTV 4K.

I'm unsure if the Dolby app on Windows enables Dolby MAT but it looks like it should given there are technical docs for windows outlining Dolby MAT support.

There are some receivers that do not label Dolby MAT correctly, so it's possible, one way to know for sure is if you have another box that is MAT capable and see what pops up on the receivers info screen.

Okay, so I connected my PC to my Sony HT-5000 sound bar which is displaying the signal as Dolby Atmos when playing Forza Horizon 4. Therefore I suspect that although the Marantz SR7015 AVR is displaying Multi Channel In, it is outputting as Dolby Atmos.

I may email Marantz support for clarification and share my findings.
 
I emailed Marantz a couple of weeks ago however I still haven’t received a response. That said, the Windows Dolby Access application has been updated today and my AVR now displays Atmos when playing Forza Horizon 4 or Resident Evil 2 so is clearly a software issue :thumbsup:
 
Any ideas on below? (wouldn't let me delete this post!)
 
I emailed Marantz a couple of weeks ago however I still haven’t received a response. That said, the Windows Dolby Access application has been updated today and my AVR now displays Atmos when playing Forza Horizon 4 or Resident Evil 2 so is clearly a software issue :thumbsup:
Hey guys I posted on a diff forum but got no answer and you guys seem to be up to date.

I've been pc gaming with a TV / HiFi / HTPC for around 15 years now and always used a sound card as this used to be the only way to get pc game surround sound to a receiver. Is that still the case? They seem old school, but I still didn't think most pc games were in dolby at all (used to be eax or something? What do they use now?).

Currently using an Asus xonar dx (maybe 10 years old), and when I use pcm mode, I get no surround sound. Maybe a cable limitation as I'm using the optical/toslink out, but the same happens if I use nvidia sound out. My amp only gets stereo (win10 set to 5.1).

Any ideas?

I'm also thinking of buying a marantz, and 80% HTPC usage is music. How is the music on yours?
 
Generally you have to use HDMI to the reciever, but most receivers do not support freesync and HDMI does not support audio only, so you have to set it up as a second monitor (even if you don't have anything plugged in) and go direct for your main monitor.
 
Hey guys I posted on a diff forum but got no answer and you guys seem to be up to date.

I've been pc gaming with a TV / HiFi / HTPC for around 15 years now and always used a sound card as this used to be the only way to get pc game surround sound to a receiver. Is that still the case? They seem old school, but I still didn't think most pc games were in dolby at all (used to be eax or something? What do they use now?).

Currently using an Asus xonar dx (maybe 10 years old), and when I use pcm mode, I get no surround sound. Maybe a cable limitation as I'm using the optical/toslink out, but the same happens if I use nvidia sound out. My amp only gets stereo (win10 set to 5.1).

Any ideas?

I'm also thinking of buying a marantz, and 80% HTPC usage is music. How is the music on yours?

My post in another thread may answer you question.

Linkage
 
Generally you have to use HDMI to the reciever, but most receivers do not support freesync and HDMI does not support audio only, so you have to set it up as a second monitor (even if you don't have anything plugged in) and go direct for your main monitor.
Yeah I don't have an hmdi audio only out on pc (my 4k blu ray player has 2 hdmi out, so you can set one out to be audio only for older av receivers that don't have dolby vision etc).

However I do have...
-(unused atm) Motherboard hdmi out. But are you saying I could NOT connect the gpu to my tv as normal, then maybe use the spare motherboard hdmi out for audio only? , but I'd have to set it up as another monitor? I don't get that bit. In nvidia control panel? How does telling it I've got 2 monitors give surround sound over hdmi?

Or are you saying I have to get the pc sound direct from TV, out to my amp (connected via hdmi) ?
+my tv has optical/toslink out.
-My amp has Arc, and if I set sound device to "Philips TV"
so... Gpu to TV, TV to amp.
 
To answer your previous question any HDMI output on a PC can pass audio to a receiver or soundbar if they have HDMI inputs. You cannot send audio alone via HDMI due to the HDMI specifications which is why windows will see it as another monitor. It will still send sound and if you have the right receiver or soundbar, you will get lossless multichannel audio. There are just a few things you have to do first and I mention them in the link I provided in my previous post.

I am basically saying that you do not have to send video and audio with the same HDMI cable on a PC.

Lets establish the following first.

How many HDMI or Displayport outputs do you have form your PC and where are they?

Do you connect your HTPC to TV with an HDMI cable?

What are the capabilities of your HIFI, how many speakers and what digital inputs does it have?
 
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To answer your previous question any HDMI output on a PC can pass audio to a receiver or soundbar if they have HDMI inputs. You cannot send audio alone via HDMI due to the HDMI specifications which is why windows will see it as another monitor. It will still send sound and if you have the right receiver or soundbar, you will get lossless multichannel audio. There are just a few things you have to do first and I mention them in the link I provided in my previous post.

I am basically saying that you do not have to send video and audio with the same HDMI cable on a PC.

Lets establish the following first.

How many HDMI or Displayport outputs do you have form your PC and where are they?

Do you connect your HTPC to TV with an HDMI cable?

What are the capabilities of your HIFI, how many speakers and what digital inputs does it have?
3 display port and 2 hdmi on my gpu (rtx 3080)

Then one on my motherboard (although I'd imagine the one on the motherboard would expect you to have a cpu with on board graphics which my amd does not... Might be wrong there though).

Yeah currently I have pc connected to TV with hdmi 2.1.
Sound card optical out goes to av receiver.

Av receiver has too many inputs to list, its an onkyo tx-sr508. But Sound card is asus xonar dx and so the only digital connection out is the optical/toslink and then the gpu hdmi.
Amp has optical, hdmi, and coax I believe.

TV is a pain in the backside with hdmi switching, so I'd rather not use that if it needs to then send sound back to the receiver (via arc).

I have 7.1 HiFi.
Kef q550
Kef q6c
Kef q compact
And 2 kef eggs
(+Bower & wilkins sub).
 
3 display port and 2 hdmi on my gpu (rtx 3080)

Then one on my motherboard (although I'd imagine the one on the motherboard would expect you to have a cpu with on board graphics which my amd does not... Might be wrong there though).

Yeah currently I have pc connected to TV with hdmi 2.1.
Sound card optical out goes to av receiver.

Av receiver has too many inputs to list, its an onkyo tx-sr508. But Sound card is asus xonar dx and so the only digital connection out is the optical/toslink and then the gpu hdmi.
Amp has optical, hdmi, and coax I believe.

TV is a pain in the backside with hdmi switching, so I'd rather not use that if it needs to then send sound back to the receiver (via arc).

I have 7.1 HiFi.
Kef q550
Kef q6c
Kef q compact
And 2 kef eggs
(+Bower & wilkins sub).

One HDMI goes to the TV like you mentioned but you can also connect another HDMI from the graphics card to one of the four HDMI IN your receiver has. If you wish you can also connect another HDMI cable from the ARC port of your TV to the HDMI OUT of the receiver and that way you can use your TV remote to control the volume of your soundbar. You do not need to use HDMI switching for your setup since your receiver has four HDMI INs.

Make sure to include Nvidia HDMI audio drivers when installing the Nvidia desktop drivers.

After configuring Windows your will now get lossless 7.1 channel audio through LPCM, TrueHD or DTSMA if you have content supporting those formats. The only downer is that your Xonar DX will become useless as it will not be processing any audio as that is being taking care of by your receiver. Your receiver becomes an external soundcard in a sense.
 
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