Samsung HW-Q950T and HW-Q900T Soundbar - Review & Comments

What's the audio in these files?

Also, six you try any games?

The audio is Atmos lossy and loseless, DTS X lossy and loseless.

I just fresh installed Windows 10, thinking something was messed up with passthrough, because when I play with the Windows 10 Film/TV player you can select the between formats, when I select TrueHD Atmos it always promps this error:

Another app is controlling your sound at the moment. To listen here, close that app and try again.
Error: 0xc00d4e85


I need to reinstall my Steam account, but the games I have are the 3 Tombraider games and Assassins Creed series.
 
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@Samsung the top of the line Q950T sound bar can't play @Dolby Atmos games in @Windows because it doesn't support PCM. You advertise it as a perfect companion for gaming and claim support for HDMI 2.1, and it can't even do what the K950 did. #Shame
Ok I just did a quick test and there’s something weird going on. Coming from the N950, whenever the Xbox was turned in, it would scroll “Dolby Atmos” across the soundbar display and not allow change of sound mode.

I just booted an atmos game (the new ori) and are first it didn’t display “Dolby Atmos” nor was there any sound coming out at all. I have to go back into Xbox settings and turn atmos off and on again to get any sound. This happened a couple of time, then on the third time of disabling and enabling atmos in the Xbox settings the “Dolby Atmos” scroll across the soundbar once I jumped back into Ori BUT I was also allowed to change sound mode....

This was definitely not the case on the N950. I’m not exactly sure what any of this means but I am happy to fight the good fight with you all if this is a huge issue
 
I posted the 7.1 LPCM for testing and for @PlanetaryReference as it was hard to find.

Thank you for the file, I tried it and as expected it played back in exactly the same pattern as the 24 bit PCM 7.1 .wav does that I described here 2 days ago:


Your file confirms that PCM 7.1 and LPCM 7.1 have the same channel mixing problems, and that's why neither seem to play surround (but they're also not just stereo mixes). When in fact they do play all 8-channels, its just that the Q950T surround mix plays them only on the bar and mixes those formats wrongly.

In other words, the fix for one will repair the other also (plus the 16-bit versions of same).

I suspect the Q950T has the same code in it as the N950, for PCM / LPCM, but it still has not been edited to work on the Q950T's speaker layout, as yet. As you pointed out, it's advertised to work with the affected consoles, so I think it will be fixed.
 
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Thanks!!!!
So there is no need for "us" to tweak the 7 band EQ anymore because you already did this for us correct? I mean: this correction has nothing to do with volume of the band at listening position?

Also, which (free) Apple Store mic. measure app can be used for the initial Dolby Atmos testtone calibration?
No, the opposite. You can use these files along with an app on your phone or something with a microphone to tweak the bar's equalizer for the 7 bands, and the speakers for individual volume using the Atmos file.
Do you have any tips for a microphone app?
 
Klipsch 600 3.1ch soundbar videos are out in YouTube. No information about the specs but looks miles better than any soundbar I have seen. 10 inch subwoofer and ability to add an external wired sub.

If Klipsch gets it right with 1200, then it will be the soundbar to beat.
 
If anybody wants me to do any comparisons with the Q950T and LG SN11RG let know

I would be interested as you got both in hand. :) Just movies would do for me. You can pick about 5 films and sample demo scenes. Don't go by the Atmos demos. Would prefer real world examples like what's there on movies. :)
 
Guys,

Can you help me out what I am doing wrong:

I just tested

Dolby Atmos movie:
In STANDARD MODE i only get sound from the soundbar and subwoofer. In all other modus I get sound from the rear speakers but I am 99% sure that this is not the Atmos signal.

Dolby TrueHD movie:
Again, in STANDARD sound mode i only get sound from the soundbar and subwoofer. The rear speakers are silent. In all other modes i get sound from the rears but again, don t think this is the TrueHD signal.

Dolby Test Tones 9.1.6:
I only get test tones from the soundbar when doing all test tones. Also, the subwoofer test tone does not let the subwoofer do anything.

What am I doing wrong here?

I m using Blu-Ray BDMV and .MKV (Dolby Test Tone file) from my Zidoo Z9S mediaplayer. Installed the latest firmware on my Q950t soundbar.
 
Ok I just did a quick test and there’s something weird going on. Coming from the N950, whenever the Xbox was turned in, it would scroll “Dolby Atmos” across the soundbar display and not allow change of sound mode.

I just booted an atmos game (the new ori) and are first it didn’t display “Dolby Atmos” nor was there any sound coming out at all. I have to go back into Xbox settings and turn atmos off and on again to get any sound. This happened a couple of time, then on the third time of disabling and enabling atmos in the Xbox settings the “Dolby Atmos” scroll across the soundbar once I jumped back into Ori BUT I was also allowed to change sound mode....

This was definitely not the case on the N950. I’m not exactly sure what any of this means but I am happy to fight the good fight with you all if this is a huge issue
If it's real Atmos you can't change sound mode. From the PC there is more control so I can verify that whatever uses Dolby MAT doesn't work.

MAT is metadata over PCM, so since this bar doesn't accept PCM properly for multiple channels, MAT doesn't work properly.

Before anyone interjects, this issue happens with both eARC and direct connection.

I'll try to see if I have the hard disk space to try Gears 5, but to my knowledge so games work this way.

Here's the Audio analyser app I used:

 
I just tested a Dolby Atmos clip from the Atmos App on the Xbox One X and Atmos is working fine there.

So are you actually saying that I cannot get Atmos, TrueHD, dts:X or even regular Dolby Digital from a full BluRay rip is never going to work on the Samsung bar??

EDIT: I just don t understand. The Blu Ray content I play from my Zidoo Z9S are FULL and UNALTERED .iso or BDMV folder rips so it is actually the same as putting in a BR disc.....
 
I just tested a Dolby Atmos clip from the Atmos App on the Xbox One X and Atmos is working fine there.

So are you actually saying that I cannot get Atmos, TrueHD, dts:X or even regular Dolby Digital from a full BluRay rip is never going to work on the Samsung bar??

EDIT: I just don t understand. The Blu Ray content I play from my Zidoo Z9S are FULL and UNALTERED .iso or BDMV folder rips so it is actually the same as putting in a BR disc.....
Playing from Video or a clip, is completely different than playing a game.

The video has the audio stream already in and encoded in TrueHD or DD+, the game is using PCM plus height metadata to encode an audio stream on the fly.

Try to see if you can play any games with Atmos, with your Xbox directly connected to the bar, without the Xbox doing any kind of transcoding.

MAT requires PCM to work, so what you'll get is either no audio at all, some audio, or multichannel audio but no Atmos. It's super easy to verify.

I have reported this to the Samsung customer support here already, but I have zero hopes.
 
Playing from Video or a clip, is completely different than playing a game.

The video has the audio stream already in and encoded in TrueHD or DD+, the game is using PCM plus height metadata to encode an audio stream on the fly.

Try to see if you can play any games with Atmos, with your Xbox directly connected to the bar, without the Xbox doing any kind of transcoding.

MAT requires PCM to work, so what you'll get is either no audio at all, some audio, or multichannel audio but no Atmos. It's super easy to verify.

I have reported this to the Samsung customer support here already, but I have zero hopes.
Do you have WhatsApp so I can give you a short call?
I am not talking about video games. I don’t play them. I play a full unaltered blu ray 1:1 rip that contain the unaltered uncompressed Atmos bitstream so this is the exact same situation as playing a Blu-ray Disc
 
Do you have WhatsApp so I can give you a short call?
I am not talking about video games. I don’t play them. I play a full unaltered blu ray 1:1 rip that contain the unaltered uncompressed Atmos bitstream so this is the exact same situation as playing a Blu-ray Disc
Atmos will work fine from Bluray as it is a bitstreamed format. The bar has issues with PCM and PCM-based formats like Dolby MAT.

As far as I am aware, only games and (I think) the Apple TV 4k is using Dolby MAT, but the Apple TV can adjust to another format. Games cannot do that.
 
I can't remember something.
When a player is directly connected to the soundbar and the source is Dolby Atmos, will it be compressed or played at full potential ?
 
I can't remember something.
When a player is directly connected to the soundbar and the source is Dolby Atmos, will it be compressed or played at full potential ?
Since it's eARC, if your TV supports it it should make not difference.

But if you connect directly, the audio should be the full thing.
 
Again: I am not talking about games nor am I using a Apple TV. I play a FULL UNCOMPRESSED 1:1 iso blu ray rip so the EXACT same situation as putting a blu ray disc in a stand alone player

edit:
Do I maybe have to connect my mediaplayer directly to my tv and let the earc take care of the sound signal to the Samsung q950t ?
 
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think my sub died or so try to resync it but nothing its a steady blue light. i even try to unplug and plug it back in doesn't fix it but my rears start working when i unplug my sub which is odd.
 
If it's real Atmos you can't change sound mode. From the PC there is more control so I can verify that whatever uses Dolby MAT doesn't work.

MAT is metadata over PCM, so since this bar doesn't accept PCM properly for multiple channels, MAT doesn't work properly.

Before anyone interjects, this issue happens with both eARC and direct connection.

I'll try to see if I have the hard disk space to try Gears 5, but to my knowledge so games work this way.

Here's the Audio analyser app I used:

So Apple Tv 4k which uses Mat will not work properly.
 
Guys,

Can you help me out what I am doing wrong:

I just tested

Dolby Atmos movie:
In STANDARD MODE i only get sound from the soundbar and subwoofer. In all other modus I get sound from the rear speakers but I am 99% sure that this is not the Atmos signal.

Dolby TrueHD movie:
Again, in STANDARD sound mode i only get sound from the soundbar and subwoofer. The rear speakers are silent. In all other modes i get sound from the rears but again, don t think this is the TrueHD signal.

Dolby Test Tones 9.1.6:
I only get test tones from the soundbar when doing all test tones. Also, the subwoofer test tone does not let the subwoofer do anything.

What am I doing wrong here?

I m using Blu-Ray BDMV and .MKV (Dolby Test Tone file) from my Zidoo Z9S mediaplayer. Installed the latest firmware on my Q950t soundbar.
Again: I am not talking about games nor am I using a Apple TV. I play a FULL UNCOMPRESSED 1:1 iso blu ray rip so the EXACT same situation as putting a blu ray disc in a stand alone player

edit:
Do I maybe have to connect my mediaplayer directly to my tv and let the earc take care of the sound signal to the Samsung q950t ?
eARC might actually hide the issues for you if your TV reencodes. What are the audio output settings in your Zidoo Z9S? It is directly connected to the bar, right?

So Apple Tv 4k which uses Mat will not work properly.
It seems that the Apple TV has a range of audio settings, but from my testing anything that depends on PCM simply fails to produce Atmos, and even sometimes it fails to produce sound at all.

Games are a good test case since they use Dolby MAT to reduce latency as encoding with mess things up.

Here is a direct quote from Dolby:
Dolby said:
Dolby Atmos in Dolby MAT

The Dolby Metadata-enhanced Audio Transmission (Dolby MAT) encoder resides in a Blu-ray player to pack the variable bit-rate Dolby TrueHD bitstreams for transmission over the fixed bit-rate HDMI connections. A MAT decoder is subsequently employed in an AVR to unpack the Dolby TrueHD bitstreams. With the introduction of Dolby Atmos, we have expanded this technology to support encoding of Dolby Atmos content as lossless pulse-code modulation (PCM) audio. A key benefit of Dolby MAT 2.0 is that Dolby Atmos object-based audio can be live encoded and transmitted from a source device with limited latency and processing complexity. Among the possible sources are broadcast set-top boxes, PCs, and game consoles. The Dolby MAT 2.0 decoder in an AVR outputs the object-based audio and its metadata for further processing. The Dolby MAT 2.0 container is scalable and leverages the full potential of the HDMI audio pipeline.

That's what the PC games seem to be using, and they are failing because the bar does not support LPCM 7.1.

Direct quotes from Microsoft Audio people saying that Dolby MAT is the transport method for Atmos in games:



This bar is useless for gaming if it doesn't get LPCM support.
 
eARC might actually hide the issues for you if your TV reencodes. What are the audio output settings in your Zidoo Z9S? It is directly connected to the bar, right?


It seems that the Apple TV has a range of audio settings, but from my testing anything that depends on PCM simply fails to produce Atmos, and even sometimes it fails to produce sound at all.

Games are a good test case since they use Dolby MAT to reduce latency as encoding with mess things up.

Here is a direct quote from Dolby:


That's what the PC games seem to be using, and they are failing because the bar does not support LPCM 7.1.

Direct quotes from Microsoft Audio people saying that Dolby MAT is the transport method for Atmos in games:



This bar is useless for gaming if it doesn't get LPCM support.

you're saying dolby atmos isn't working on the XBOX direct connection or eARC because it's Dolby MAT?

This is weird because it was 100% working at the start of september for me for direct connection. I'm not at home at the moment but I had to return my original soundbar and replaced it with a newer version to get the 50% discount for it. It's still all packaged up so it will have the old firmware on it. Are you sure maybe the new update messed up the Dolby MAT functioning of the bar? My LG E9 literally had dolby atmos pop up when playing modern warfare, as well as dolby atmos demo videos, and I couldn't change soundmode from standard?

When I'm home I'm gonna test this out before updating the soundbar and see what occurs.
 
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you're saying dolby atmos isn't working on the XBOX direct connection or eARC because it's Dolby MAT?

This is weird because it was 100% working at the start of september for me for direct connection. I'm not at home at the moment but I had to return my original soundbar and replaced it with a newer version to get the 50% discount for it. It's still all packaged up so it will have the old firmware on it. Are you sure maybe the new update messed up the Dolby MAT functioning of the bar? My LG E9 literally had dolby atmos pop up when playing modern warfare, as well as dolby atmos demo videos, and I couldn't change soundmode from standard?

When I'm home I'm gonna test this out before updating the soundbar and see what occurs.
i have my Xbox>TV>soundbar and this is what I’m getting, see pic. I’m assuming I’m getting atmos? When I had the Xbox connected to soundbar, I couldn’t achieve atmos. My tv is Vizio OLED with earc on.
2115D041-2AB4-4AA8-A193-4CE2152602E6.jpeg
 
i have my Xbox>TV>soundbar and this is what I’m getting, see pic. I’m assuming I’m getting atmos? When I had the Xbox connected to soundbar, I couldn’t achieve atmos. My tv is Vizio OLED with earc on. View attachment 1383978

you're getting lossy ATMOS, the xbox dolby atmos for gaming is DOLBY MAT.
Are you watching netflix when you took that info?
start up a game with atmos capabilities and see what it says.

That's strange you're not getting ATMOS with direct connection. Try that again. Connect soundbar and tv through the arc and connect the xbox to one of the other soundbar ports.
 
you're getting lossy ATMOS, the xbox dolby atmos for gaming is DOLBY MAT.
Are you watching netflix when you took that info?
start up a game with atmos capabilities and see what it says.

That's strange you're not getting ATMOS with direct connection. Try that again. Connect soundbar and tv through the arc and connect the xbox to one of the other soundbar ports.
I was playing Ori in the first photo which does have Dolby atmos. When I switch the Xbox to one of the soundbar ports, see pic. I turned it earc off and same result. I also turned earc back on to see what happens and it went to loss of signal and back to game picture but still PCM stereo. Playing gears of war now to test in another game and still the same PCM.
 

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