Xbox Will Be The 'Only' Next-Gen Console Supporting Dolby Vision And Atmos

This is going to bring a huge innovation in spatial 3D realistic audio with Project Accoustics and also HRTF (confirmed by Digitalfoundry).
https://youtu.be/pIzwo-MxCC8

@themightyant It says Cyberpunk and CoD Warzone will support Dolby Atmos gaming.

I might be getting Series S as a first time Xbox buyer. I’ve Sony Mdr-1000x headphones. Does Xbox support Bluetooth headphones? PlayStation doesn’t really, unless I use a small Bluetooth dongle - I don’t like wired headphones.

I’ll be able to experience this Dolby Vision on Series X when I get the LG CX next year, looking forward to it.

So atmos is basically the same as Sony’s 3D sound right? Is good if it is!

@Carck I’m just happy they have made sure to tell that it will work on any headphones.

I’m excited for this! My Sony OLED does Dolby Vision and a kind or Atmos, as best it can with its speakers anyway. Personally I’d rather have Dolby on board then a custom own version like what the PS5 will have.

@S1ayeR74
Be careful with your Sony Dolby Vision they have a weird way of implementing it on their TVs. Making the source player do the coding and not the TV. It is well known in AV world.

@Z3u5000 COD Warzone already supports Atmos gaming on Xbox One.

Atmos for Headphones costs $15 to activate (unless it's on sale).
Atmos for home receivers is free (just have to select Bitstream Out and then Dolby Atmos in your sound settings). You have to download the Dolby Atmos App on Xbox first.

Atmos is available for various games already such as COD Warzone, Gears 4 + 5, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Resident Evil 2 (why Capcom downgraded to 5.1 max on Resident Evil 3 is a mystery), Crackdown 3, and Assassin's Creed Odyssey - there are more, but I am not going to list them all.

Hopefully, with Series X heavily supporting Atmos and now Dolby Vision, more games will be made to support Atmos. It really is very cool!

This is gonna be wordy, sorry.

Unless something else is done with atmos, in current implementation it is kind of disappointing with it only working for certain games.

And honestly between Atmos, DTS, and the built in Windows Sonic, I have found Windows Sonic to be the best overall fit for headphone audio both via direct connection to the controller and from SPDIF. Sound stage is consistently clearer and more open while directional cues being immediately easier to discern. This is all in spite already experiencing it open back headphones that by design alone already improves these qualities phenomenally at the, typical, cost of bass response.

Concerning my audio setup it is as follows:

Audio Technica ATH-AD700
ANTLION ModMic
Turtle Beach Head Set Audio Plus for controller use.
ASTRO A40 Mixamp for SPDIF use.

Now I do have traditional headsets as well from the likes of Creative, Turtle Beach, Logitech, and others. However, I have found for the best sound you need to get headphones from a good company like Audio Technica(definitely biased toward them), Sennheiser, KOSS,etc. Then couple it with an Antlion Modmic.

Now if you want a wireless solution, this ain't it chief. I've yet to hear a wireless headset be able to reasonably outperform it though.

@GamingFan4Lyf Yes but Series X will have more powerful audio processing to render spatial 3D audio for Project Accoustics, HRTF etc. I guess they are working on Dolby Atmos for gaming to vastly improve the number of sources.

Fantastic news. All the 2019 and 2020 LG TVs support Dolby Vision. Mine is the C9 and still haven't had the chance to see any game use Dolby Vision which is the best HDR quality according to AV experts. I'm quite excited about it.

Yes, Xbox One X also supports Dolby Vision but I still haven't played any game that supports it, perhaps Dolby Vision support is only for streaming video on Xbox One X.

One of the best features of the next generation? This:

"Say goodbye to adjustment sliders.
Dolby Vision games automatically map to your Dolby Vision display as you play, so you're always seeing the full picture".

@Z3u5000 Oh, I won't argue that. I was simply saying that you can already experience Dolby Atmos now on Xbox/Windows - and if you aren't, you are missing out on supported games and apps.

Even if you don't have a high-end Atmos home theater setup or a support soundbar, that $15 to unlock Atmos for Headphones in the Dolby App is a worthy "investment" - no special headphones needed!

Plus, it extends to streaming services and support movies as well - so it's not just games. Have a Blu-ray with Atmos, but don't have a system to support it? Watch the movie on Xbox using Atmos for Headphones and can hear it in all it's Atmos glory! Want to watch Star Wars on Disney+ in Atmos on Xbox One S|X? Done!

Also, for those in the market, if you see headphones that are "Atmos headphones", there is nothing extra special about the headphones themselves that enabled Atmos within the hardware, they usually just come with a code to unlock Atmos for Headphones on Windows/Xbox.

@GamingFan4Lyf Is Windows Sonic for Headphones (Xbox) compatible with those BDs that support Dolby Atmos or Windows Sonic, which is excellent, is only for games?

@TheNewButler

I completely agree with everything you just said.

In Phil we trust. 👍🏻

This just keeps getting better, Series X is a monster..

@BlueOcean No, Atmos/DTS:X Blu-ray will not work with Windows Sonic - you might get virtual surround, but not the height aspect (I can't confirm that even virtual surround will work with Windows Sonic for Dolby/DTS tracks since Windows Sonic is Microsoft-platform specific).

Atmos piggybacks on current Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD track. If your receiver is Atmos-enabled, the metadata that is riding on the signal is then picked up, calculated, and pushed out accordingly. If not, well, then the signal still works since it just ignores the metadata and you get the standard surround mix.

DTS:X works the same way, except I think it only piggybacks on DTS-Master tracks.

If Windows Sonic can translate Dolby/DTS tracks into suround sound it will read the Dolby Digital Plus/Dolby TrueHD/DTS/DTS-Master as surround sound, but ignores the Atmos/DTS:X metadata. If it can't even translate Dolby/DTS, then Windows Sonic just comes through in stereo over headphones.

Also, Atmos doesn't enable on Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Disney+ unless you are actually using either Atmos Bitstreaming (for receivers) or by having Atmos for Headphones enabled. And it's absolutely amazing that you aren't limited to high-priced headsets that plug into your optical/HDMI for Atmos to work. A simple 3.5mm connection to your controller is sufficient.

Most games that support Atmos on Xbox also use Windows Sonic. In fact, many also support DTS:X, but you'll find that on Windows only (DTS:X Headphones is $19.99).

It seems like spatial audio on Windows/Xbox is taking the same route as non-spatial. So most games will be able to take advantage of multiple technologies based on preference.

I do think Atmos for Headphones sounds better than Sonic on supported games - positional audio is more precise and surround sounds aren't overstated as they are on Sonic.

@GamingFan4Lyf Thanks for replying. My A/V is the Onkyo TX-NR609 which supports Dolby DTS and bitstreaming up to 7.1 but not Atmos.

I'm using an Xbox S and technically it supports DV and Atmos.

But it says my 2016 OLED has an older, unsupported version of DV.

I'm getting Atmos thru my sound system, but I've heard it's fake Atmos.

I'm not sure what to think, but my PS4 Pro doesn't do DV or Atmos.

So I'm inclined to be thankful for what MS has been able to accomplish.

I also use my Xbox S for Blu-ray and 4K UHD, and it all works pretty well.

@GamerDad66 Xbox One X/S support Dolby Vision and Atmos but DV only for video as far as I know because my TV supports Dolby Vision and I've only seen the logo using a video streaming app. If you get a Series S/X you'll get Dolby Vision for games, but not with your current Xbox One S.

@Thretosix My A/V receiver was expensive when I bought it so I'm not replacing it while it lives for a newer audio protocol. It has 6 HDMI (2.0?) ports so I connect the Xbox One X to the LG C9 (better for input lag, anyway) and the console to the A/V receiver through the S/PDIF port. Series X doesn't have S/PDIF but the TV does, so no problem.

I can't wait to see Dolby Vision in Series X games 😊.

@Thretosix and also @GamingFan4Lyf Yeah, don't think of sound bars. I use the sound of the TV sometimes, because it supports Atmos, but I wouldn't buy a sound bar for Atmos. By the way, why can't a A/V receiver that supports bitstreaming and 7.1 DTS be updated for Atmos? Onkyo says that my model can't be updated for Atmos but I have no idea why.

@Thretosix @BlueOcean I have a Yamaha RX-V685 and it has both Atmos and DTS:X.

I don't actually have height speakers, though - I chose to use 7.1 setup instead of a 5.1.2 setup. The benefit I get with Atmos through my receiver comes from smoother surround sound transitions and the sound coming from my satellite speakers seems louder than just a standard TrueHD signal.

The other benefit comes from streaming Apps. Non-Atmos Dolby Digital Plus are only 5.1 on Netflix, Disney+, and Prime. With Atmos enabled, those apps use every one of my speakers since Atmos only cares about how many speakers you are using instead of traditional mixing techniques that are specific to the channel.

@GamingFan4Lyf So Atmos doesn't care about how many speakers you have, what it does is simulate the location of the sound using whatever speakers you have, is that correct? Then why is it better than 7.1 that physically has seven speakers around you?

@Thretosix Newer Onkyo A/V receivers got the Atmos update but mine didn't even though it got other updates but I'm not buying a new one.

@Thretosix I will have a look as well.

@BlueOcean Because it's the receiver that is doing the calculation of channels rather than a human being.

A human has to program in length of time, volume (to simulate distance), which channel, etc. Generally it's one channel at a time as something moves from back to front or front to back - rear, side, then front. No real blending "in between".

When something is mixed using Atmos, the engineer literally takes a sound and moves it around in a 3D space. That's it. It's the receiver then translates that movement to sound based on your speaker layout.

So if you move something "between" channels, Atmos knows that at some point it's X loudness on Right, then Y Loundness on Rear Right, but then the sound slowly blends away from Right until it's fulling in Rear Right - so the position may actually sound like it's "between" speakers. Unfortunately, any "overhead" simply gets translated to a surround speaker on a standard setup with no height speakers - so, in my case, I don't get that overhead effect - it just sounds like surround sound - just more accurate in it's side position.

Newer receivers have virtual height, so even if you have just a plain 7.1, it can do virtual height instead to get that height channel along with the surround sound effect.

The real benefit to Atmos is actually the height capability - but there is a more accurate positional component when using standard surround sound - the Dolby App has Atmos demo's and setting the Xbox to standard 7.1 PCM doesn't sound nearly as accurate or as clear as it does when enabling bit streaming Atmos.

So if you get a 7.1 receiver that supports Atmos, your choice of speaker placement are standard 7.1 or 5.1.2 - which is 5.1 surround plus 2 height. An 11.1 receiver can do 11.1 surround or 7.1.4 or even 5.1.6. There is also 13.1 that can do 7.1.6 or 9.1.4. FYI - The last .[number] is the number of height channels.

Height can actually be different with Atmos too. There is "overhead" and "height". So if you have say...2 front height and then 2 overhead, a helicopter lifting off and then moving overhead will transition from front to front height, then to overhead as it passes overhead and then some sound will pass through the rear speakers and overhead.

But if you have 4 overheads, the same helicopter will stay in the front speakers and slowly transition to front overheads then to rear overheads - some sound may also come from the rear speakers.

If you wanted the absolute most accurate sound for a helicopter lifting off, you would want 6 height speakers, 2 front heights, and 4 overheads. That way you can hear the helicopter lift from front to front height, to front overhead, to rear overhead and then to rear as helicopter gets more in the distance.

None of this is manually handled by the engineer, it's all done with Atmos tools.

Atmos for Headphones doesn't care, it just simulates an infinite number of speakers around you via virtualized 3D Audio. DTS:X for Headphones seems to simulate "below" a lot better than Atmos,, but it could just be me.

So to break it down for Atmos:
Sound engineer moves sound around in a 3D plane during mixing.
Receiver uses speaker layout to determine "how" the sound moves around you.

Dolby put out a new speaker setup document for Atmos that supports 11.1.8 - no receivers currently support that, yet.

DTS:X Pro (which is new) supports up to 33 channels.

Thanks! My question was incomplete, I mean, DTS 7.1 has seven speakers and a subwoofer, is it better than Atmos via 2 speakers such a TV with 2 speakers and a subwoofer or a headset or a sound bar? 7 physical speakers should beat Atmos with 2 physical speakers even if Atmos transitions are smoother. At what point Atmos is better than 7.1?

Did make me laugh how ps went on about audio and the ponies where eating up like it was a huge win over xbox, and the whole time xbox didn't really talk about there's atall... Ps where clinging to it because went it comes to console alone the series x blows ps5 out the water

Another reason why ps cling to the 'but but the exclusives' its like they are brainwashed to ignore facts, yes maybe you did have better exclusives on the Ps4 but that was the ps4