Dolby Atmos support in Roon (ROCK)? - Now that Tidal now extends its support (not only for Android)

@ComputerAudiophile has a project ongoing over at Audiofilstyle that will explain all this in detail.
People should have a look there what is possible.
I think he will be able to play Dolby TrueHD in up to 16 channels using Roon.

It’s an ongoing project, so not everything is revealed yet.

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No. Roon can’t play Dolby TrueHD or anything more than 8 channels.

I should also add that @Chunhao_Lee and I worked on this together and can decode and successfully play Dolby Atmos TrueHD with all the height channels on Mac and Windows.

Right now is too early to release all the details though.

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Can you let us know if you have since become convinced? Follow on…please let us know if the team has any Atmos plans in the offing. Thanks.

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Hi @joel i hope you doing well.

are there any talks in roon internally about the Atmos ?

Thanks Again

Can someone help me test Atmos on iOS (Tidal)?

The only way so far that I am aware of to get an Atmos experience through Roon is still limited to 5.1.2 (eight channels) and it requires playing out the TrueHD track (with .thd extension manually replaced with .mlp) through the Dolby Reference Player on a Mac and then recorded by Audacity as an 8-channel FLAC file. In essence, you are “freezing” the Atmos objects to a 5.1.2 format and capturing them in a Roon playable FLAC track. A bit of work, but if you’ve been into standard 5.1 MCH in Roon, you’re already used to a lot of work with ripping and and converting the SACD ISO to DSF tracks.

For Apple Spacial streaming (5.1.2 Atmos), I do bypass Roon and run the Apple Music output from a Mac through HQPlayer for convolution and upscaling to DSD128. Volume control is through HQPDcontrol and the Apple Remote app allows play control of tracks, albums and playlists — but only if you first save them to your library in Apple Music. JCR

PS read a new article here:

If you’re not using an Atmos decoder / renderer it isn’t Atmos. Atmos isn’t just the PCM channels and that is not how it is mixed. Yes, there are distinct PCM channels for an Atmos Master but there is also a set of metadata files which is required to put the mix back together properly (unless you export as binaural which is its own thing).

Unlike “normal” multichannel, Atmos isn’t mixed to individual channels in the DAW. An engineer mixes to 3D space and the Atmos software does the work of both down mixing to your desired format + creating the associated metadata required to recreate the 3D mix. There are multiple ways to encode / export an Atmos Master but all the standard ones include Joint Object Coding to reduce the size / number of objects that need to be tracked / encoded in 3D space. The JOC encoder then uses this information to correctly recreate the 3D space based upon your specific speaker configuration. This is why it needs to be done at the processor, it needs the actual room / speaker set-up.

In the case of Apple Music the export is EC-3 which is Dolby Digital Plus and the Joint Object Coding (DD+JOC) metadata. So, yes, it’s plenty possible to pull the DD+ out of the “mix” but without the JOC it isn’t Atmos as the individual channels are not being encoded into the 3D space that the engineer intended.

I’m sure it sounds very good. It’s just not Atmos, it’s Dolby Digital Plus or TrueHD :slight_smile:

EDIT: Using The Dolby Atmos Reference Player it will decode the additional spatial information within the TrueHD files as pointed out as this thread continues below. I had missed the mention / use of this software from the article when I wrote the above.

Let’s get geeky…
https://learning.dolby.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408217194772-Appendix-C-Dolby-Atmos-Delivery-Codecs-

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He is using the Dolby decoder to create the files. It’s Atmos. Wether he captures the 5.1.2 or his system plays the 5.1.2, it’s the same. All goes through the decoder.

If people are wondering how to decode TrueHD with Atmos on a Mac or Windows PC, I wrote about previously.

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Ahhhh I missed this part…
“Playing local TrueHD Atmos files through the Dolby Reference Player”

TrueHD Atmos masters are 12, 14, or 16 channel downmixes (IIRC) of the 3D space (the JOC)? And the Reference Player can decode the AC-4 export (which keeps the JOC intact). However, I don’t see mention of the use of AC-4 in the article (Tidal + Others). The Reference Player lets you model your room / speakers similar to any processor. Neat stuff indeed; if you can get access to the right files.

However, I still don’t understand how the “Atmos” (JOC) part of the EC-3 / DD+JOC is being encoded in this set-up when AMusic is the source? I should go dust off my old account and go ask I guess.

Anyway, @ComputerAudiophile keep up the momentum here. Very fine bit of kit you’ve put together as usual.

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The Reference Player plays a few different file types, among them MLP. These can be ripped from Blu-ray Disc.

Playing MLP through the Reference Player is identical to any hardware decoder. No real room modeling is done for deciding on the consumer side. It’s all about number of channels and if they are placed within the Atmos specified locations.

I have a 7.1.4 system, thanks for the kind words by the way, and this doesn’t change for me. I can play the files via the Reference Player and output 12 channels to my 16 channel DAC or output to Audacity capturing the exact same stream that would be sent to my DAC. Then export as W64 or WAV and split with cue sheet.

It’s TrueHD with Atmos, and the decoder only needs to be used once for a 7.1.4 system.

It’s all very fun stuff and sounds so cool!

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This is not ageing well :grin:

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We all understand the skepticism, …

Atmos has the support of three streaming services and all the major labels. Studios can’t keep up with the work mixing releases for Atmos. Labels are reaching out to artists, with lists of their albums not yet mixed for Atmos.

Everything is temporary if given enough time, but many things can be enjoyed for a long time before they are replaced. Dolby has a long track record with the movie industry and now it’s product is embraced by the music industry. both good things.

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Upvote here if you want to see Roon add Atmos suppot: Playback of Atmos

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Qobuz now supports spatial audio (THX):

Dolby Atmos coming.

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Anyone who disparages Atmos should say whether they have listened to the format for any length of time with music that has been encoded with Atmos in a well-thought-out manner. My personal faves include Honky Chateau, LA Woman, and the entire Talking Heads catalog. I think you need to give the format a chance, then you can make an informed decision.

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Absolutely the right approach.

Atmos is the biggest improvement, biggest change, most important development in my audiophile life (born in 1975). High resolution, DSD, and all the other great improvements, don’t come close.

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I’m using the MMH method above to make 5.1.2 wav files that I can play in Roon.

Like the @ComputerAudiophile, my experience is that the improvement from more channels exceeds that from more bits.