Will Roon decode Atmos songs from Tidal and pass multichannel PCM over HDMI to my AVR? Will it just pass the Atmos data and let my AVR do the decoding?
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Roon does not support Atmos decoding.
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Thanks for the reply. Is Roon able to pass through an Atmos signal without decoding?
It might but you would need to test, I haven’t seen anyone make a comment about it yet. I think that Roon can pass dolby dts through if it is lossless. Just make sure any and all DSP is off so you are passing everything lossless to the AVR.
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I don’t think ATMOS works currently. See also:
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FYI, I downloaded an Atmos track from electronic artist Matt Darey (mattdarey.com) in mp4, mt2s, and mkv, and played them on my Yamaha AVR with Kodi and VLC on my Nvidia Shield TV. The first problem became obvious - both media players saw these as video files, not as music files. I played the “video” files with both players with success. From Kodi, the Yamaha reported Atmos/DD+ for the mp4, and Atmos/DTHD (Dolby TruHD) for the mt2s and mkv files. VLC converted all to Multichannel PCM.
So, I guess if this format is to be played by Roon, it would need to work like Kodi. A straight bitstream might not be sufficient. When I tried to play the files directly on the Yamaha with source set to SERVER, the files were not recognized.
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Didn’t we try this multichannel audio thing before with DTS audio and SACD audio multichannel?
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Indeed. But now with Tidal streaming Atmos music, it would be good if it was supported by Roon.
I would bet that Atmos music streamed from Tidal is not in mp4/mkv/or mt2s formats. Have you tried streaming from Tidal?
You are correct. From audioholics.com:
Even when everything is working as intended, there are some limitations to Tidal’s Dolby Atmos Music experience. First of all, the audio is delivered via the lossy Dolby Digital Plus codec, rather than the lossless Dolby TrueHD codec used on Blu-ray discs, so there will be some loss of resolution compared to the studio master. This isn’t surprising — all streamable Dolby Atmos content that I’m aware of from services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video is delivered via Dolby Digital Plus…
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This is where buying or obtaining the bluray ablums is the go.
Pink floyd just did one, Pineapple thief also. Steven wilson has lots. All blu ray, all TrueHD Atmos.
Damn it sounds good on a proper home theater, but its so annoying to use.
I wish Roon could flick the track to an AVR as a bitstreamed audio track.
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I have just over 100 Dolby Atmos albums in lossless 24/48 TrueHD from either Blu-rays (ripped to MKV files using MakeMKV) or MKV downloads. Roon can play them in a Dolby Atmos 5.1.2 array if first converted using the Dolby Reference Player (a one-time $400 or so purchase) and the shareware MMH Atmos Helper (which automates using the DRP to convert Atmos to wav files that correspond to a 5.1.2 Atmos speaker array). I elect to convert my wav output files to FLAC. More than eight channels, such as for a 7.1.4 Atmos array, won’t work in Roon.
Yes, it takes a bit of work but only one time per album.
There are only about 250 users who have voted for Atmos support directly in Roon via the link above. That’s not a large outpouring and given the licensing costs for Dolby Atmos, I suspect that Roon will never get around to it for lossless content. JCR
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Thanks Jeffrey, very useful information!
I was wondering how one would use this ´5.1.2 downmixed Atmos´ in an 8CH channel-discrete container practically. Do you have to set up your AVR every time you play such an album so that the 2 channels meant for rear will always be rerouted to the immersive L and R channels? How to play true 7.1 content containing information in the rear channels then?
Asking particularly because I also have a lot of albums which are 4.0.2 in a 6CH container, as released by classical label MDG.
I just wanna comment on this. Roon will play Atmos files. I have ripped several of my Blu-ray. Atmos, audio, albums, and ruin plays them great. Rush Signals and the new Doors Greatest Hits, for example, are great and my
Denon receiver plays them just fine. They sound so much better through Roon than from my Blu-Ray player.
Roon path shows 8CH which means it plays only the discrete channel base layer of Atmos ditching all immersive information (which anyways get lost the moment you transcode it to FLAC). I agree it can sound great but it is not Atmos but 7.1 downmix.
To play native Atmos retaining the immersive information you need a file format such as .MKV or Atmos embedded in .m4a which roon would not handle.
I hope this answers your question. When I play Atmos material, I set the Advanced Device Setup for “Swap Rear and Surround Channels” to “No”. For all other material — 4.0, 5.0, 5.1, 7.1 — I select “Yes” for that setting. JCR
Edit: If this doesn’t work, you might try adding a blank center channel — to get 4.1.2 and trick Roon. I’ve had success with that. Music Media Helper can do this for you.