I have a full dedicated Atmos 7.1.4 theater room using a Denon AVR6700 as a amp/receiver which is fed by an Apple TV 4K.
Some old movies only have a stereo soundtrack, some of the ones from 90's and 00's have Dolby Digital soundtracks (5.1 or 7.1) and most of the new movies are Atmos. I often watch old movies and it is easier for Dolby Surround to do this "upmixing" if the original movie already has a 5.1 or 7.1 soundtrack. Dolby then only needs to add the overhead channels. It does work very well. Using a straight stereo soundtrack is less effective of course as Dolby needs to decide how it will split 2 channels into 12 channels (7.1.4) but it does add an element of "spatialization" to the sound (using Devialet's wording).
As a 5.1 or 7.1 soundtrack does have channel metadata that the Dolby decoder uses for front, centre and surrounds placement, I would assume that the Dolby Surround decoder knows what type of metadata must be reallocated to the over head channels. Of course a standard stereo signal has no multi channel metadata and in these cases Dolby Surround must use some other type of Voodoo to decide to which speaker to send the sounds. As mentioned, in my experience and in my theater setup this is less effective but there are noises coming from behind and above you.
I am sure Devialet will register their SPACE algorithm as IP. I'm quite keen to get Dione users' impressions of how effective this "spatialization" is, both using a 5.1 signal as well as standard stereo (or mono for that matter) signal.
Lastly, I don't use the Home App so I have no first hand experience. I sometimes stream some Tidal tracks that have Atmos encoding from Roon (hosted on an iMac) to my Denon AVR via Airplay2 and that works. Whether you like the result (multi channel music) is of course a matter of taste. Strange that Apple would restrict that if you if you stream from an Apple TV and HomeKit, but again I have no experience as I don't use that part of their echo system.
Some old movies only have a stereo soundtrack, some of the ones from 90's and 00's have Dolby Digital soundtracks (5.1 or 7.1) and most of the new movies are Atmos. I often watch old movies and it is easier for Dolby Surround to do this "upmixing" if the original movie already has a 5.1 or 7.1 soundtrack. Dolby then only needs to add the overhead channels. It does work very well. Using a straight stereo soundtrack is less effective of course as Dolby needs to decide how it will split 2 channels into 12 channels (7.1.4) but it does add an element of "spatialization" to the sound (using Devialet's wording).
As a 5.1 or 7.1 soundtrack does have channel metadata that the Dolby decoder uses for front, centre and surrounds placement, I would assume that the Dolby Surround decoder knows what type of metadata must be reallocated to the over head channels. Of course a standard stereo signal has no multi channel metadata and in these cases Dolby Surround must use some other type of Voodoo to decide to which speaker to send the sounds. As mentioned, in my experience and in my theater setup this is less effective but there are noises coming from behind and above you.
I am sure Devialet will register their SPACE algorithm as IP. I'm quite keen to get Dione users' impressions of how effective this "spatialization" is, both using a 5.1 signal as well as standard stereo (or mono for that matter) signal.
Lastly, I don't use the Home App so I have no first hand experience. I sometimes stream some Tidal tracks that have Atmos encoding from Roon (hosted on an iMac) to my Denon AVR via Airplay2 and that works. Whether you like the result (multi channel music) is of course a matter of taste. Strange that Apple would restrict that if you if you stream from an Apple TV and HomeKit, but again I have no experience as I don't use that part of their echo system.
Devialet 440PRO CI/ Mola Mola Tambaqui + Kalugas / Vivid Audio Giya G2
Cape Town, South Africa
