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[Desertpilot]

I  plan on upgrading my system from 5.1 to 5.1.4 for Auro 3D and Dolby Atmos.  I have a Marantz pre/pro that decodes Auro 3D.  From my research on this forum, it appears that I will have to bitstream the audio tracks of my video files (Blu Ray movies, concerts, audio) to playback in these formats.  Is this still the case?

Thanks!
Marcus

[rec head]

You are correct.

You can set up Zones for bitstreaming and have MC switch between bitstream and PCM output automatically. I never remember the terminology but I made a custom field that I can set to ATMOS or DTS:X. Whenever MC plays one of those files it automatically bitstreams them.

[Desertpilot]

Thanks!  I hope to have the speakers installed next weekend.  My first task is to get it to work (LOL).  Then I'll look at the zone method you mentioned.

[rec head]

Setting up the speakers will be a lot more work. I think as long as you are set to bitstream and giong HDMI then it should all work pretty easy. Even setting up the Zone and Zone Switch shouldn't be bad.

[Desertpilot]

Good news and bad news.  My elevation speakers are hooked in to my system.  Test tones show they all work.  Marantz AV8805 is properly configured to decode Atomos and Auro 3D.  JRiver is set to bitstream over HDMI.  When I play either an Atomos track or an auro 3D track, the Marantz prepro shows the proper format.  All speakers play.  I thought I was golden until the sound dropped out for a couple seconds.  Then back on.  Then dropped out again.  It's irregular but frequent.  I am playing copied ISO files.  I also have the actual discs but gee whiz, reconfiguring my bluray player from SACD playback will be a pain.  But, I guess I will do it to narrow down the source of the issue.

J River reports input as:  192KHz (incorrect) 16 bit 8 channel.  It should be 96KHz.  And, of course, 7.1.4 channels.

The Marantz simply reports the active channels and format (both are correct).

Anyone have any trouble shooting tips?

Thanks, Marcus

[JimH]

JRiver reports input as:  192KHz (incorrect) 16 bit 8 channel.  It should be 96KHz.  And, of course, 7.1.4 channels.

I don't know the answer to your problem, but you can count on that being correct.

[jmone]

J River reports input as:  192KHz (incorrect) 16 bit 8 channel.  It should be 96KHz.  And, of course, 7.1.4 channels.

The Marantz simply reports the active channels and format (both are correct).

Anyone have any trouble shooting tips?

Hi Marcus, Nothing to worry about.  If you have set MC to "bitstream" ATMOS then your AVR is getting the stream correctly (as you have reported) and identifying it as such.  MC uses FFMPEG which is unable to identify (at this point in time) the ATMOS (and DTS:X etc) object based channel extensions from the core TrueHD (and DTS-HD).  You will just have to ignore the info that MC is displaying as the underling FFMPEG libraries don't report accurate info for these tracks. 

[Hendrik]

J River reports input as:  192KHz (incorrect) 16 bit 8 channel.  It should be 96KHz.  And, of course, 7.1.4 channels.

When bitstreaming that info is not about the contents of the actual audio, but the transport format used for the bitstream. 192kHz, 8 channel, results in a ~24mbit audio link, which is required to send high-quality lossless HD audio.

[jmone]

...True, but media info (also open source) can correctly identify Atmos/DTS:X extensions, here is hoping FFMPEG catches up.

[Desertpilot]

Thank you everyone!  Now I know about the FFMPEG reporting issue and will stop worrying about it.  As far as the drop outs, I will be trouble shooting today.

Of course, I am using MC 25. 
Marcus

[rec head]

For the dropout issue. You could try changing from bitstream to PCM just to see what happens. The dropouts seem like a driver issue though.

I thought that ATMOS tracks were reported as 8 channel because they are 7+1 and the ATMOS content is from metadata.

[curiousMonkey]

You are correct.

You can set up Zones for bitstreaming and have MC switch between bitstream and PCM output automatically. I never remember the terminology but I made a custom field that I can set to ATMOS or DTS:X. Whenever MC plays one of those files it automatically bitstreams them.

Are you saying that you tagged the files you know have ATMOS so that they would be directed to a special zone that is configured for bitstreaming?

Can't MC remove the drudgery of identifying and tagging files with unsupported formats? If the stream format is not supported by MC, why not have an option that automatically bitstreams the file?

[jmone]

Both ATMOS and DTS:X is meta data embedded in the TrueHD / DTS-MA stream.  MC is (currently) none the wiser if it contains ATMOS / DTS-X, it just looks like a normal TrueHD / DTS-MA stream.  Good news is MediaInfo can tell the difference, so I've built a tool that will scan your BD Rips and add to the "Compression" Field "+Atmos" or "+DTS:X" if it is present.  You can then setup Zone Switch to move to a Bitstreaming Zone based on the compression field containing "+".  Info on Swag of Tools. 

[jmone]

...that said, I've spent the time to tune 23.976 so that I don't get dropped or repeated frames over the length of a movie so now I bit-stream all movies.