Well it's important in this case. Manni's been trying to track down the issue with this for literally MONTHS now. The only way to narrow this down is to know all the variables involved.
What's made it harder is that a few software factors have changed over that period of time:
1) Hendrik did an update in LAV that really helped and the first "kind" of Atmos dropouts" (not long freezes, just Atmos sound drop outs) disappeared.
2) Then MS broke something in an update, which caused long freezes, and it looked like it was fixed at some point.
3) Suddenly the long freezes popped back up here, but this could be because I've given access to the network to the rest of the family, so that's what I'm going to rule out first.
That's why I keep asking details both on the hardware side and on the software side.
As soon as you've been able to test one config, please post all the details for it. Also test at least 4-5 films because it can take that long for the issue to pop up. That's why I kept testing after the first few encouraging results with the 4080, and why I tested FULL FILMS, each of them as long as possible. This issue can take a long time before it happens during playback, so testing 30-60min means nothing. I also think that if the Atmos track is anemic (as with older films), the issue is less likely to appear. It's more likely to appear in John Wick than in an old mono or stero movie that happens to have been remixed in Atmos.