Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Dolby Atmos for Home Theater

Dolby blog

Interesting news as 24 speakers at floor and 10 at ceiling level are possible.

Dolby Atmos First Listen - Sound And Vision

Basic 5.1.4 sytem with reflecting speakers (or how it is called).

So basically the Atmos signal is pretending to be TrueHD and the Bluray player will not know what it is sending as a bitstream.

For M we would need HDMI inside the 861 and a chip that decodes it and create the extra channels
Or a HD622 that does it all outboard and sends the extra channels via MMHR #2 connection.

Than it would be LPCM only for the 861.

I assume it would need faster DSP's to do 12 or more channels.

It does seems that if M wants to market the 861 as the end all HT processor, they will need to adapt, as Atmos is here to stay. Seems easy enough to add more audio output channels, but the processing side is a really issue.

The Freescale 56367 seems a bit end of life anyway.

A Freescale 56721 seems compatible and seesm to be 500 MIPS agains the 150 of the 56367.

Perhaps thermally not suited or other issues that noobs (me) know nothing about

There are some pre amps out there that offer Atmos, DTS-UHD and Auro3D in a 16 channel for about the same price as the 861.
Well not yet there, but in a few months.

I would like to know what Meridian will do with these 3 x 3D audio.

Certainly seems like Trinnov has its sights set on the 861. I hope that some competition will serve us well.

Indeed:

Trinnov

Storm Audio

All French companys it seems.

You have also got DataSat, now with a range of new processors.

I don�t think we are ever likely to get anything like a development roadmap from Meridian so we shall have to await their actions over next few years. My feeling is that they are falling further behind the curve regarding HT offerings. For example, the bass management flexibility hasn�t changed for more than decade and has several shortcomings compared to competitors.

IMHO 3D sound set-ups will be embraced by the AV community and it�s an area they will have to get into to be taken seriously as a HT player.

Would be nice to know something though..

Exit strategy from DSP speakers will be expensive. Well can buy some Genelec active speakers to replace them I guess.
Only movies here.

Totally agree - even if it's just a vague statement of intent.

I am seriously considering the DSP speaker route but am minded to hold until some clarifcarion of M's stance regarding these new formats.

First Atmos encoded blu-rays apparently are due for release in the Autumn

Fixed the above.


With the current lineup of DSP offering, they are telling the market, they are not interested in playing. They need a MUCH smaller DSP speaker that can fit in a ceiling and is more flexible in placement then any of the current DSP offering.

The whole card based modular concept was designed to allow for flexibility. So it would be a disappointment if they didn't do anything. I know there some on this board who dismiss the likes of Trinnov and datasat room correction, but I think the MRC likely needs a considerable update as well. Being as these other offering are more PC based hardware, seems unlikely M could offer a processor as powerful as these, in the current 861 config.