What Do Atmos Speakers Do With Non-Atmos Content?
You are interested in this whole Dolby Atmos thing. Overhead speakers sound pretty interesting and you have a little extra money to burn. Like many people, you don’t love the thought of wasting money. If you are going to install speakers in your ceiling, you want to make sure that it will be worth it. This has you wondering. What do those Atmos speakers do when you are watching non-Atmos content? Let’s discuss!
How Audio Works
Content can come with many different flavors of audio. Audio can be mixed into a single speaker (mono) or into a theoretical infinite number (Atmos). If you have more speakers in your system than the audio uses, you will only hear those speakers. If you have a 5.1 system and you are listening to a stereo (2-channel) source, only your front left and right speakers will be making noise. Often, if you set your speakers to small, your subwoofer will also be engaged.
If that seems like a waste to you, many people agree. They want all their speakers to be used for all content. To do this, they use upmixing on their AV receivers. Upmixing takes your audio content and applies an algorithm in order to spread the audio to all your speakers. It will try to keep all the vocals in the center speaker or at the front of the room. The rest of the speakers will be used for music and some sound effects. Usually, it works pretty well.
What About Atmos Speakers?
Does upmixing work with Atmos speakers? Absolutely! You can use the Dolby Surround Upmixer (or DTS:X Upmixer) to take any non-Atmos audio content and spread it to all your speakers including your Atmos speakers. How does it work? Again, pretty good. At least to some.
What Kind of Listener are You?
There are audio purists out there who believe that all content should be consumed as the artist intended. If content is mixed in stereo, then you should experience it in stereo. They are the types that will constantly engage “Pure” mode on their AV receivers. If you are that person, you would never consider using an upmixer. We get it.
If you are a purist, your Atmos speakers will be silent during non-Atmos content. That’s what you want, right? But if you want to hear everything “as the artist intended,” then you need the Atmos speakers in order to hear Atmos content as intended. You wouldn’t want your Atmos content downmixed, would you?
