Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

purpleparrotuk

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 26, 2010
1,047
306
I had a problem last night and there appears to be a few similar threads on the web. When watching Atmos programmes on Netflix the speech jumps to the wrong speakers and then back again. It is really annoying. Atmos on everything else works fine. Someone elsewhere suggested it might be a slight drop in internet connection not being handled correctly within the Netflix app.

Anyone else had this and resolved it?
 

JasonHB

macrumors 6502a
Jul 20, 2010
558
493
Warwickshire, UK
I have this also, but not resolved.

I don’t think it’s internet connection related at all. The audio information is sent in a container which is the decoded by the AV Receiver. As such, if it was a drop in connection, you’d lose audio rather than it jumping to a different speaker. The only way that would happen if it was sent in PCM form, where the channels are sent separately but it doesn’t work that way.

In any case, given how much more data is sent for the picture, I think we’d be more likely to see image artefacts first or a noticable drop off in image quality if that were the case.

I think it’s more likely some file corruption or glitch at their end. Might be worth contacting their customer support.

Jason
 

Timothy_B

macrumors newbie
Jun 30, 2020
1
0
@purpleparrotuk what set up are you using? I've got the HT-Zf9 Sony sound bar with the SA-Z9R rear speakers and am experiencing the exact same problem. It's most noticeable when watching Our Planet on Netflix. I've also got an issue when watching iTunes movies in that when skipping back by 10 seconds, the bass is removed from the audio meaning the sub doesn't kick in when it should. I have to skip back again a few times to get the audio back to normal. Anyone else experience this? These issues only occur when Dolby Atmos is enabled. Thoughts anyone? Thanks.
 

waw74

macrumors 601
May 27, 2008
4,668
940
The only way that would happen if it was sent in PCM form, where the channels are sent separately but it doesn’t work that way.
it looks like is sent as PCM,
I've only just discovered this as I upgraded to an atmos sound bar, but my tv only has ARC (not eARC). I thought it should work, since most streaming services use "lossy" atmos over DD+ which is compatible with ARC. When it didn't work, I dug more, it seems the aTV converts everything to PCM.
The audio versions have so many workarounds now to make things backwards compatible, it gets confusing quickly


@purpleparrotuk
Thoughts anyone? Thanks.

Make sure you have decent quality HDMI cables (don't have to be stupid expensive, but don't go cheap), and everything is plugged well, might try unplugging and replugging all your cables to make sure they're seated well.
you need a HDMI 2.0 or greater cable for the higher bandwidth audio like atmos.
 

purpleparrotuk

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 26, 2010
1,047
306
Hi. I have a denon av receiver and 7 speakers setup. It hasn’t done it for ages so guessed Netflix fixed what it was.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JasonHB
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.