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Sonos ARC and TIDAL Atmos?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
June 8, 2020
26 replies
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Sonos Support on Twitter seems to suggest that Arc supports streaming of TIDAL Atmos tracks; however, there is a curious inclusion of “when using a compatible TV” in their response.

Has anyone tried this yet or know if the music has to be streamed through the TV source first rather than directly from the Sonos or TIDAL apps to the Arc?

“... With S2, 24 bit audio is now supported for Music Library and NAS shares. You can also preview Dolby Atmos Music on TIDAL when using a compatible TV with the new Sonos Arc.”

Link: https://twitter.com/sonossupport/status/1270038144889638916?s=21

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Best answer by Krishma M

Hi folks. Sonos owners can get a preview of Dolby Atmos Music when listening to TIDAL HiFi through compatible TV supported streaming devices with Arc.

More here: https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004255778-Dolby-Atmos-Music

We'll continue to work with our streaming partners to bring higher resolution experiences to Sonos. We don't have anything further to share today but we’ll surely inform our development team about this.

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bjl

Trending Lyricist I

Thank you for the advice @Krishma M. Unfortunately that doesn’t really address my concern.

Krishma M

Retired Sonos Staff

Hi @bjl, thanks for your response. I apologize if that did not help but can you help me better understand it to help you out and maybe some members can share their thoughts as well.

Just let us know. We and the community are always here to help.

Help others find useful content by clicking the like button and selecting the best answer to your question.

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Laci

Lyricist II

Well, to be honest it is mind bending.. Just purchased a Sonos ARC and an LG CX, so I have the ATMOS compatible soundbar AND the TV… but it seems the fine print is that you will still need a Tidal app on the TV (for LG that’s a NO) or a streaming hardware (Shield, Fire etc.).

I mean.. that is understandable that say a lossless Atmos (TrueHD?) is not streamable and you’ll need a HDMI cable, but the fact that even if you have everything that SONOS tells you to get and you still can’t get even a lossy Dolby Atmos soundtrack play from a premium music account.. that is just bad.

Someone who has more knowledge in this.. is this deliberate from Sonos or just unfinished product development / issues in rolling this feature out? And can ARC owners expect any fixes / updates that will deal with this?

Thank you

melvimbe

Well, to be honest it is mind bending.. Just purchased a Sonos ARC and an LG CX, so I have the ATMOS compatible soundbar AND the TV… but it seems the fine print is that you will still need a Tidal app on the TV (for LG that’s a NO) or a streaming hardware (Shield, Fire etc.).

I don’t get why that’s mind bending. Atmos is an audio format designed to work with video. And your surprised that you have to use a video streaming source to get it? Does Tidal even provide atmos content on devices that don’t stream video? Not aware of anything.

I mean.. that is understandable that say a lossless Atmos (TrueHD?) is not streamable and you’ll need a HDMI cable, but the fact that even if you have everything that SONOS tells you to get and you still can’t get even a lossy Dolby Atmos soundtrack play from a premium music account.. that is just bad.

The lossy format you’re referring to DD+. And you do in an HDMI cable for that.

Someone who has more knowledge in this.. is this deliberate from Sonos or just unfinished product development / issues in rolling this feature out? And can ARC owners expect any fixes / updates that will deal with this?

Thank you

It’s not broken so there won’t be a fix. I would expect is that if Tidal wants to provide a direct stream to Sonos, which is likely not a high priority, Sonos would then decide if they want to support atmos audio without a TV.

Danny

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Laci

Lyricist II

Hi Danny, thank you for the quick reply.

I agree with your second comment, it should be developed from Tidal-s side, and it is unlikely to be soon.

For your DD+ comment, I think it is slightly oversimplifying things.. DD+ can be with or without Atmos ( Dolby Digital Plus Atmos to be precise) and it does not require an HDMI cable. Say you download a Netflix movie with D Vision + D Atmos you can stream that from a plain NAS and get both on your compatible TV.

I guess my question .. is all TIDAL Atmos sounds are actually lossless? Because then all the DD+ argument is a mute point : )

melvimbe

Hi Danny, thank you for the quick reply.

I agree with your second comment, it should be developed from Tidal-s side, and it is unlikely to be soon.

For your DD+ comment, I think it is slightly oversimplifying things.. DD+ can be with or without Atmos ( Dolby Digital Plus Atmos to be precise) and it does not require an HDMI cable. Say you download a Netflix movie with D Vision + D Atmos you can stream that from a plain NAS and get both on your compatible TV.

I assumed you were referring to the HDMI cable that connects to the Arc, not an HDMI cable connected to the TV. I agree that you don’t need an HDMI cable to get DD+ to your TV, since internal TV apps or a NAS could deliver it. However, you also could get TrueHD from a NAS, so you don’t actually need HDMI to TV for that either. Sonos Arc doesn’t stream DD+ or TrueHD though, it only gets it through HDMI-ARC or eARC

I guess my question .. is all TIDAL Atmos sounds are actually lossless? Because then all the DD+ argument is a mute point : )

I’ve only used the service through DD+. I dropped my Tidal account soon after I tried out Atmos audio (wasn’t that impressed and limited selection). Don’t know if there is a TrueHD version, but I doubt it. From what I could tell, I don’t think Tidal is really using a pure audio only atmos track. It looked to me that they are really just music videos (with static album art) that happened to be recorded with Atmos. I’m not even sure you can produce an atmos audio file that is absent of any video content. Could be wrong about that.

Danny

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