Sony continues to strongly support Ultra HD Blu-ray with the announcement of the day and date release of Pride + Prejudice + Zombies on Ultra HD Blu-ray on May 31st.
As with all of the Sony Blu-ray releases, the Ultra HD version will offer a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. Please note this is a new mix created for the movie as the movie was not presented in Atmos in theaters.
Please note that I updated both the list of Ultra HD Blu-rays and list of Dolby Atmos releases on the site.
Continuing it’s strong support of the format, Sony Pictures just confirmed that The 5th Wave will be released on May 3rd on Ultra HD Blu-ray with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack.
Based on the press release, even if it’s not crystal clear, I tend to believe that the regular Blu-ray version will not receive Atmos.
As usual I updated the list of Atmos Blu-rays and Ultra HD Blu-ray releases on the site.
Recent pictures of the movie that made it to retailers now confirms that Peanuts will be the first movie coming from the 20th Century Fox to features a Dolby Atmos soundtrack.
As stated by Fox before, this will be reserved only for the UltraHD Blu-ray edition on the movie, as not even the Blu-ray in the same box will offer Dolby Atmos.
As usual, I updated the list of Dolby Atmos Blu-rays movies on the site.
Just a quick note to let you know that Sony sent the press release for Concussion on Blu-ray and Ultra HD, with a release date confirmation for March 29th.
At the same time, we learned that the Ultra HD Blu-ray version will feature a Dolby Atmos remix (the movie was not presented in Atmos in theaters). Please note the Blu-ray will NOT feature the Atmos soundtrack, as it seems that Sony is now treating this as an Ultra HD Blu-ray exclusive feature.
I updated the list of Dolby Atmos Blu-rays on the site.
Quick note to let you know that some Fox UHD Blu-rays are now in the hands of consumers thanks to Fox Connect and none of them (Martian included) contains a Dolby Atmos soundtrack.
This is really bad news coming from Fox and a really disservice to the format launch sadly. I hope they will fix this on future releases.
Warner just announced that In The Heart of the Sea will be released on Blu-ray in 2D and 3D editions on March 8th with a Dolby Atmos Soundtrack.
I adjusted as usual the site’s list of movies with Dolby Atmos.
Lionsgate is still showing its strong support of immersive audio with the confirmation that The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 Blu-ray will feature a Dolby Atmos soundtrack when released on March 22nd.
There is also confirmation in the press release that a UltraHD Blu-ray version is on its way, but its official date have not been confirmed yet. I am going to assume this will also have Atmos on it .
As usual, I updated the list of Blu-ray movies with Atmos on the site.
With the objective to be prepared for DTS:X arrival this quarter, I necessarily had to replace my receiver as my Onkyo TX-NR1030 was not going to receive any firmware upgrade to support the new format.
After evaluation and comparing models, I selected the Marantz SR7010, which represents the first time I try a model from Denon & Marantz group. It is also the first time I try Audyssey as a room correction software.
The Marantz SR7010 offers amplification for 9 channels and supports the addition of a two channel amplifier for a total of 11 channels processed. This allows for a Dolby Atmos (and soon DTS:X) 7.1.4 configuration which is what I have in my home theater.
One important thing to know, as it was reported before, the D+M models of this year do not allow Dolby Surround (the upscaler that comes with Dolby Atmos) to be applied to any of the DTS formats. It’s a limitation for now, but it can be bypassed by asking your Blu-ray player to send decoded PCM sound instead of Bitstream (a change you need to revert to get Atmos working). It will be less of a limitation early March when the DTS:X update arrives and allow to apply DTS Neural:X to DTS soundtracks.
The Marantz comes with a strong support of HDMI with 8 inputs all compatible with HDCP 2.2 and HDR through HDMI 2.0a. They all support the full bandwidth of the spec at 18 Gbps. There is also a secondary output that can be used if you want to bring the signal at the same time to a projector and a television for instance.
I need to begin my impressions by the fact that I am very pleasantly surprised by the results of applying Audyssey MultEQ XT32 in my room. There is a real impact on sound quality produced by the receiver when Audyssey is enabled which makes the rendering of movies and music more dynamic than before. The sound when Audyssey is disabled sounds flat and not engaging. The calibration process, with 8 different recording points is well done and is surprisingly quick considering that it still needs to generate roughly a hundred of test sweeps.
I also really appreciate the menu system of the receiver, it is quick, efficient and modern looking. Configuration of the audio, video, network and other options is really efficient.
The music playback is totally satisfying, but I need to say that I dislike the fact that the all channel stereo mode does not enable the height speakers, which should be really easy to implement. I gotta admit it does not make a huge difference to have them on or not, but as long as they are there why not use them.
Finally and most importantly, The Dolby Atmos performance of the receiver in 7.1.4 is really impressive and engaging with a true enveloping effect. I’m looking forward to see what DTS:X will sound like, my guess is that it will be very similar to Atmos as it’s what we’ve been hearing from the demos made at CEDIA and other events. I’ll be updating the blog once of course as soon as I can test it early March.
This announcement comes late as the movie will be released in 10 days on January 26th, but it’s now confirmed that Goosebumps from Sony Pictures will feature a Dolby Atmos soundtrack.
The only caveat, as it was the case with Pixels, is that the Atmos track is only present on the 2D version of the movie. Note that the disc is also provided with the 3D Blu-ray set, but you won’t have the track on the 3D disc.
Looking forward to this one with the family as it should have an opportunity to use Atmos efficiently.
You can now count Lions Gate in the list of studios supporting Ultra HD titles. The studio just announced that their first 4 titles will be available starting March 1st and that all will include immersive audio. The launch titles are :
This means we have a first DTS:X title on UHD Blu-ray now and that Atmos is continuing to be omnipresent on the format.
I updated at the same time the list of UltraHD titles, the list of Dolby Atmos Blu-rays and the list of DTS:X Blu-rays.
