Dolby Atmos not working with Apple Music on MacOS

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Level 1

7 points

Dolby Atmos not working with Apple Music on MacOS

With my Apple 4K TV connected to my Denon AVC-X3800H home theatre amplifier, Dolby Atmos has always worked superbly - generating 7.1.4 sound for numerous movie channels but also for an increasingly large number of artists on Apple Music. It's particularly impressive to listen to tracks by Sting, Joni Mitchell, Bob Marley, the Beatles.

But, very annoyingly, it has not been possible to play the very same tracks in Dolby Atmos from my MacBook Pron or indeed any of my Mac systems). For some reason, Apple has not allowed Dolby Atmos tracks to be played via the HDMI connector.

I had discovered that the Mac could access the Dolby Atmos coded tracks, because I was able to use a Presonos StudioLive interface to play all 12 channels using a 7.1.4 configuration of studio monitors. It sounds as good as via the Apple 4K TV's, HDMI connection. But that is obviously not a solution for the average user.

So, when I heard that Apple planned to do something about this in Sequoia, I was very excited. I installed the full version yesterday, and have found that the AppleTV app on the Mac does indeed send 7.1.4 coded information to the amp. However, to my great disappointment, when I play tracks using Apple Music, the output is boring stereo. No sign of Dolby Atmos. It doesn't matter whether I select "Prefer HMDI Passthrough" or not.

These are the very same tracks that play perfectly using the Apple 4K TV HDMI connection.

Please, Apple, can you fix this? Dolby Atmos on Headphones does not compare with a full 7.1.4 home cinema sound system.

MacBook Air, macOS 15.0

Posted on Sep 17, 2024 10:10 AM

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Answer 1

levelg Author

Level 1

7 points

Sep 20, 2024 3:55 AM in response to steve_hifh

Hi Steve. I'm relieved to hear that I'm not the only one.

Actually, it's even weirder than that. Until a few weeks ago, I was able to listen to Dolby Atmos encoded tracks from Apple Music on my Mac in glorious 7.1.4 - but only using my Presonus StudioLive 32R interface. Clearly, Apple Music was getting the complete Dolby Atmos information, but was incapable of outputting it through the HDMI connector.

The full 7.1.4 configuration (defined with Apple's standard Audio Midi Setup app) still works fine, as you can see from the screen shot below. And I can use the Dolby Atmos renderers within Logic Pro (and Studio One) to generate dolby atmos mixes.

But it appears that Apple has decided to make it impossible to access the Dolby Atmos information in tracks on Apple Music. Why? It makes no sense.

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Answer 2

levelg Author

Level 1

7 points

Sep 20, 2024 4:03 AM in response to levelg

Just to be clear. Until a few weeks ago, when I listened to Dolby Atmos tracks from Apple Music and used the StudioLive 32R interface, I could hear wonderful 7.1.4 dolby atmos mixes. Outputting via the HMDI connection to my Denon AVC-X3800H didn't work - you only got stereo.

But now, that ability to output Dolby Atmos tracks in Apple Music via these alternative configurations has been removed. And yet Dolby Atmos for streaming via the AppleTV app works fine. As you can see from this screen shot from the Universal Control app associated with the Presonus. Apple have apparently deliberately removed Dolby Atmos encoding from Apple Music tracks.

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Answer 3

Sep 20, 2024 1:58 AM in response to levelg

I'm experiencing the same issue with a Dolby Atmos compatible Denon AV Receiver connected by HDMI to my Sequoia Mac Studio. The Apple TV app successfully sends Dolby Atmos but the Apple Music app doesn't. I've tried many Dolby Atmos tracks and I have 'Prefer HDMI Passthrough' selected.

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