The (really) Long term dedicated HT project!

[liverpool_for_life]

I guess the only available option is to buy a new ATV4k

For Atmos from Netflix without a 4k display, it was the only available option when I purchased one last September.

although a new model is supposed to come out any time now
any thoughts or suggestions?

There are fairly strong rumors about this. However, I suspect that anything new will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. If the current ATV 4K has the features you want, go for it!

 

[superczar]

For Atmos from Netflix without a 4k display, it was the only available option when I purchased one last September.



There are fairly strong rumors about this. However, I suspect that anything new will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. If the current ATV 4K has the features you want, go for it!

I think i will anyway move the ATV 4k here - My kid seems to really like this room and has been going to sleep without much coaxing on his own at night while we watch a movie
Switching the audio stream to headphones when he sleeps is far more convenient on the ATV compared to any other device


This also means that devices that support Atmos netflix are fine too as I will need a replacement streamer for the Living room
But I guess even with a 4k display, the ATV4k is the only viable option - hope I am wrong

 

[buxx]

Win 10 HTPC, Netflix App - will give you Atmos perfectly.

There is barely any Atmos content on Prime.

 

[superczar]

Win 10 HTPC, Netflix App - will give you Atmos perfectly.

There is barely any Atmos content on Prime.

HTPC with windows 10 - no siree!
Won't touch it with a barge pole

Here is one of the 100 different things wrong with Win 10 today :
YOu are in the middle of an immersive movie - out comes a popup- your system is going to restart in 60 seconds to install an update you neither asked for , nor care for

On a side note, I did try configuring a win 10 laptop hooked to the AVR to play Netflix after your post

Pass 1 - Netflix said something went wrong with a cryptic error code, googling the error code gave me an indication that the app was not happy with an extended display - changed to display 2 (AVR) only

Pass 2 - Netflix now worked as expected but with 5.1 audio only, checked the output device settings and it did show ATMOS capabilities but wasn't working
FUrther googling revealed that one needs to install the dolby access app in orer to get atmos so i did that

Pass 3: ATMOS now showed up as configured on output devices. Testing all the speakers through the output test screen on windows worked as expected... Great. let's launch netflix and voila, NF started showing the atmos logo as well on atmos enabled titles. Playback however still remained at 5.1

Pass 4: More googling showed I need to go into advanced output settings to enable apps to give exclusive control to the said audio device - did that too but no luck with atmos still-

Pass 5 - Found a reddit post that said atmos needs to be selected in the spatial sound settings subsection of the output devices advanced tab - did that but no luck still.

I actually have an old unused Intel NUC 5ppyh which should be able to run as a 1080p htpc comfortably at no added cost- but win 10 is an abomination

Now I am sure I can make it work with time & patience but a HT media player needs to be an invisible, simple device that works without tinkering.

 

[buxx]

You are quite close now.. Once you take the pains to set it up, it works flawless.

But like most HDMI (/handshake) devices, you need to be careful of what you power on first.
TV On, AVR ON, then HTPC ON. !

Added benefit with HTPC is that DTS-X also works flawless. You may or may not buy their DTS Unbound app for 500 odd bucks.

You add a BluRay drive , you can turn it into a Region Free Blu Ray player... List goes on ..

p.s: Auto updates can be turned off, you can direct Cortana to not disturb you with any notifications.. etc etc..

 

[superczar]

You are quite close now.. Once you take the pains to set it up, it works flawless.

But like most HDMI (/handshake) devices, you need to be careful of what you power on first.
TV On, AVR ON, then HTPC ON. !

Added benefit with HTPC is that DTS-X also works flawless. You may or may not buy their DTS Unbound app for 500 odd bucks.

You add a BluRay drive , you can turn it into a Region Free Blu Ray player... List goes on ..

p.s: Auto updates can be turned off, you can direct Cortana to not disturb you with any notifications.. etc etc..

I was doing all of that just for the challenge aspect of it - I can't afford to have a finicky setup in my house as it is used by others too
which is why a simple dedicated streaming box is the preferred approach

On a side note, Somehow I think MS really lost the plot with Win 10 - To give another example, my phone would keep disconnecting randomly from my airpods during calls and I in fact I even got them replaced under warranty
The replacements kept doing the same - I eventually figured out that my sleeping win 10 office laptop kept trying to connect to it

 

[sud98]

I was doing all of that just for the challenge aspect of it - I can't afford to have a finicky setup in my house as it is used by others too
which is why a simple dedicated streaming box is the preferred approach

On a side note, Somehow I think MS really lost the plot with Win 10 - To give another example, my phone would keep disconnecting randomly from my airpods during calls and I in fact I even got them replaced under warranty
The replacements kept doing the same - I eventually figured out that my sleeping win 10 office laptop kept trying to connect to it

Isnt that something you can set in win 10 power settings as never to go on sleep in battery mode

 

[superczar]

Isnt that something you can set in win 10 power settings as never to go on sleep in battery mode

It was the other way round
The (meant to be) sleeping laptop sitting in a bag would keep latching on to the airpods while I would be using it on a call on my phone- which is not expected behavior

I figured it out only after realizing that the headset would drop out only when I come in the proximity of this laptop
Search for "windows 10 steals bluetooth headset”

The only viable solution was to unpair the primary headsets from it and get a separate pair dedicated for said laptop

 

[fLUX]

I dont have much of local content on my drive. I purchased Xbox One X just for this purpose and it does a good job for Netflix/Prime/ Youtube/Spotify and also plays atmos. Issue is that Hotstar/Zee5 and other local streaming apps are not available if that is going to be an issue ( i use a chromecast for Hotstar so not facing any challenge).

In addition the 4K Blu Ray player and games are icing on the cake , so as a streaming device its very convenient and my dad also has got used to the controls on joystick for starting/shutting the system , playing/forwarding content from the apps.

 

[RaaR]

2.for primarily ht avoid floorstanders

Reason to not go with floor standers?

 

[sud98]

Reason to not go with floor standers?

In a movie mode, the dialogs are primarily in the centre speaker, the subs handle a lot of low frequency effects and the surrounds handle the effects from different angles. With that, the front two speakers are not as used like in a music setup. While I personally have tower speakrs for the rare occasions I listen to speakers, for movies, the tower speakers hardly get exercised.You can spend that money on atmos speakers and/or an additional sub.