I am planning on buying a 7.1 audio setup in my new apartment with a Dolby Atmos compatible receiver (DENON AVR-X2800H DAB). I will mainly use this setup to watch movies and shows on my Apple TV 4K via the Apple TV app. Most movies and shows on Apple TV have 2 available mixes: Dolby Atmos and 5.1.
What would happen if i played a Dolby Atmos & 5.1 compatible movie on my 7.1 setup? Will the Dolby Atmos mix adapt to my non-Atmos setup and output a 7.1 mix, or would it go for the 5.1 mix and leave my rear speakers silent? I am trying to figure out if getting a 7.1 setup for my Apple TV is worth it or not.
Thanks in advance for the help!
What do you mean “will the Dolby Atmos mix adapt to my non Atmos setup”? You’re buying an Atmos setup. You said so yourself. Maybe you’re misunderstanding a bit what Atmos is, since you keep calling it a mix, which is exactly what it isn’t. Atmos audio isn’t mixed to be output over certain predefined channels the way classic 5.1 is. It contains positional information for each of the (up to) 128 “channels”. It is your receiver that then mixes that to match your speaker setup. Atmos supports output up to a maximum of 64 speaker channels though obviously your receiver doesn’t.