Audio formats are big part of the viewing experience, and I find that poor audio can make or break a movie night. After using my TV speakers for years, I eventually made the leap to a soundbar and finally figured out what good audio sounded like. I eventually upgraded to a Dolby Atmos surround system, and now I wonder how I used that soundbar for so long.
As you might’ve guessed by my setup, Dolby Atmos is my favorite audio format, and I’d say it’s the best one available on the market. It’s also one of the most accessible as a ton of 4K Blu-ray discs come with an Atmos soundtrack. That’s not the only Dolby soundtrack in town however, and your player has many different tracks. These range from Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and Dolby TrueHD. This trio is often found on Blu-ray as Dolby Atmos typically reigns supreme on 4K Blu-ray. That doesn’t mean they’re bad, but they aren’t as good as Atmos. If you have the choice between all of these, I would recommend setting it to Atmos and going from there.
Dolby sound engineering
Trivia challenge
From noise reduction to immersive audio — how well do you really know the science behind Dolby sound?
HistoryTechnologyFormatsCinemaInnovation
In what year did Ray Dolby found Dolby Laboratories?
Correct! Ray Dolby founded Dolby Laboratories in 1965 in London, England. The company initially focused on professional recording studio equipment before expanding into consumer and cinema audio.
Not quite. Dolby Laboratories was founded in 1965 by Ray Dolby in London. He had previously worked at Ampex and developed his noise reduction ideas while studying at Cambridge University.
What was the primary purpose of the original Dolby A noise reduction system introduced in 1965?
Correct! Dolby A was designed to reduce the audible tape hiss that plagued professional studio recordings. It worked by encoding audio during recording and decoding it on playback, effectively masking the noise floor of magnetic tape.
Not quite. Dolby A was a noise reduction system aimed squarely at reducing tape hiss in professional studio environments. It used a compander approach — compressing audio on the way in and expanding it on the way out — to suppress background noise.
Which 1975 film was the first to be released with a Dolby-encoded stereo optical soundtrack?
Correct! Lisztomania (1975), directed by Ken Russell, was the first film released with a Dolby-encoded stereo optical soundtrack. This marked a major turning point in bringing high-quality stereo audio to cinema audiences.
Not quite. The first film with a Dolby-encoded stereo optical soundtrack was actually Lisztomania in 1975. While Star Wars (1977) and A Star Is Born (1976) were landmark Dolby films, Lisztomania holds the historical first.
Dolby Digital is also known by which technical designation used in industry documentation?
Correct! Dolby Digital is technically designated AC-3, which stands for Audio Codec 3. It was developed in the early 1990s and became the standard audio format for DVD video, digital broadcast, and cinema releases.
Not quite. Dolby Digital’s technical designation is AC-3. The AC stands for Audio Codec, and it was the third generation of Dolby’s perceptual audio coding technology, succeeding AC-1 and AC-2.
What audio object-based feature distinguishes Dolby Atmos from earlier surround sound formats like Dolby 7.1?
Correct! Dolby Atmos uses audio objects — individual sounds with positional metadata — rather than fixed channel assignments. This allows a renderer to place sounds anywhere in three-dimensional space and adapt the mix to any speaker configuration, from a home soundbar to a 64-speaker cinema.
Not quite. The key innovation in Dolby Atmos is object-based audio. Instead of assigning sounds to fixed channels, each sound element carries metadata describing its position, allowing the system to dynamically render it for whatever speaker layout is available.
Dolby Vision is a proprietary HDR format that competes directly with which open HDR standard commonly found on televisions and streaming services?
Correct! Dolby Vision competes most directly with HDR10 and its dynamic metadata extension HDR10+. While HDR10 is an open, royalty-free standard, Dolby Vision requires licensing and supports dynamic metadata for scene-by-scene brightness optimisation, often delivering superior results.
Not quite. Dolby Vision’s main competitors are HDR10 and HDR10+. HDR10 is the baseline open standard, while HDR10+ adds dynamic metadata — a feature Dolby Vision pioneered. Dolby Vision supports up to 12-bit color depth and 10,000 nits peak brightness in its specification.
What does Dolby MAT stand for, and what is its primary function in modern audio delivery?
Correct! Dolby MAT (Metadata-enhanced Audio Transport) is a lossless bitstream container that carries Dolby TrueHD audio along with Dolby Atmos object metadata over HDMI connections. It is what allows modern AV receivers and soundbars to receive full lossless Atmos signals from Blu-ray players and streaming devices.
Not quite. Dolby MAT stands for Metadata-enhanced Audio Transport. It is a lossless container format that wraps Dolby TrueHD audio and Dolby Atmos object metadata, enabling high-fidelity Atmos delivery over HDMI. Without MAT, devices can only receive a lossy Dolby Digital Plus version of an Atmos stream.
Which legendary rock concert film from 1978 is widely celebrated as a showcase for Dolby Stereo’s capabilities in cinema?
Correct! The Last Waltz (1978), Martin Scorsese’s documentary about The Band’s farewell concert, is frequently cited as a landmark demonstration of Dolby Stereo in cinemas. The film’s rich multi-track recording benefited enormously from the format’s improved dynamic range and channel separation.
Not quite. The Last Waltz (1978) is the celebrated Dolby Stereo showcase. Directed by Martin Scorsese, the film captured The Band’s final concert with exceptional audio quality that highlighted what Dolby Stereo could achieve over conventional mono and optical formats of the era.
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Dolby Atmos is the top dog
Not a surprising fact
Dolby has been around for quite a long time, so it shouldn’t be alarming to see so many different audio formats over the years. Your 4K Blu-ray likely supports all of the formats, so if you pop in a disc that doesn’t have Atmos, your player should still have no issue handling the audio. If you have an audio receiver you pass the audio along to, then there definitely won’t be any problems. In fact, your problem there, if you have one, will more likely be that it doesn’t support Atmos. I picked up a used receiver from a thrift store that doesn’t support Atmos because the format didn’t exist when the receiver came out.
The reason why Atmos is the best is not because it’s the newest, but it’s because it utilizes your full setup. For many years, 7.1 surround sound was the standard, but Atmos takes that and builds upon it. If you have the space and ports for it, you can add height speakers to your setup that reroute overhead audio to literally above your head. None of the other audio formats, except for DTS:X, can match that.
Older formats have limitations compared to Atmos, and as expected, the older you go, the more issues that crop up. Dolby Digital is just basic 5.1 surround sound, so that’s the one you should avoid the most. Dolby Digital Plus added 7.1 surround sound, and Dolby TrueHD is lossless 7.1 surround sound. Don’t get me wrong, surround sound is still great, but it’s not all created equally. If you’re not using an HDMI cable, which might be the case depending on the age of your receiver, then you’re dealing with worse audio. The digital audio out port doesn’t support Atmos, and you might just be limited to 5.1 Dolby Digital. Avoid that if you can.
Your choice is often made for you
Just use what’s available
The thing with many audio formats is that your disc will automatically default to the best one available. I don’t see many reasons to stray from that unless you don’t like how a Dolby Atmos mix sounds coming out of your stereo speakers. It’s cool that many discs give you options, and it’s fun to check out different soundtracks available from older movies. Many older movies have a new Atmos mix to go along with the theatrical audio, so that’s a scenario where it’s worth digging into what’s there on the disc.
For modern releases, you’re just best off using the Atmos soundtrack. A large chunk of everything that comes to 4K has an Atmos track, at least when it comes to the modern big studio releases. I know that I don’t think too hard about what soundtrack to throw on anymore. What seeing all of these formats might do is give you the push you need to finally upgrade your audio. Soundbars are a cheap and easy way to get into the world of Dolby Atmos, but I wouldn’t stop there. Most soundbars, unless they have external surround speakers, use upfiring speakers that bounce sound of your ceiling to emulate Dolby Atmos. If you have low enough ceilings, this can be a good experience, but I’d say it’s worth it to put up actual height channel speakers.
Having a Dolby Atmos surround sound system doesn’t mean everything you listen to has to have an Atmos track. You can either upmix everything to use every speaker, something I don’t recommend, or enjoy a setup that can handle any audio format. As long as you’re okay with having some of your speakers dormant over the duration of a movie, then there’s nothing wrong with watching something with just a Dolby Digital track if that’s all that’s available. I like to stick with what the director’s intent is, and if that’s just 5.1 surround sound, then I don’t want to use an Atmos track.
