The X-Box Rocks as a Streaming Device

[Peter Beckman]

Are you using the X-Box One S or X? Does it matter for home theater? I know the S version does not send a true 4K signal for games (the X version does). But I’m not sure when it comes to sending video signal for 4K streaming or the 4K UHD Blu-ray player.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

This is good, it seems the PS5 will not yet have Atmos capability?

I don't know, I'm not a gamer, but I saw that yesterday.

 

[Peter Beckman]

Here’s an interesting video on an issue with the Netflix app:

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[Peter Beckman]

I'm using the S version and for streaming it works with HDR10 and Dolby Vision. There is a new version coming out in Q4 that will be even better. For me the killer feature is the Atmos software. It will transcode any type of audio into either DTS, DD, or Atmos and bitstream it to my pre-amp. So you can waitch any youtube video in atmos, any movie, and type of music via atmos. Atmos is "object based" audio not channel based. When you hear instruments and voices as objects placed inside the sound field it is a game changer. Without an X-Box you are limited to content encoded in Atmos, with the X-Box the software does the encoding in real time.

Great, thanks.

 

[Peter Beckman]

@Witchdoctor One question, when you listen to music in the Atmos mode do you hear too much content from the center channel? Do this issue with the Dolby Surround upmixer affect what you’re talking about?

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[AL B BACH]

So the X-Box can transcode any signal to either Atmos or DTS. For most movies I won't go back to using the processor to upmix. It is MUCH more immersive having the X-Box send a true Atmos signal to my processor to decode via bitstream out. It is no comparison, I never thought Microsoft would be so creative and it makes me wonder why pure BRD players from Sony, Panasonic, etc. don't transcode signals to Atmos or DTS too.

I want to thank you for posting this. My son gave me a Xbox One S for Xmas a few years ago. I'm not much of a gamer and don't know much about the consoles. My Sony Blu-ray died recently and I found out the Xbox One S is a well rated Blu-ray player. Cool, problem solved.

For streaming I was using a combination of a 4 yo Roku, 2 yo Firestick 4K and a Chromecast w/Google TV that my YouTube TV subscription just gave me for free.They're plugged into my AVR set up for 5.2.2 but won't let me stream any Atmos which only seems to come with 4K titles. I guess it's because I'm still using a 1080p Panny Plasma.

Now all my streaming audio arrives as Atmos/PCM and I've had to turn down the volume 5-10 dB on my AVR now that I'm not using it's DSP, DAC or up mixer. So far I like the Apps on Xbox better also. More info like which shows/movies on Hulu have surround sound. None of my streaming sticks showed that. Maybe that's b/c of the 1080p too.

So Xbox is kinda an All in One media device. My Harmony remote works well with it. Heck if I can cast videos to it I can get back there and unplug all those other streaming sticks. Thanks again.

 

[Pandaman617]

So I use a One X for streaming to a Denon 4300h and a 5.4.4 setup. Set in Atmos it is pretty great, the PS5 uses Sony’s immersive audio codec and it’s highly improbable it will EVER support Atmos. I did go out and get a dedicated UHD player from Oppo and competed to the One X’s UHD/Atmos Blu Ray playback I honestly can’t tell a difference in either audio or video quality. I’ve read dozens of articles saying the opposite but all I can go on is my own subjective usage in terms of performance. All in all for $500 almost 3 years ago it was a solid buy!