Are all TIDAL Atmos downloads 6-channel, and nothing 8-channel?

[AtriyaSen]

I'm able to download eac3-encoded Atmos files (API Key: 1, Quality: Master), but they are all 6-channel (5.1). Absolutely nothing seems to be in 7.1. Is this just because all Tidal Atmos files are 5.1?

[hockinsk]

Yes, the DD+JOC (eac3) format is based on 5.1 channels. JOC is what allows Dolby Atmos to be decoded from the DD+ to turn it into Atmos playback not Dolby Digital +.
Tidal does support AC4-IMS for Android, but I've not seen the download offer this option for a long time. Besides, it will be 2.0 channel binaural or virtualized speaker playback only.

[hockinsk]

t

[synthxotwod]

On Windows, you can't play AC4-IMS rips, only Android really supports it at the moment. You need to download as the DD+JOC and then so long as you have Dolby Access app installed or the computer supports Atmos natively, you can play you DD+JOC mp4 rips from tidal.dl.exe. I'm not ripping for you, sorry. As long as you have a Tidal account of the right subscription level, you can download easily yourself.

When I download using tidal dl first api key it only downloads flac
No MP4 or M4As
I do have Dolby access as well.

[hockinsk]

Sorry, I can't help more, I've never had any issue other than working out how to get the AC4-IMS version with a token from my Android phone instead of the PC. It sounds like your Tidal subscription might not be HiFi Plus as Atmos isn't available from a normal HiFi subscribers.

[synthxotwod]

Sorry, I can't help more, I've never had any issue other than working out how to get the AC4-IMS version with a token from my Android phone instead of the PC. It sounds like your Tidal subscription might not be HiFi Plus as Atmos isn't available from a normal HiFi subscribers.

Really?
Is that a new change or?
Because I've downloaded atmos tracks a while back with just the normal hifi plan. It was just the gui or dl that wasn't working for me. Unless that was the deal.

[hockinsk]

I'm not sure on the history of it all. If it works on HiFi before I would be surprised as I assumed the access token is obtained when tidal-dl.exe takes you to tidal login so Tidal thinks tidal-dl.exe is your PC?

[brgalaxy]

remembering that the number of channels doesn't matter much because Atmos is an object-based audio format, not a channel-based one.

[hockinsk]

The object's audio isn't stored within the delivery. Everything is downmixed to 5.1 and the object's metadata (position in space) exists within that 5.1 interleaved between each frame of audio. The Dolby Atmos Decoder on your device then pulls the audio out of the 5.1 PCM channels and rebuilds to the speaker format and uses the metadata to place it according to your receiver's speaker setup. ie you can play 9.1.6 from the 5.1 dd+joc file. It's a lossy format though, when you isolate the .4 or .6 height channels often there's quite a lot of audio compression and 90's-like mp3 smearing of the sound, but in the heights and surround channels it's not noticed too much once playback of all speakers happens.