There's been quite a bit of discussion surrounding Dolby Atmos over the past week courtesy of some recent investigations by Digital Foundry, which discovered that the feature is suffering from an apparent delay issue on Xbox.
DF's John Linneman and various Xbox fans have been conducting tests on this using the Latency Check in Hi-Fi RUSH in recent days, and while the results have differed from case-to-case, the delay has always been present in some form.
"A bunch of different people posted their results, and we found that in all cases, there is in fact a delay when using [Dolby] Atmos."
"What's interesting about this is this is not the fault of the Xbox hardware, rather it's very much a software thing because Windows 11 [has the] exact same problem."
According to John, these Dolby Atmos problems are only present in games, and are significantly exacerbated when using the eARC functionality built into some TVs. Even without taking eARC into account though, while some Xbox users have found ways to reduce the delay, it seems that nobody has been able to get rid of it entirely.
In the example below, you can see a slow-motion version of the Latency Check where the sound is supposed to play when the cat icon lights up, but instead takes a little bit longer than expected to activate:
These tests have conjured up quite a lot of attention on social media, which has led to Playground Games chief engineer David Springate promising to "get this to the appropriate people" - hopefully meaning a solution can be found.
"I appreciate this John! I’ll get this to the appropriate people tomorrow! You’re the best."
We'll obviously keep an eye on this situation and see if anything comes of it, but for now Digital Foundry suggests using the uncompressed audio options on Xbox if you want the least latency. It's also worth noting that DF hasn't tested Dolby Atmos for Headphones as part of this investigation - it's purely based on the "Home Theater" experience.
"Even if you use Dolby Digital or the DTS option there is still a delay, it's just Atmos is worse. So, if you want responsive audio on your Xbox, use compressed 7.1, 5.1 or stereo is my suggestion right now."
Have you noticed any issues with Dolby Atmos? Tell us down in the comments below.
[source youtu.be]
Comments 33
Thank goodness a popular group of people are finally publicizing this. It’s been like this since I got my console close to 2 years ago and most others online seem to have the same problem, too. Seemed like 95% or more people using Atmos experienced this. It was a really frustrating thing to diagnose and I ended up just using the standard sound in the end.
Atmos sounds good but the audio delay is just not worth the artful latency. Hopefully things finally get fixed.
i dont get any audio latencys. DTS and Dolby tested Xbox X|S and Windows 10
Had latency with my LG OLED, but there's none with the Samsung QN90, not so sure the TV eARC doesn't play some part here, or even the Soundbar.
Have they also tested the DTS:X alternative for immersive sound?
this has been an issue since series X launch how people at Microsoft havnt noticed this or done anything about it in close to 3 years now is baffeling
I use dolby digital on series X due to atmos being unusable due to delayed audio
I commented on the DF youtube piece aswell, but I get absolutely no perceivable lag what so ever when using my Dolby Atmos Home Theater Set up.
Audio can be a fiddly and tricky thing to set up correctly and it took me a while to get everything spot on.
After I saw this, I had been meaning to drop a line to one of the Xbox audio engineers, I just forgot.
I too sent out an e-mail just now.
@trev666 I am going to bet that there aren't a ton of people using Atmos via AVR on Xbox, so the noise surrounding it wasn't loud enough to warrant much alarm.
It's also a weird case where some people get it, and some don't for seemingly unknown reasons.
Could it be that their TV response time is "slow enough" not to notice?
Maybe it's a cable issue?
Certain receivers are better than others?
But then Sony comes out with an implementation with no perceivable latency and it throws all those questions for a loop.
Why can Sony get it right out of the gate and not Microsoft despite having the capability since Xbox One X days?
Why is the problem on Windows?
What is so different with Sony's machine vs Microsoft with regards to HDMI audio output?
Also, I do wonder how many people saw John's Twitter (X?) post and enabled Atmos output on their Xbox for the first time just to check the latency to report back.
This is one of those cases where competition is important. Sad is it may be, Dolby Atmos latency probably took a back seat for a while because there was no other competition for Atmos in the gaming space.
Now that someone else has done it "better" for games, there is cause for concern.
It's a shame, but that's reality. It's also why I appreciate Digital Foundry despite the comment sections of their videos being so toxic (not DF's fault, though).
Hopefully, this puts the right kind of visibility on whatever issue has with outputting HDMI audio through Windows and Xbox - because games mixed in Dolby Atmos sound absolutely incredible!
Wait you say to use uncompressed audio and then the quote immediately says use compressed 7.1, 5.1 ... Maybe I am just not familiar with why those would be considered uncompressed?
I think a lot of the problem is the fact that 99.999% of people set their Xbox console to go to their TV and then to their AVR. They say it saves on cable management but it actually doesn't. Everyone I know always reverts the audio from the TV to the AVR.
I have mine going from the CONSOLE to the AVR and finally to the TV. Absolutely no delay, lag or artifacts. Maybe people should try the way I have my setup and see if it helps them?
Maybe Sony doesn't have issues because they have expertise in manufacturing AVRs and stereo systems that in practice will be paired with non Sony components 99% of the time.
@SmugBurrito4119
Some people might be using older AVRs that are not 4k or HDCP compatible. Ever since the pandemic, 4k/atmos AVRs have risen dramatically in prices. Not to mention that some AVR manufacturers had issues with 4k video passthrough.
I miss the days when common bluray/4k players used to have 2 HDMIout. That way, audio equipment don't have to be replaced when new video/audio formats come out.
@SmugBurrito4119 I wish I could do that, but my AVR isn't HDMI 2.1 compatible - which may be the biggest reason why people are having to rely on eARC: they have the TV to support HDMI 2.1 it but not the AVR.
I am sure people eventually upgrade but it's probably not high on the priority list.
My TV is HDMI 2.1 for VRR and ALLM, but it's not 120Hz. I sometimes debate whether I even care about VRR and ALLM.
My Vizio can do Low-latency mode on ANY Display setting, so ALLM isn't necessary - VRR is the biggest loss for me to iron those games that don't lock at 60fps. But if a lot of games are starting to just be 30fps, I'm not sure if even VRR is necessary.
The AVR I use is a Sony AVR and its hdmi 2.1, and I plug the xbox into the AVR and not the TV, which is the best way (if your equipment supports it) I also plug my ps5 and switch directly into the Sony AVR. My TV is a LG C2 OLED
I guess the people experiencing audio lag is because they are not doing this and are using an older hdmi AVR over eARC
Why does it take DF covering this?
This has been a complaint since launch and the suggestion has always been to disable it.
I guess it is nice that DF did it. But man, the number of times you would get "there's no reported issues" from Microsoft support was insane.
UPDATE:
I got a response back from my point of contact.
So Atmos output already has a 50 millisecond delay out of the gate (some is caused by Dolby's algorithm and some cause by a system-wide audio buffer put into place to avoid glitches).
Some of that can be fixed by Dolby now due to improvements in Dolby's algorithm (but hasn't provided Microsoft the update to the Dolby firmware that Xbox uses - despite having this update for quite some time).
But they were very interested to hear that Sony had no perceivable delay with Atmos.
Rock Band 4 is literally unplayable using Dolby Atmos. The game has an auto calibrator where it tells you how much lag there is, so that you can manually set that number, but the lag is always more 300 milliseconds (350-380 if I recall correctly) and for some reason, RB4 has a maximum limit of 300 milliseconds! So you can't even calibrate it properly! And I DO have the Xbox going to the audio receiver first and the TV second.
If I change it to Uncompressed 5.1, issue resolved.
@trev666 i think it's been brought up now since PlayStation just launched their Atmos support for gaming
@Kilamanjaro That's a typo by the author. Went and saw the video, he says UNcompressed.
@trev666 I'd recommend uncompressed 5.1 for less lag and, in theory, better sound quality, since Dolby Digital is still compressed.
It isn't real atmos for starters. That requires proprietary tech in the hardware and encoding on the software side (I e. Games) and the subsequent royalties. No dev or publisher that I know of is jumping at using this, nor particularly enthusiastic about the extra time it takes to master true atmos sound, or the latency. Further, The atmos you are getting from xbox is just a compressed approximation and in many ways worse than a 5.1 mix. Regardless, it isn't like this means anything to most who don't have a true atmos setup to appreciate it and you can forget about it with a soundbar, or worse, TV speakers. A similar thing can be said for Dolby vision for games. The novel idea is meaning well and both theoretically have potential to make your experience 1000x better, but the groundwork is way off for this to be practical and viable.
@G4n0nD0rf Sadly most manufacturers do not make DTS:X equipment or support the format. Which is a huge shame. My preference of DTS over Dolby is night and day. Wish everything had DTS support.
@GamingFan4Lyf A lot of the delay with Dolby may be due to Dolby is compressed format. Where DTS is less compressed or at all. You probably already knew that. But many may not.
I had huge audio delay using Atmos via e-arc, through my LG B9 to a Denon amplifier.
The worst was The Matrix Unreal Engine 5 demo, the videos could be around 1.5 seconds out and was a horrible experience but was the only way to run 4k@120hz.
In the end I gave up and went directly to my amp but it still has a bad delay at 4k@60hz.
The only fix I have found is to run DTS:X instead of Atmos which is a pain.
I spent so much time trying to get this figured out because I thought it was my set up back when I got the XSX. I have an LG C1 and the Sonos Beam gen 2/rear ones/sub mini. Pass through is all, eARC, the whole shabang! Only thing that gets the sync lag to go away is turning off atmos.
FYI - Lag happens with Dolby digital as well.
I have a different scenario. I only experience lag from Atmos when watching a Blu-Ray and using the headphone jack on the controller. All other scenarios I have no lag while using Atmos. It drives me nuts because I love to watch movies using IEMs. If I use the same IEMs or any other headphones with the same configuration doing anything else, it works correctly.
I've had this problem from day one. I figured it's because I'm using the eARC channel on my tv so I don't lose out on all the new gen features like VRR, 4k, 120hz etc.. I don't think my receiver will pass all that through to the TV if I plug the hdmi into my receiver first and then to my tv. So I chose to lose atmos in favor of having those other things work and just use regular Dolby digital instead. There's no delay with DD or DTS. Just atmos. I hope they fix this because this is a loss of an important feature and it's frustrating..I'm not holding.my breath though, I'm quite sure they're well aware of this issue
@InfamousOrange I have no delay with DD, it's what I've been using since day one because the atmos dealt is really bad
@SmugBurrito4119 that's the way it's supposed to be setup of course..the problem is when you do that unless you have a new and expensive reciever youre likely losing out on 4k, Variable refresh rate, 120hz and things like that that most receivers likely don't pass through. That's why I'm just using regular DD instead of atmos cause I have to use the eARC channel in order to keep those features intact.
As others have said; it’s frustrating it took Digital Foundry and Playground Games for this to get any notice. I don’t notice the lag anymore at all but it is there and I did notice it when I first installed the soundbar.
This is why my series x just has stereo output. Be nice if it were fixed...
We've known since Day 1 that XSX's Dolby Atmos has a delay. This seems more of a push to try and get them to FINALLY fix it.
@K1LLEGAL 100% right. It isn't a new issue, they are just shining a new light on it. Hopefully their team addresses it
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