New product launch – beosound theatre?

[beojeff]

Thank you very much for that guide, Geoff. It’s very useful!

I’d like to offer a bit of feedback: When manually adjusting for the speaker level in a Listening Position, the tone that the Theatre generates is too faint. It’s really difficult to get a good reading with a decibel meter. The Beosystem 4, on the other hand, generated a very audible tone to capture a speaker’s level on a  decibel meter. Hopefully, the issue will be fixed such that we can indicate the speaker model attached to a Receiver 1 so that manual value entry won’t be necessary.

[beojeff]

Is it possible to use one of the B&O headphones capable of Dolby Atmos to use with the Theatre to enjoy Dolby Atmos through the headphones?

[geoffmartin]

Hi everyone,

A link to the Theatre’s Technical Sound Guide v.1 is now available at

https://support.bang-olufsen.com/hc/en-us/articles/4955893911569

I hope that this may also help to clear up some of the confusion that I read in this thread… (particularly the comments about an Atmos input stream and the number of output channels, the difference between channels and objects within an Atmos stream, and the behaviours of True Image vs. “Direct” vs. “Downmix” spatial processing modes.) IF, after reading the TGS, you don’t think that the questions/confusion in the thread are addressed, please reach out here and I’ll try to help – and update the TGS accordingly, where appropriate.

Of course, the TGS will go through version updates to reflect changes in future SW releases.

Cheers
-g

[geoffmartin]

Hereford wrote:

@Mr10pct Yea I’m not a fan of the 2.0 to surround upmix. Speech especially sounds tinny. I prefer to run 2.0 content in Direct mode. Either to the BL9 fronts, or just the Theatre alone.

Just out of curiosity

• what is your source for the 2.0 content?
• which Sound Mode are you using when it sounds “tinny”?
• How are you doing the 2-in-2-out configuration? with a Sound Mode set to Direct in the spatial processing or by having created a 2-output Listening Position?

Thanks
-g

[geoffmartin]

Mr10Percent wrote:

CODEC – Dolby TrueHD (Atmos is an extension to DTHD)

This is not really true – it’s kind of the opposite.

• Atmos is the method of packaging the audio channels and objects.
• TrueHD is an indication of the audio quality of those signals

This similar to saying “5.1-channel LPCM” or “2-channel MP3” where the first half tells you how many audio channels you have and the second half tells you the COmpression-DECompression (or CODEC) method that’s used to encode those audio channels.

Cheers
-g

[Sandyb]

There is a Theatre software update today.

Just installed my update, was pretty quick

in case anyone hadn’t seen the release

[Sandyb]

Question (forgive me if this is a dumb q).

The TSG (page 23) says “Similarly, in cases where the Beosound Theatre is accompanied by two larger front loudspeakers, it may be preferable to use the three front-firing outputs to all produce the Centre Front channel (instead of using the centre output only).”

In my setup, with BL50s besides the Theatre, the speaker role/allocation settings page shows my Left and Right Front Firing as “Not available” and greyed out.

Anyone know how to engage them to try out the scenario described in the TSG?

Again, forgive me if I’m being dumb.

[Millemissen]

Sandyb wrote:

There is a Theatre software update today. Just installed my update, was pretty quick in case anyone hadn’t seen the release

Nothing here….yet.
Which version is it – any release notes?

MM

[Sandyb]

I cant see the release notes now for some reason.

From memory, mentioned bug fixes / stability, somethign about BL14s, improved responsiveness to BR1 commands, something about Receiver 1 support, support fro 3rd party speakers….

May have been the odd other thing, cant remember now

[Millemissen]

The version mentioned on the B&O website is from last year and probably the initial one.
Software 2.3.4.15123 – Release date 21st November 2022
I guess the time is due for ‘some bug/stability fixes’!

I wonder if what you/Sandyb got, is the same as what is called ‘beta’ by now.

MM

[Hereford]

geoffmartin wrote:

Hereford wrote:

@Mr10pct Yea I’m not a fan of the 2.0 to surround upmix. Speech especially sounds tinny. I prefer to run 2.0 content in Direct mode. Either to the BL9 fronts, or just the Theatre alone.

Just out of curiosity

• what is your source for the 2.0 content?
• which Sound Mode are you using when it sounds “tinny”?
• How are you doing the 2-in-2-out configuration? with a Sound Mode set to Direct in the spatial processing or by having created a 2-output Listening Position?

Thanks -g

The two sound modes are 1) Music with all the Tone Controls set to zero or off, except Bass Mgmt enabled. Spatial Controls; Direct, and everything zero. 2) Movie with same Tone Controls as 1), and Spatial Controls is set to balance=0,fader=0, and surround/height/stage/envelop all set to 5.

1) has the more pleasant dialogue/vocals, when fed simpl e 2.0 content like TV or music. It’s like vocals become almost too isolated, losing smth in the process, like how speech comes through a telephone very intelligible but compressed – not that extreme ofc but that’s how I’d describe it.

[Sandyb]

Hmm, I do wonder if that is indeed the case.

Bit odd though – I checked its software status earlier this week just after instal, and it was up to date.

Someone else on Discord (who has had theirs for months) posted the notification of the update this morning, and when I checked my unit, there was indeed an update available.

And there was a whole page full of bullet points on the release notes.

Anyway, if anything else becomes clearer I’ll post an update.

 

[Sandyb]

Millemissen wrote:

The version mentioned on the B&O website is from last year and probably the initial one. Software 2.3.4.15123 – Release date 21st November 2022 I guess the time is due for ‘some bug/stability fixes’! I wonder if what you/Sandyb got, is the same as what is called ‘beta’ by now. MM

Just checked again – someone on Discord got updated to 2.5.3.

the update I installed today for myself was only 2.34, the November dated update.

So I guess I’m still “behind”, or the 2.5.3 is the beta….dont know.

[SimonWeir]

Sandyb re your TSG question #14715

When you are editing a listening position, select ‘Advanced Setting’ off the 3 dots; accept the warning notice and then you can assign/remove all speakers to any role.  When I watch a UHD Blu-ray and are using 3 sets of BL17s (FL, FR, SL, SR, BL, BR) with a BL19.  I have the Theatre FL, FR both as FC, with the Centre.  I use the Theatre Up speakers as Left + Right Front Height, and the Theatre Side  speakers as Left + Right Surround Height.  This delivers an excellent 7.1.4 setup.  With the BL17’s power having the Theatres main speakers all as the Centre means I never think the speech is underwhelming or I need to turn the volume up.  I recommend you load up two listening positions 1 with just the Centre as the Centre and the other using the FL + FR also as the Centre and see what you prefer.

[Sandyb]

marvellous, thanks.

will experiment tomorrow afternoon.

[Mr10Percent]

geoffmartin wrote:

This is not really true – it’s kind of the opposite.

• Atmos is the method of packaging the audio channels and objects.
• TrueHD is an indication of the audio quality of those signals

This similar to saying “5.1-channel LPCM” or “2-channel MP3” where the first half tells you how many audio channels you have and the second half tells you the COmpression-DECompression (or CODEC) method that’s used to encode those audio channels. Cheers -g

Well I glad you have cleared that up Geoff. I was kinda struggling to read and interpret other articles in the interweb and tell my experiences to all the forum members on Beoworld. Apologies that I got a few things wrong but now that B&O have in a way and stepped-in and provided us Users with the information we should have had on day one of our purchases (bug-free), all will be well and good now with us now?

[BeoMedia]

I have tested some different sources that presumably should be in Atmos.

1. Apple Music, tracks marked with Atmos (same setting turned on my settings) shows as PCM 2.0 in the Theatre. I am playing this via AirPlay to the Theatre.
2. Atmos sound files downloaded, they do not show as Atmos in the Theatre but rather shows up as:
   Channel allocation: 7.1 and Codec: DolbyDigitalPlus.

I find this rather puzzling, I was expecting they should all be recognised as Atmos by the Theatre.

[kuyttendaele]

BeoMedia wrote:

I have tested some different sources that presumably should be in Atmos.

1. Apple Music, tracks marked with Atmos (same setting turned on my settings) shows as PCM 2.0 in the Theatre. I am playing this via AirPlay to the Theatre.
2. Atmos sound files downloaded, they do not show as Atmos in the Theatre but rather shows up as: Channel allocation: 7.1 and Codec: DolbyDigitalPlus.

I find this rather puzzling, I was expecting they should all be recognised as Atmos by the Theatre.

—
Airplay does not support Atmos. It reverts back to stereo.
The Atoms AppleMusic file has to be streamed directly from an Apple TV

Karel.

[BeoMedia]

I don’t have an Apple TV connected, just running the stock apps in the LG TV.

The Atmos test videos I am playing via Plex and the stock Plex app in the LG.

[kuyttendaele]

Airplay does not support Atmos.

[Author]

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