quoddiophile
Well-known Member
Recently I made substantial upgrades to my system so that I could enjoy the Atmos experience (see my profile for details). To that end, I had already ripped my 30+ Atmos discs to MKV files using MakeMKV and then I tagged them using the excellent Music Media Helper 7 program.
Once everything was in place, I decided to give it a go as follows:
1. Playing Atmos files via an 8TB drive attached to my OPPO BDP-205
Initially, I had extracted everything to MKA files. For the most part, these played just fine on my OPPO but there were a few disadvantages
-The metadata was crude but workable.
-Although there is a gapless option, it does not work as well as it should (Dark Side of the Moon).
-The artwork does not appear. It is there because you can see it when you go into the Photos folder. Strangely, the artwork appears for my Riverside album. That one is strange because for some reason I can only tag it using MMH when I retrieve the jpg file from my artwork folder as opposed to my usual practice of copying the file from my artwork folder to the MKV container.
-The sound does not come on for roughly 20 seconds so you have go back to the beginning of the track and start it up again.
I tried using M4A files but they will not play on the OPPO. Hitting play simply causes it to cycle through all the tracks without emitting any sound. The metadata is a bit better, however.
2. Apple TV 4K
I ended up checking this out as it was obvious that a number of my favourite albums were only available as Spatial Audio.
The installation was a bit clunky, but Audioholics has an excellent video on how to set it up properly. The remote takes a bit of getting used to as does the app. Currently there is no way that I know of to search by Spatial audio only which is a bit of a bummer. However, I have still managed to find over 100 albums that might be of interest.
An odd quirk is that when playing an Atmos file there is a stutter at the beginning and so you need to then start over and then it works perfectly.
I did end up making the purchase. Spatial Audio, Apple’s version of Atmos of course is only a lossy version of a proper Atmos file. Nevertheless, Apple’s version is often the best version of a particular album.
3. Nvidia Shield Pro and Kodi
The installation of the shield was much clunkier than it should have been but I managed to get there.
I am not very impressed with the Kodi app. You seem to need about five extra clicks to get anywhere and there is basically no help.
Unfortunately, the Kodi app (the latest version 20.2) does not work very well. If you use MKA files, then the track titles are not displayed properly. They appear as something like Air – 7.1 Surround for each track with the only difference being the track number.
I tried using M4A files and the track titles appeared properly but only the first track will play. If you try another track, you can see the remaining titles rapidly flash by until it reaches the end. I do have the current settings (Automatic Play “on” and Queue “off”). At one point it seemed to work but I have tried so many “experiments” that I can’t be sure. I find it quite incredible that in this day and age this sort of thing happens.
I have tried to edit the MKA files to get the track titles to display properly, but nothing seems to work. Most of the MMH tags are not displayed. MP3tag seems to edit the tracks but with no success. I have tried a number of other editors including MKVToolNix which I find totally incomprehensible and impossible to use.
I reinstalled the Kodi app several times but with no luck.
Hopefully, somebody can help me with one or both of these problems. Perhaps the Kodi problem is a bug with version 20.2; apparently this sort of thing has happened before.
4. As It Stands Now
Currently, the best solution for me is to use my OPPO player to play Atmos files is spite of its disadvantages. Of course, I can always revert to the physical disc but I am loath to do that considering the inconveniences that offers. I guess I am spoiled by Roon.
I have not yet purchased the Nvidia Shield Pro but have only about 7 days left of my trial period. Unless I can find a solution to the problems I am having with playing Atmos files with Kodi, I will have to return the Nvidia Shield Pro sometime this week.
Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.
Jim
Once everything was in place, I decided to give it a go as follows:
1. Playing Atmos files via an 8TB drive attached to my OPPO BDP-205
Initially, I had extracted everything to MKA files. For the most part, these played just fine on my OPPO but there were a few disadvantages
-The metadata was crude but workable.
-Although there is a gapless option, it does not work as well as it should (Dark Side of the Moon).
-The artwork does not appear. It is there because you can see it when you go into the Photos folder. Strangely, the artwork appears for my Riverside album. That one is strange because for some reason I can only tag it using MMH when I retrieve the jpg file from my artwork folder as opposed to my usual practice of copying the file from my artwork folder to the MKV container.
-The sound does not come on for roughly 20 seconds so you have go back to the beginning of the track and start it up again.
I tried using M4A files but they will not play on the OPPO. Hitting play simply causes it to cycle through all the tracks without emitting any sound. The metadata is a bit better, however.
2. Apple TV 4K
I ended up checking this out as it was obvious that a number of my favourite albums were only available as Spatial Audio.
The installation was a bit clunky, but Audioholics has an excellent video on how to set it up properly. The remote takes a bit of getting used to as does the app. Currently there is no way that I know of to search by Spatial audio only which is a bit of a bummer. However, I have still managed to find over 100 albums that might be of interest.
An odd quirk is that when playing an Atmos file there is a stutter at the beginning and so you need to then start over and then it works perfectly.
I did end up making the purchase. Spatial Audio, Apple’s version of Atmos of course is only a lossy version of a proper Atmos file. Nevertheless, Apple’s version is often the best version of a particular album.
3. Nvidia Shield Pro and Kodi
The installation of the shield was much clunkier than it should have been but I managed to get there.
I am not very impressed with the Kodi app. You seem to need about five extra clicks to get anywhere and there is basically no help.
Unfortunately, the Kodi app (the latest version 20.2) does not work very well. If you use MKA files, then the track titles are not displayed properly. They appear as something like Air – 7.1 Surround for each track with the only difference being the track number.
I tried using M4A files and the track titles appeared properly but only the first track will play. If you try another track, you can see the remaining titles rapidly flash by until it reaches the end. I do have the current settings (Automatic Play “on” and Queue “off”). At one point it seemed to work but I have tried so many “experiments” that I can’t be sure. I find it quite incredible that in this day and age this sort of thing happens.
I have tried to edit the MKA files to get the track titles to display properly, but nothing seems to work. Most of the MMH tags are not displayed. MP3tag seems to edit the tracks but with no success. I have tried a number of other editors including MKVToolNix which I find totally incomprehensible and impossible to use.
I reinstalled the Kodi app several times but with no luck.
Hopefully, somebody can help me with one or both of these problems. Perhaps the Kodi problem is a bug with version 20.2; apparently this sort of thing has happened before.
4. As It Stands Now
Currently, the best solution for me is to use my OPPO player to play Atmos files is spite of its disadvantages. Of course, I can always revert to the physical disc but I am loath to do that considering the inconveniences that offers. I guess I am spoiled by Roon.
I have not yet purchased the Nvidia Shield Pro but have only about 7 days left of my trial period. Unless I can find a solution to the problems I am having with playing Atmos files with Kodi, I will have to return the Nvidia Shield Pro sometime this week.
Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.
Jim