You may be using Dolby Atmos wrong and not even know it

Dolby Atmos is my favorite audio format available today, and it greatly enhances anything from movies and TV shows to music and video games. I grabbed an Apple TV 4K just to listen to Dolby Atmos through Apple Music, and I haven’t regretted it yet.

Atmos gives you the best audio you can get from something today, and if you’re like me and have a large physical library consisting of 4K Blu-ray discs, you’re likely sitting on tons of films with Dolby Atmos tracks. Dolby Atmos is widely available on many streaming platforms along with discs, so it’s hard to avoid it. What you might not know is that your HDMI cable and the port it’s plugged into your TV matter quite a bit. If you don’t know what you’re doing, there’s a good chance you’re using the wrong part.

To make matters even worse, Dolby Atmos still works if you’re using the wrong port and cable, so you might not even know what you’re missing. Thankfully, it’s not difficult to fix your issues, and you can switch over to listening to the way Dolby Atmos was intended within a matter of seconds.

Grab an HDMI 2.1 cable and use your eARC port

This change makes a difference

Audio formats are tricky things, and as we’ve gotten used to streaming being the norm for music, movies, and TV shows, we’ve taken a hit in audio quality. A lot of streaming audio is compressed just so it can stream without slowdowns.

If you swap to a disc, you get access to uncompressed audio, and if that’s what you’re in it for, you need to get an HDMI 2.1 cable for the best experience. HDMI 2.1 has the fastest speeds available — 48 Gbps compared to 18 Gbps with HDMI 2.0 — at least until HDMI 2.2 becomes available to everyone. Picking up this cable is just the first step, and you might not realize the HDMI port you use matters too.

If you have a modern TV, chances are good that you have an eARC port. You want to plug your HDMI 2.1 cable to that port to make sure you get the highest quality. The reason for this is these two things give you uncompressed audio, and that means you’re not leaving anything on the table.. I’m not going to tell you that compressed surround sound is awful, because any surround sound is better than none, but uncompressed Atmos is as good as it gets.

Compression is a big deal

It’s affecting all of your streaming

Dolby

Any audiophile will tell you that nothing beats uncompressed audio. The problem is that it’s rather expensive to get a good setup as it typically requires buying an audio receiver and a set of nice speakers.

Dolby Atmos is a different animal as a basic setup means you need to pick up a minimum of seven speakers and a subwoofer. It scales well as you add more speakers, so you get to reap the benefits as you add to your setup. Of course, you’ll need to make sure your receiver is capable of handling more speakers, so figure that out before you add more.

When you have all these speakers, not getting the best audio is an annoyance, especially if you already have the equipment to optimize your listening but aren’t using it correctly. I don’t blame you for not knowing what eARC is because it’s not really explained unless you read articles online or your TV manual. You might not need to head out to the store to buy an HDMI 2.1 cable either, as there’s a good chance you have one if you have a modern game console such as a PS5 or Xbox Series X. Both of those consoles came bundled with one, and you can easily identify your cable based on whether it says Ultra High-Speed HDMI on it.