This is especially true of the sniper sequences when the POV moves to Kyle's scope and the audio almost tunnels around you, as if you're inside the scope. The sound designers are getting better at creating mixes that completely immerse the viewer by moving objects around in three-dimensional space, drawing you into the movie. We have reviewed the majority of Dolby Atmos encoded Blu-rays released to date and here is a list of the best so far.Īmerican Sniper was nominated for Academy Awards in both Sound Mixing and Sound Editing and it quite deservedly won for the latter. However in the home cinema we use for reviewing Dolby Atmos encoded Blu-rays and testing Dolby Atmos capable AV receivers and processors we have a full 7.2.4 setup with three speakers at the front, two subwoofers at the front, two speakers at the side, two speakers at the rear and four downward-firing speakers overhead. Since Dolby realise that installing two or four downward-firing speakers to the ceiling might be difficult, they also offer the choice of upward-firing speakers that bounce sounds off the ceiling. There is the choice of either a 5.1 or 7.1 surround configuration with two or four speakers positioned overhead and you can find out more here. The domestic version was launched in 2014 and follows the same basic principles but reduces the number of speakers to something that is more practical for use in the home.

Dolby Atmos is an object-based system and in the cinema utilises more speakers around the sides and rear, additional subwoofers and two rows of overhead speakers. It was initially launched in the cinema over four years ago and to date there are more than 200 film titles mixed using the format. For those that may be unfamiliar with Dolby Atmos, it is one of three competing audio formats that use additional speakers to create a more immersive surround experience.

Dolby demo disc