HDMI 2.1 AVR Recommendations (2021)

VERY Interesting about the 760H. One reason I wasn't interested in the earlier "fixed" Denon models was because they didn't have enough HDMI 2.1 inputs. I need at least 2 for my PC and PS5. That model has 3. Plus it has 6 overall inputs, which is a nice bonus.
Frankly it sounds EXACTLY like what I want. The responses in the AVS forum make it sound like it covers all the right bases. I think I'll post something there to see what people's experiences are like on a PC.
Unfortunately the nearest costco is hundreds of miles away. Wish it would show up somewhere else.
 
I have a pile of Costco locations near me, but I don't have a membership. I figure I can probably find a friend who has one, though. Worst case, there's a deal where you get a $40 gift certificate and $40 off any purchase over $250 that would nearly cancel out the membership fee.
The thing is, I have zero desire to buy another AVR and have it not work 100% the way I need. I'm going to watch that AVD thread like a hawk and see if anyone is using it with a PC.
I don't really need the hdmi 2.1 stuff, but if i'm going to buy a new AVR, might as well get the newest stuff. I've just had it with my sony, the lipsynch not being perfect has driven me over the edge.
 
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Sounds like these are the real deal per what people are posting. There are roughly a dozen Costco locations around Denver, and I seem to have a pile of friends that buy shit in bulk, so I'm going to try and snatch one up over the weekend.
 
Sounds like these are the real deal per what people are posting. There are roughly a dozen Costco locations around Denver, and I seem to have a pile of friends that buy shit in bulk, so I'm going to try and snatch one up over the weekend.
What people say means nothing, check with the company.
 
What people say means nothing, check with the company.

There's zero information on this AVR anywhere. Including from Denon. If I don't like it, apparently Costco has one of the best return policies out there. I'll just take it back.
 
There's zero information on this AVR anywhere. Including from Denon. If I don't like it, apparently Costco has one of the best return policies out there. I'll just take it back.
My comment was only based on the Ebay seller, Costco are far less risky.
Note your post I quoted and replied to.
 
If I can snag one this weekend I'll toss up some impressions and a comparison vs. my Onkyo. I figure I'll just sell the Onkyo if the Denon is trouble-free. If the Denon isn't all it's cracked up to be, I'll return it. Most people are doing comparisons with the PS5 and Xbox, but I'm far more interested in how it works with a PC. I'm interested in 4K/444/120Hz with HDR and Atmos. I feel like eARC or just waiting is fine for the consoles, but PC support is a different animal.
 
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The Costco locations around here seem to have 'em in stock for $439 each. I called 3 of them, and they had all just received a shipment this week. Seems that might be the only AVR they even carry. I didn't see any others and they had a decent sized pile - 15-16 boxes. I plan to put it through its paces over the next day or two. FYI - if you know someone with a membership, you're good to go if you want to use their card. They don't even look at the card - they just scan it and move on when you check out.
 
The Costco locations around here seem to have 'em in stock for $439 each. I called 3 of them, and they had all just received a shipment this week. Seems that might be the only AVR they even carry. I didn't see any others and they had a decent sized pile - 15-16 boxes. I plan to put it through its paces over the next day or two. FYI - if you know someone with a membership, you're good to go if you want to use their card. They don't even look at the card - they just scan it and move on when you check out.

Can't you just buy it online? I think they only sell one model of receiver at any given time to reduce the price or whatever. I bought a Yamaha receiver from Costco last year and it was $100 cheaper than everywhere else (special Costco model number, but otherwise exactly the same). Bought it online and it came in a couple days. If I didn't know someone with a membership it probably would have been worth the membership just for that one purchase.
 
Can't you just buy it online? I think they only sell one model of receiver at any given time to reduce the price or whatever. I bought a Yamaha receiver from Costco last year and it was $100 cheaper than everywhere else (special Costco model number, but otherwise exactly the same). Bought it online and it came in a couple days. If I didn't know someone with a membership it probably would have been worth the membership just for that one purchase.
They don't have it on the website for whatever reason, just the 750H for $399 which is still a pretty good deal.
 
Can't you just buy it online? I think they only sell one model of receiver at any given time to reduce the price or whatever. I bought a Yamaha receiver from Costco last year and it was $100 cheaper than everywhere else (special Costco model number, but otherwise exactly the same). Bought it online and it came in a couple days. If I didn't know someone with a membership it probably would have been worth the membership just for that one purchase.

Normally, yes. Seems this AVR is an anomaly. Neither Denon or Costco acknowledge even it exists online. If you Google it, they only traces seem to be on the AVS forum, Reddit, and eBay. Assuming that it isn't a steaming pile (my previous Denon's in the same family were great), it's basically an HDMI 2.1 unicorn right now.
 
My way too early impression: It works!!!
I'm outputting YCbCR 4/4/4 (or RGB 10Bit/Full) at 120Hz with full 7.1 Atmos. Even with HDR enabled. DolbyVision works fine, too, although I've only tested that via Netflix and Disney+. Toggling between my various inputs is no issue, too.
No audio cutting out or skipping yet, either...but It's only been an hour.

If I don't run into any additional issues, this could be the holy grail of affordable HDMI 2.1 amps. It doesn't have the audio horsepower some folks need (75 watts per channel), so that should be mentioned. Still, that doesn't bother me in the slightest. I'll definitely be reporting back with further feedback, but so far it's a winner.
 
Day 2 is still trouble-free. When I fired up my PC, it retained all of my audio and video settings.
I toggled between a bunch of MKV's that have soundtracks with DTS, DD, Atmos, AAC stereo, AAC 7.1, etc. No issues, delays, or dropped signals.
Hopping between different video types has been no issue, too.
It's just like my previous Denon model, but with HDMI 2.1. Same UI, settings, sound output, and such.

I'm selling my Onkyo immediately. Hell, I'm going to try and return it. The worst they can tell me is "no" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

EDIT: Looks like they're accepting it as a refundable return. I couldn't be happier right now. I got the AVR functionality I wanted all along and a full refund for that Onkyo.
 
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Normally, yes. Seems this AVR is an anomaly. Neither Denon or Costco acknowledge even it exists online. If you Google it, they only traces seem to be on the AVS forum, Reddit, and eBay. Assuming that it isn't a steaming pile (my previous Denon's in the same family were great), it's basically an HDMI 2.1 unicorn right now.

While I didn't "need" a new AVR, I did pick this up after I found one at the third Costco I visited.

For everyone's benefit - while this model is not listed on Denon's site is, the manual is! The Quick Start guide in the box provides a link to it:

https://manuals.denon.com/avrs760h/na/en/
 
The weirdest thing about this AVR is that it's basically one-of-a-kind right now (for HDMI 2.1) while being a Costco exclusive that neither Denon or Costco seem to want to acknowledge. I have to imagine that the 2021 versions of the other Denon models will probably be rolling out to normal retail pretty soon, too. This is probably the model I would have bought anyway, so I'm happy this is the first one to hit.

5 days later, the only quirk I've experienced so far is when changing video modes (toggling HDR or going from a fullscreen game to the desktop), it'll occasionally pop an "out of range" error on the screen. I've seen that 3 times so far, but that's with heavy use. Toggling to/from another input immediately fixes it, though. On my Onkyo, that would have required 5 minutes of powering things off/on, toggling inputs, and praying. It would have also lost audio until I rebooted, too. I've had zero audio issues with this model, which is just as important.
 
Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong with my 7.2.4 Dolby Atmos PC (physical speaker) setup?

When I don't have the Dolby Atmos app installed, in all my games I'm able to select Dolby Digital Surround, DTS, etc. to at least get "fake" simulated surround sound that comes out of all speakers.

When I installed the Dolby Atmos app and set it to speakers, all my games are only PCM only per the receiver, and it doesn't sound great at all, possibly 2 or 5 channels only.

I can confirm Dolby Atmos works perfectly fine when I run the sound demos in the app, and my receiver shows a red Dolby icon and I can indeed select "Dolby Atmos" when selecting through all the different sound profiles and I am indeed getting height effects. This also holds true for like the native Netfix App on my TV with shows that flag as Dolby Vision/Atmos support, Atmos works perfectly fine.

It still boggles my mind I can't get this working properly. I uninstalled the app and I was able to get fake dolby digital surround, but installed again I'm stuck in PCM only.

My sound format is also "Dolby Atmos for Home Theater" in Windows 11 audio settings.

I can't get a single PC dolby-atmos officially listed game to work at all and flag as Atmos on my receiver. I set my TV and Receiver to factory defaults as well. I wonder if I'm having some hardware or software conflict. I've read many forums, including this one on fixes or settings that need to be specified but nothing works. Really strange and about to return half of my audio equipment. Again, I know Dolby Atmos is working fine in Windows 11 PC because if I launch other native-supported Dolby Atmos apps then my receiver flags it and works fine but gaming just says F-You and does everything on PCM, which sounds horrible and sounds like audio is really only coming out of 2 speakers only.

I wonder if it has to do with Doing an HDMI 2.1 GPU -> HDMI 2.1 Receiver -> HDMI 2.1 TV. I'm kind of in uncharted territory here and I wonder if one of the 3 components wasn't setup properly with dolby atmos in mind with it comes to 4K 120hz VRR HDR PC gaming. Also got to think of it from a software/firmware standpoint as well:
Nvidia Driver -> Windows 11 Drivers -> Dolby Acess app driver -> Onkyo AVR driver - LG TV driver

Did I just get screwed thinking that Dolby Atmos for PC gaming is really just for headphones only and physical speakers aren't actually supported? Or am I just being dumb and doing something wrong?

Windows 11
RTX 3090 (Hdmi 2.1)
LG OLED C1 (Hdmi 2.1)
Onkyo TX-RZ50 (Hdmi 2.1)
Sony 7.2.4 speakers
 
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^ Long story short, that's how things have been for a little while. I've seen it across multiple receivers, although I guess it could be related to Nvidia. I'm 95% positive it's the Dolby Access app, though. Right now Atmos in Windows now outputs either Dolby Digital (for most content) or PCM audio (for Atmos content). The exception is for movies/videos. Those actually activate the Dolby Atmos flag. At one time Atmos games used to as well, but they've been outputting PCM for the last 6'ish months. On my setup the height channels and surround effects DO seem to be working, though. When I started looking into it, there are plenty of Xbox people complaining about the same thing and people (from Dolby even in some instances) telling folks that PCM is as intended as long as the channels seem to be firing correctly.
 
Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong with my 7.2.4 Dolby Atmos PC (physical speaker) setup?

When I don't have the Dolby Atmos app installed, in all my games I'm able to select Dolby Digital Surround, DTS, etc. to at least get "fake" simulated surround sound that comes out of all speakers.

When I installed the Dolby Atmos app and set it to speakers, all my games are only PCM only per the receiver, and it doesn't sound great at all, possibly 2 or 5 channels only.

I can confirm Dolby Atmos works perfectly fine when I run the sound demos in the app, and my receiver shows a red Dolby icon and I can indeed select "Dolby Atmos" when selecting through all the different sound profiles and I am indeed getting height effects. This also holds true for like the native Netfix App on my TV with shows that flag as Dolby Vision/Atmos support, Atmos works perfectly fine.

It still boggles my mind I can't get this working properly. I uninstalled the app and I was able to get fake dolby digital surround, but installed again I'm stuck in PCM only.

My sound format is also "Dolby Atmos for Home Theater" in Windows 11 audio settings.

I can't get a single PC dolby-atmos officially listed game to work at all and flag as Atmos on my receiver. I set my TV and Receiver to factory defaults as well. I wonder if I'm having some hardware or software conflict. I've read many forums, including this one on fixes or settings that need to be specified but nothing works. Really strange and about to return half of my audio equipment. Again, I know Dolby Atmos is working fine in Windows 11 PC because if I launch other native-supported Dolby Atmos apps then my receiver flags it and works fine but gaming just says F-You and does everything on PCM, which sounds horrible and sounds like audio is really only coming out of 2 speakers only.

I wonder if it has to do with Doing an HDMI 2.1 GPU -> HDMI 2.1 Receiver -> HDMI 2.1 TV. I'm kind of in uncharted territory here and I wonder if one of the 3 components wasn't setup properly with dolby atmos in mind with it comes to 4K 120hz VRR HDR PC gaming.

Did I just get screwed thinking that Dolby Atmos for PC gaming is really just for headphones only and physical speakers aren't actually supported? Or am I just being dumb and doing something wrong?

Windows 11
RTX 3090 (Hdmi 2.1)
LG OLED C1 (Hdmi 2.1)
Onkyo TX-RZ50 (Hdmi 2.1)
Sony 7.2.4 speakers

It doesnt matter anyway, theres no point converting normal PCM 7.1 (or less) to Atmos, it gives zero benefit.
Games that dont use Atmos encoding internally dont have height channels so any use of them will have to be simulated, which your AVR does (mine too).
And in games that dont use Atmos, there is no object oriented positioning. Converting to Atmos is therefore just a simulation.
Just send PCM and save your AVR the hassle!

I dont use the Atmos app because there is no reason to.
Without it:
All PCM encoded games/movies are sent to the AVR as intended, as PCM.
All Atmos encoded games/movies are sent to the AVR as intended, as Atmos.
 
^ Long story short, that's how things have been for a little while. I've seen it across multiple receivers, although I guess it could be related to Nvidia. I'm 95% positive it's the Dolby Access app, though. Right now Atmos in Windows now outputs either Dolby Digital (for most content) or PCM audio (for Atmos content). The exception is for movies/videos. Those actually activate the Dolby Atmos flag. At one time Atmos games used to as well, but they've been outputting PCM for the last 6'ish months. On my setup the height channels and surround effects DO seem to be working, though. When I started looking into it, there are plenty of Xbox people complaining about the same thing and people (from Dolby even in some instances) telling folks that PCM is as intended as long as the channels seem to be firing correctly.
Thanks bud, that’s what I gathered as well. Everything worked fine on an older driver, then stopped working like 6+ months ago. I bet Dolby just dropped the support on PC, not enough games were onboard with it, and too many never ending combinations of hardware/software unlike systems like Xbox and PS5. I tried doing workarounds like getting the older app, but it just forces an auto-update or shuts down completely when declined.

About to return my 4 Atmos speakers, my 2 channel external amp, and expensive cables.
 
It doesnt matter anyway, theres no point converting normal PCM 7.1 (or less) to Atmos, it gives zero benefit.
Games that dont use Atmos encoding internally dont have height channels so any use of them will have to be simulated, which your AVR does (mine too).
And in games that dont use Atmos, there is no object oriented positioning. Converting to Atmos is therefore just a simulation.
Just send PCM and save your AVR the hassle!

I dont use the Atmos app because there is no reason to.
Without it:
All PCM encoded games/movies are sent to the AVR as intended, as PCM.
All Atmos encoded games/movies are sent to the AVR as intended, as Atmos.

For what it's worth, I've noticed that the Netflix app won't use Atmos without that app installed/enabled. Instead it sends the audio over as DD+. At least on my AVR, DD+ makes every channel I have loud AF except the center channel...where all the dialogue is. Atmos makes the dialogue and other channels sound normal. I don't think any other streaming services can use Atmos via Windows and it has zero effect on MKV files or Blu-Ray disks, so it's literally only for Netflix.
 
For what it's worth, I've noticed that the Netflix app won't use Atmos without that app installed/enabled. Instead it sends the audio over as DD+. At least on my AVR, DD+ makes every channel I have loud AF except the center channel...where all the dialogue is. Atmos makes the dialogue and other channels sound normal. I don't think any other streaming services can use Atmos via Windows and it has zero effect on MKV files or Blu-Ray disks, so it's literally only for Netflix.
Ok cool, I dont use Netflix.
I'm glad there is some use for the Atmos app!
 
At least on my AVR, DD+ makes every channel I have loud AF except the center channel...where all the dialogue is.
That's interesting. Have you tried DD+ with other content or just netflix?

I have a 5.1 setup and have been using DD+ because it seems to have the most range, whisper quiet for soft stuff with the volume high enough to be quite loud on loud scenes. I also haven't had any issues with the center channel being too soft, if anything it's a bit loud at times drowning out non-dialog noise but I think that's from sources being mixed to overcome weak center channel speakers since many home theater in a box and soundbar setups skimp on that.

I've been a little leery of using any Dolby mode since they love to compress the hell out of everything but at least DD+ is less compressed and to my ear it sounds better than any of the other surround modes in 5.1(more dynamic and cleaner).
 
That's interesting. Have you tried DD+ with other content or just netflix?

I have a 5.1 setup and have been using DD+ because it seems to have the most range, whisper quiet for soft stuff with the volume high enough to be quite loud on loud scenes. I also haven't had any issues with the center channel being too soft, if anything it's a bit loud at times drowning out non-dialog noise but I think that's from sources being mixed to overcome weak center channel speakers since many home theater in a box and soundbar setups skimp on that.

I've been a little leery of using any Dolby mode since they love to compress the hell out of everything but at least DD+ is less compressed and to my ear it sounds better than any of the other surround modes in 5.1(more dynamic and cleaner).

It's mainly just Netflix in Windows, although HBO Max also does that via my Firestick. It's not nearly as bad there, but it does tend to make my room shake if I turn up the volume enough to hear dialogue clearly. In both instances, those services support Atmos but something has limited it to DD+ instead. HBO Max's Firestick software doesn't support it for some reason and Windows requires Dolby Access. I feel like that can't be coincidental. It sounds good to great in other services and in MKV files and such.
 
Ok, going to blast you all with pictures just to confirm I'm not crazy and some odd behavior showing the audio data via OSD:

General TV input:

1 - Display Info.JPG


Windows 11 normal 7.1 speaker setup:

0 - Settings.JPG


Receiver with PC Gaming WITHOUT Atmos app (normal 7.1 Multi-Channel sound - Notice the DD surround logo support):

2 - Receiver - MultiChl + Dolby.JPG


7.1 PC Gaming via MultiChannel:

3 - Receiver - MultiChl.JPG


7.1.4 PC gaming via forced Dolby Digital surround sound (aka fake):

4 - Receiver - Dolby.JPG


Receiver - Netflix - Supported Dolby Atmos Show - Dolby Atmos working WITHOUT Dolby Atmos App installed (notice red icon):

5 - Netflix - Atmos Working.JPG


Netflix show w/ Supported Dolby Atmos without Atmos App installed - Looks like it's working but not quite there since it's just showing DD+ 5.1

6 - Netflix - Atmos Working 2.JPG


NOW I'M GOING TO INSTALL THE DOLBY ATMOS APP SINCE I WANT TRUE DOLBY ATMOS IN MY GAMES AND OTHER APPS LIKE NETFLIX:

Windows 11 PC Settings:

8 - Windows 11 settings.JPG

IMG_3572.JPG

7 - Windows 11 settings.JPG

9 - Windows 11 settings.JPG

10 - Windows 11 settings.JPG

11 - Windows 11 settings.JPG


Now, playing PC games with Dolby Atmos confirmed such as Forza Horizon 4:

Receiver (shows PCM only, no Dolby Digital icons):
14 - Receiver - Atmos Game.JPG


Game information (notice is says Multich PCM now 48hz only, not even 7.1 PCM 192hz like before):
13 - Atmos Game Settings.JPG


Dolby Atmos for Nexflix works perfectly now and shows Dolby Atmos for real this time, so working as intended (has same red Dolby atmos icon as before on receiver):

13 - Atmos Netflix Settings.JPG


Note that the PCM format w/ Dolby Atmos app installed sounds really bad (for PC gaming only), I literally think only 2 channels are working here. The Atmos height speakers don't work at all, the sides and surrounds are working like <5% at best. Everything sounds better just not having the Dolby App installed and just doing fake 7.1.4 (and even 7.1) than using this busted PCM mode, regardless of the game being Dolby Atmos supported or not.
 
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It's been a while since I played anything substantive on my home theater (2-3 months) but when I did almost all games seemed to support NATIVE atmos. This started around maybe 4-5 months ago, and I've been on the insider version of Windows for this time and the behavior consisted when I got auto upgraded to Windows 11. Before, if I played a non atmos supported game it would not output any sound unless I switched back to 5.1 in my windows audio settings.

I don't have a good way of confirming. When I was using the PCM 2.0 atmos my receiver would show SURROUND DECODER, with native atmos it always switched to STRAIGHT. Eventually all my games would switch to STRAIGHT, even if they don't officially support atmos. I definitely could tell the difference versus the PCM 2.0 version of atmos, which made my surrounds sound dull and like you said it felt more like stereo or upmixed stereo. Hell even multi channel stereo sounds better to me. My sound settings looked like yours when it worked right (I had options for stereo, 5.1, 7.1, and Dolby Atmos for Home Theater) and when it didn't work right (aka PCM 2.0) I only had options for stereo and Dolby Atmos for Home Theater) Unfortunately to this day I still have times where it has trouble detecting atmos or 5.1 and I have to play around with my TV settings or windows settings, restart, etc to finally get it to work right.

Because I was using upfiring speakers at the time (still haven't installed my ceiling speakers) it was hard to tell how well the atmos sound effects were, though I could have sworn I could hear flying dinosaurs from above while playing Horizon Zero Dawn.

Note because I am using eARC (my receiver is a TSR-700) I don't have many detailed ways to actually view my sound input/output since I don't have the OSD unless I'm plugged directly to the receiver (and then I lose the HDMI 2.1 benefits)

There are a few games on Windows which definitely support Atmos, even if it's not advertised here. I'll try those and report back. Off the top of my head:

Tetris Effect: Connected
Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War
Immortals Fenyx Rising
Assassin's Creed Valhalla (haven't played this one so can't confirm)
 
I haven't had any games show the Atmos flag in a while. I think that stopped happening (and started showing up as PCM) around March or April. They correctly showed up as Atmos for at least 2-3 years prior. No clue if that falls on Nvidia or Dolby.

One thing I forgot to mention earlier - I always set my system up in Windows as 7.1 and THEN swap over to Atmos for Windows. I've noticed that occasionally when I don't, my system will output as Dolby Digital 2.1/Atmos 2.1 rather than 7.1. Occasionally when booting up my PC I'll notice it has swapped over to PCM stereo, too. It doesn't happen much, but it's an occasional thing. Occasionally my video card will show up as using "Microsoft Default Display Adapter," too. That only just started when I got this newer Denon AVR. It doesn't seem to affect much of anything (including gaming performance), but it's just a weird quirk.
 
It's been a while since I played anything substantive on my home theater (2-3 months) but when I did almost all games seemed to support NATIVE atmos. This started around maybe 4-5 months ago, and I've been on the insider version of Windows for this time and the behavior consisted when I got auto upgraded to Windows 11. Before, if I played a non atmos supported game it would not output any sound unless I switched back to 5.1 in my windows audio settings.

I don't have a good way of confirming. When I was using the PCM 2.0 atmos my receiver would show SURROUND DECODER, with native atmos it always switched to STRAIGHT. Eventually all my games would switch to STRAIGHT, even if they don't officially support atmos. I definitely could tell the difference versus the PCM 2.0 version of atmos, which made my surrounds sound dull and like you said it felt more like stereo or upmixed stereo. Hell even multi channel stereo sounds better to me. My sound settings looked like yours when it worked right (I had options for stereo, 5.1, 7.1, and Dolby Atmos for Home Theater) and when it didn't work right (aka PCM 2.0) I only had options for stereo and Dolby Atmos for Home Theater) Unfortunately to this day I still have times where it has trouble detecting atmos or 5.1 and I have to play around with my TV settings or windows settings, restart, etc to finally get it to work right.

Because I was using upfiring speakers at the time (still haven't installed my ceiling speakers) it was hard to tell how well the atmos sound effects were, though I could have sworn I could hear flying dinosaurs from above while playing Horizon Zero Dawn.

Note because I am using eARC (my receiver is a TSR-700) I don't have many detailed ways to actually view my sound input/output since I don't have the OSD unless I'm plugged directly to the receiver (and then I lose the HDMI 2.1 benefits)

There are a few games on Windows which definitely support Atmos, even if it's not advertised here. I'll try those and report back. Off the top of my head:

Tetris Effect: Connected
Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War
Immortals Fenyx Rising
Assassin's Creed Valhalla (haven't played this one so can't confirm)

Turns out I'm wrong. I found this video which showed me how to change my receiver's display. When set to show my output channel information (such as 2:30 in the video) the front presence section is blank in unsupported atmos games like Rocket League and Tetris Effect. It shows up in Immortals Fenyx Rising and the Dolby Access demos though.

I guess Windows intelligently just now switches between 5.1 and atmos when you set it to 'Dolby Atmos for Home Theater' depending on the content you're watching or playing.
 
I decided to return my 4 Dolby Atmos Speakers + 2 channel external amp + expensive wires before I got to the end of my return period.

I use my system 100% for PC gaming only, so Atmos didn't make much sense for me.

There's literally only a few dozen games that support it (since its inception in what, 2015?), and out of those few dozen, I only play like 4 of them (or will play them eventually).

This is almost like trying to justify a SLI gaming rig in 2021, when barely any games support it anymore, and developers don't care about <1% of the target audience (I use to always be a 2-4 way SLI guy)

Dolby Atmos doesn't work for my current system, and is not "plug & play." In Summary, Dolby Atmos pretty much goes to PCM 2.0 Speaker mode only (I think) in all games (regardless of being Dolby Atmos games or not), and the Atmos speakers don't activate at all (everything else works perfectly fine, like Netflix, Dolby App demos, etc. so I know it's setup correctly)

I'm not going to spend thousands of dollars, cut holes in my ceiling, or drill holes in my wall, etc. for a fragile ecosystem that has 9 points of failure via hardware or software/firmware:

Hardware: Nvidia GPU -> Receiver -> TV
Software/Firmware: Nvidia -> Windows 11 -> Dolby Access App -> Game Developer -> Receiver -> TV

I don't trust 6 separate companies to all be working together in tandem, to make sure a very unsupported, unpopular, and expensive setup works for their <1% target audience. I can't risk my entire Atmos setup breaking one day when Windows 12 comes out, or a new GPU comes out, Dolby updates their app, etc. etc. etc. assuming I even got it working to begin with.

Rockin' a 7.2 setup now (2 subwoofers) and couldn't be happier over my decade(s) long 5.1 Logitech Z-5500 & Z906 speaker run. My Receiver is a bit overkill now, but oh well. I plan to eventually drop thousands more and get a 7 channel external amp + Emotiva speakers.
 
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So I'm taking another attempt at Dolby Atmos PC Gaming since I'm upgrading to a much more expensive audio system (finally got approval from the wifey, lol). While waiting on my new speakers to come in, I seem to have gotten Dolby Atmos to work just using my current speakers (I just plugged my sides & surrounds into my Height 1 & Height 2 channels to test). I'm not sure if I hooked up something wrong with my previous external amp or if the Dolby Access App / Nvidia drivers have updated but:

-Dolby Atmos does indeed work correctly in the official Dolby Atmos listed games (Ori, Forza Horizon, Flight Simulator, etc.) (sound only comes out of the height channels when height audio is present (plane flying overhead, fireworks in sky, etc.), it isn't just up mixing sides/surrounds into the heights or anything)
-The Dolby Atmos icon does NOT indicate/flag on the receiver, which is a very common problem with most receivers (I believe this is because dolby atmos for PC gaming uses the DOLBY MAT codec, which doesn't flag the receiver, but is indeed PCM audio getting Atmos Signals and outputting it properly to your speakers)
 
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On my Denon, Atmos games definitely work and send signals to the correct channels – it just no longer shows up as Atmos, but PCM 7.1. My previous Onkyo worked the same way and even a much older Denon stopped showing Atmos games as having Atmos audio. I figure that as long as things sound good (and I get that crazy height effect in games like Gears 4/5), I don’t care.

Related, LTT is building a huge gaming/theater room right now with a high-end Denon:


I’m definitely jealous of this setup.
 
Based on the power output I'm seeking (~120W/channel) I was about ready to grab a Denon AVR-X4700H and fortunately noticed that it's still limited to a single "8K" input (I only really care about 4K@120Hz). I started looking for similar AVRs, found one that appears to be the real deal, so I guess there's a good reason that the Onkyo TX-RZ50 is out of stock everywhere. I HAVE MONEY BURNING A HOLE IN MY POCKET, FFS.

The Onkyo TX-NR7100 looks like a good alternative for the RZ50 in regards to HDMI inputs, but it lacks the wattage I'm looking for. Guess I'll be monitoring stock for the RZ50.

Also, God help you if you bought a Yamaha expecting a firmware update for HDMI 2.1 features. How long has that been a thing? I've been seeing that mentioned on Crutchfield product pages for a while and I see recent posts on avsforums that it still hasn't happened.
 
CES is coming in up in a couple weeks. I wouldn't buy any of the current models until after all of the new product announcements are made. Especially considering my previous experiences with Onkyo.
With some luck there will be new models from all the major OEM's. Hell, maybe even Sony will finally roll one out.
 
CES is coming in up in a couple weeks. I wouldn't buy any of the current models until after all of the new product announcements are made. Especially considering my previous experiences with Onkyo.
With some luck there will be new models from all the major OEM's. Hell, maybe even Sony will finally roll one out.
I was wondering when new stuff would be announced and I had an Onkyo TX-SR605 (I think that was the model) that had developed an HDMI/HDCP problem, so yeah, I'm not fond of them, but it looks like they've somehow managed to get the HDMI 2.1 inputs right. I might jump on the TX-RZ50, but I'd really like something proper from Denon.
 
I was wondering when new stuff would be announced and I had an Onkyo TX-SR605 (I think that was the model) that had developed an HDMI/HDCP problem, so yeah, I'm not fond of them, but it looks like they've somehow managed to get the HDMI 2.1 inputs right. I might jump on the TX-RZ50, but I'd really like something proper from Denon.

I bought a TX-NR5100 (their mainstream HDMI 2.1 AVR) over the summer and it gave me headaches galore. Mainly on the audio side of things. Lots of audio dropouts that forced me to power things down, reboot, etc. to fix things. It also didn't support the highest color depth with other HDMI 2.1 features enabled, although I think the RZ50 doesn't have that problem. I ended up returning it to Onkyo and they luckily accepted it and gave me a full refund 3 months after purchase...which was seriously appreciated. Still, the two Onkyo's I've owned always felt kind of cut rate and cheap, even when their price tags said otherwise. I dislike how slow they swap inputs, the loud popping noises they all make, and their UI/UX.
I'm on my 4th Denon and they've all been trouble-free for the most part. Even though Sony's stuff is always a year behind (tech-wise), I like their AVR's, too. Personally, those are the two brands I'd be looking at. Marantz, too, although I guess they're basically Denon. Yamaha is too slow with updates (assuming they ever come out at all) for me to trust them.
 
My Marantz says HDMI 2.3 so I must be covered for all the formats for years to come. Gotta love marketing!
 
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