Digital Foundry was able to test Dolby Atmos on PS5, a technology that is coming with the next console update. The first results are encouraging.
The next update of the PlayStation 5 is likely to please sound lovers: compatibility with Dolby Atmos is coming, including for the most advanced installations. For the moment, the console offers 3D rendering – home – only if you use headphones (since the launch) or the speakers of your television. The Dolby Atmos format, the most qualitative at present, brings additional immersion, by adding effects which can for example come from above (example: a helicopter which passes above our head).
What are the first returns? Digital Foundry, a site specializing in technical analysis (both sound and image), shared a positive first opinion in a video published on August 11. The emulation of Dolby Atmos (no PS5 game is Dolby Atmos certified to date), taken from the PS5’s Tempest 3D Audio technology, is convincing on games like Horizon Forbidden West or Ghost of Tsushima. The journalist mentions for example a good use of the channels in height.
No latency with Dolby Atmos on PS5
Digital Foundry still wants to point out that Dolby Atmos on PlayStation 5 does not completely change the situation – since it is not (yet?) real Dolby Atmos. On Xbox, there are games designed for the format for several years, including Gears 5. The comparison is to the advantage of Microsoft’s game, except for one detail: on Xbox consoles, Dolby Atmos imposes a latency likely to make the experience painful. Numerama can confirm that there is a lag between image and sound. This is obviously not the case on PS5.
In any case, the Sony console provides encouraging bases for the sequel, with developers now able to optimize the soundtrack of their games to make it ever closer to Dolby Atmos (and what Xbox titles can offer) .
This is what Mark Cerny, architect of the PS5, implies in comments relayed by Eurogamer on August 13 “The 7.1.4 experience for current games should be fine. It is true that the developers have not been able to test these configurations, but the compatibility will be automatic, the audio data being already there. In the longer term, there is an opportunity for improvement, since sound designers will also be able to check the audio quality [des jeux] on 7.1.4″ setups The fact is that the arrival of Dolby Atmos on PS5 does not change anything for the Tempest 3D Audio technology, apart from the support for four additional channels (the famous .4). Sound immersion in a sphere has been there since the very beginning.
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