- Hollywood Tech Nerds
- Posts
- Dolby ATMOS... Now Streaming!
Hola Hollywood tech nerds!
In this week’s post:
Subscribe to get Hollywood Tech Nerds magically delivered to your inbox every Tuesday!
Dolby ATMOS… Now Streaming!
Courtesy State Library of Queensland
Have any physical media fans in your life? You know the type: huge snobs, constantly valorize the superiority of physical media over streaming, seem to be hoarding discs of movies they’ll never watch. A very annoying group! Is this newsletter written by such a person? Maybe!
Score one for the streamers then, according to TechRadar:
One of the biggest differences between streamed movies and 4K Blu-ray is the sound quality: even the most expensive streaming tiers deliver compressed audio with a clear reduction in dynamic range and clarity compared to disc-based playback.
But that might change thanks to a new version of Dolby's sound technology that audio experts apparently can't tell apart from uncompressed PCM, but that works at streaming bitrates.
Now there is some hedging language here: “audio experts apparently can’t tell apart.” As the article describes, the audio expert panel that performed the listening test was fairly small:
The test wasn't just based on vibes. Listeners were asked to identify compression artefacts such as gating, "swishing", loss of spatial precision and loss of frequency range. And with all the speakers on — ie, the way you'd listen at home — AC-4 was in a dead heat with the reference uncompressed PCM audio.
Compression was more noticeable in AC4 when individual speakers were soloed, but for a full home theater setup, AC-4 delivered sound that apparently matches lossless but while streaming just 3% of the data.
There are some caveats here, notably the sample size: a test with 16 listeners isn't hard science. But at the same time, 16 audio pros told to listen critically are going to be much more picky than you or I are likely to be, so it's still quite the endorsement.
This latter is definitely true, particularly if you’ve met any audiophiles. You’ll get a lecture about why the best audio experience is only to be had by a specific sound system and record player from the 1970s!
The first TV/movie streaming service delivering AC-4 will be Peacock, although the technology is also being used by Amazon Music and TIDAL (but specifically for binaural headphones-based spatial audio). Other streamers may migrate but so far there haven't been more announcements since Peacock's news at CES 2026.
In other audio-related news, I very much valued this Cannes panel from the producers of the audio-focused horror film Undertone, which was made for only $500,000 but went on to an A24 acquisition and over $20 million at the box office.
A Reality TV Gamble
I was mostly amused by this Variety article on how prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket are spoiling reality TV shows:
Pretaped reality TV shows are facing an unforeseen problem: Prediction markets are spoiling their endings. It’s not just “Survivor”: Kalshi users correctly predicted Galaxy Girl, at 91% odds, would win this season’s “Masked Singer” three months before Ashlee Simpson removed her space-themed costume in the finale. The site similarly spoiled the winner of “Next Level Chef” in February, though the season didn’t conclude until May 21.
I’m amused solely because in this case, the gaming of prediction markets doesn’t have the geopolitical impact that it can in other scenarios. I actually have a relevant personal anecdote to share:
Many years ago, I was a PA on a mostly-forgotten Spike TV reality show. As soon as production wrapped, I along with everyone else on the show knew who the winners were. My PA pay at the time was $500/week. If an easily-accessible platform like Kalshi or Polymarket was available from which I would have been able to make tens of thousands of dollars, how incentivized do you think I would have been to keep the winning result to myself?
Kernels (3 links worth making popcorn for)
Here’s a round-up of cool and interesting links about Hollywood and technology:
Who is most likely to buy IMAX? (link)
PlayStation exclusive games will no longer come to PCs. (link)
Walmart’s next streaming stick will run Google TV again. (link)