Most Dolby Atmos movies don’t actually use the height channels a great deal. If you look at the channel activity graphs of Dolby Atmos movies – something I’ve recently found myself doing more than I should probably admit – you find that most show almost constant activity around the five or seven horizontal channels, but only occasional spikes of activity in the height channels. Dune 2 is a good example.
Now, right off the bat, I’m going to point out that this doesn’t mean those are bad Dolby Atmos soundtracks. In fact, the opposite is true – which is why Dune 2 has become a regular tool in our AV receiver and soundbar testing process and is one of the entries on our list of the best Dolby Atmos scenes to test your system. Ultimately, just because height channels are there doesn’t mean they should be used all of the time. In many ways, it makes more sense to save them so that they have the most impact on the occasions they are utilised.
