Audio Video News

Game of Thrones Arrives in Dolby Atmos

Rob Sabin  |  Jul 2, 2015

"Game of Thrones," HBO's award-winning and wildly popular fantasy series, is headed "overhead,"courtesy of a remix in Dolby Atmos.

HBO has said it's preparing a Blu-ray re-release of the first four seasons with upgraded audio that will include Dolby Atmos soundtracks. As we've explained in several articles and equipment reviews, Atmos allows sound mixers to place audio "objects" anywhere in the theater space, even directly above the listener, thanks to the addition of ceiling speakers.

The recent migration of Atmos to the home theater arena has been attended to with excitement by enthusiasts, but the lack of software remains a deterrent to those bent on upgrading to the required A/V receiver and speaker mix. By end of 2015, nearly 170 movies will have been released in Atmos for theatrical play, but to date only 14 Atmos Blu-ray titles have been released. The addition of "Game of Thrones" to the release schedule is a step in the right direction.

You can read a report from the fansite HBOWatch.com here.

A primer on Dolby Atmos and report on our first listen to an Atmos system can be found here. Or check out some of our recent reviews of Atmos-capable electronics and speakers below:

Pioneer Elite SC-89 A/V Receiver

Pioneer Elite SP-EBS73-LR Atmos-Enabled Speaker System

Denon AVR-X5200 A/V Receiver

Marantz AV8802 Surround Processor

COMMENTS
javanp's picture
Submitted by javanp on July 3, 2015 - 8:06am

It's hard enough to double dip on a movie that costs $20-25. I love Game of Thrones and all, but I'm not about to shell out $120+ to rebuy the series. If the sound on the originals was crap, maybe, but it's already pretty fantastic as it is. And I also believe the DSU qualities are pretty good too, IIRC.

Thomas J. Norton's picture
Submitted by Thomas J. Norton on July 3, 2015 - 8:14am
And next year will we have GOT in 4K and HDR? I think I'll wait and suffer with my old-fashioned 2K, 5.1 box sets for a while.
MrLarry's picture
Submitted by MrLarry on July 3, 2015 - 4:45pm

I just bought John Wick expecting it to have an Atmos soundtrack... Nope!! Ninja Turtles didn't either. So far only Hunger Games Mockingly Part 1 and Transformers are available on BluRay with Atmos here.

Seems that, yet again, Australians are treated as second class citizens. It is strange, because we are also known as good early adopters of technologies so not selling Atmos titles here means we don't want to upgrade our gear as soon. Pity.

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