Mac mini M1 2020 Dolby Atmos Support

Hello Carlos_Castillo_Anaya,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We understand having issues playing content in Dolby Atmos, and we'd be happy to provide some guidance.

To get started, please check out these helpful links:

Play audio in Dolby Atmos or surround sound on your Apple TV

Find movies with 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision, or Dolby Atmos in the Apple TV app

We hope this information is useful. Kind regards.

More like if you’re a real movie enthusiast you won’t buy anything Apple.

Does the Apple TV support 4K hdr mkv files or do I have to convert them all to mp4? :D

I’m sorry but there is no way to justify this massive oversight from apple.

Whoever came up with the deliberate idea of not supporting Atmos is clearly a blinkered fool.

Can you even change the chroma subsampling and colour bit depth in Mac OS?

no 3D, no Blu-ray, no Dolby Atmos, or I could buy a nuc add a silent Fanless chassis for 40 bucks and put OSX on it anyway for when it’s needed?!?

I know what the real enthusiasts are doing and it’s not buying an Apple TV!

Good luck with the rose tinted glasses you’ve permanently got on.

I’d have loved to be in that meeting when apple decided that Dolby pro logic was what was required as the audio standard for macOS in 2020.

it doesn’t even support lossless Dolby trueHD or DTS-MA.......

“If your a real enthusiast, you’ll go Apple TV,”

I’m still laughing my *** off from that ridiculous comment.

just so you know I’ve owned apple MacBook Pro’s for decades and love their products for work and for my phone and tablet etc.

but at home, being an enthusiast, I’m on PC as it’s the only option for true movie enthusiasts, Apple have made sure of that.

Mac mini doesn’t support Dolby Atmos. MacBook Pro and Air do support it but not when connected to an external amp, local speakers only (for whatever that’s worth). For true Atmos using your Denon, Apple TV is your only option. Enjoy...

The OP has verified it for you.

If you’re wondering if full-blown Atmos will ever be available for Macs, it won’t. In Apple’s world, connoisseur video viewing is for Apple TVs. Big Mac viewing, on the other hand, is for...you guessed it, Macs.

Bottom line: I wouldn’t waste time on it, quite frankly, get the ATV 4K, be happy...

OP verified that it's not possible through the HDMI port - not sure if that's significant or not, but there's speaker playback noted on all the rest which could indicate that it's not supported over HDMI?

I have the Apple TV 4K and looking forward to trying the AirPods Max with it later, but I was rather curious if the macs would be able to do Atmos with the AirPods Max too.

It’s significant because all HiFi video viewing is on TVs exclusively through HDMI ports. In fact, TVs with non-HDMI digital video connections don’t exist. Meaning HDMI is King, and if the King can’t do it on Macs, nobody else can.

That said, nothing stops anyone from trying or even posting contradictory results/Amazon links to funny dongles that convert anything to anything. Enjoy...

Just suggesting that the Mac Mini might not support it over HDMI – and as it doesn't have any speakers to speak of it it would make sense that it's not listed. It's not very clear from the overview at Dolby that the laptops support it over HDMI either while it it's completely reasonable to argue that it should – as you do.

Apologies if my statements and questions are not on the level, but what I'd enjoy is a bit less passive aggression …

I do enjoy, and appreciate very much, that you've taken the time to reply and that you replied very fast. And I'll take your advice on not pursuing things further and enjoy the Apple TV 4K support. Cheers!

HDMI is a requirement for Dolby Atmos which is why the table doesn’t break it down into port types. The mini doesn’t support Atmos period. Neither does the iMac (which has speakers). The Apple books support it on their integrated speakers (= fake Atmos). The iMac could graduate to fake Atmos in the future but only to push it to horribly expensive Air Pods, Which, because there’s easy money to be made from Apple’s fan base, is a good thing.

BTW, in my book underline-italic is polite emphasis, bold underlining is p-a. Cheers🍻

Is this a joke? What a deal breaker.

I honestly cannot believe that apple don’t support dolby Atmos bitstreaming.

talk about limiting your customer base.

That’s every home theatre enthusiast buying a NUC instead of a Mac mini.

It was bad enough that Apple didn’t support 3D or Blu-ray, but this is quite frankly ridiculous.

I wanted to buy a Mac mini M1 for a media player/streamer as well as being able to use logic and iPhoto etc.

I was just about to buy one until I checked the Dolby Atmos support.

you lost a sale apple, you lost a lot of sales.

Dolby Atmos is only supported on tvOS. You need to buy an Apple TV.

You’re welcome 😉