Microsoft has released an update for the Xbox One that supports Dolby Atmos. It concerns bitstream audio passthrough, which can be used via the blu-ray player of the console.
To take advantage of the new update, the system must be rebooted. Users can then choose to enable the new functionality via the blu-ray settings page. Larry Hryb, known by the alias Major Nelson and a top executive at Microsoft’s Xbox division, said: said on Twitter. The addition is available for the Xbox One and Xbox One S and includes support for games and videos. Audio formats such as Dolby Atmos and DTS-X are supported, among others.
The addition became announced last November by Microsoft. Late last year, Larry Hryb announced that Microsoft would roll out the blu-ray bitstream passthrough in a preview version of the Xbox One operating system.
With this technology, digital audio signals are passed to amplifiers unchanged. This addition is particularly aimed at Blu-ray videos. The technology is basically a pre-recorded data stream that is digitally forwarded 1-to-1 to another device. The console then no longer has to process the sound. Some games on PC already support Dolby Atmos, such as Battlefield 1 and Star Wars: Battlefront. The Playstation 3 and 4 also support bitstream passthrough, but only for movies.