Windows 10: Dolby Atmos for Home Theater is missing from Spatial audio in Windows 11 - Solved

I had the same issue as many people still have which is Dolby Atmos for Home Theater missing on Windows 11 audio options. Because of that it's impossible to finish Dolby Access setup. After hours spent on tests I figured that just turning my tv and home theater ON BEFORE powering the computer ON solves this issue. I believe that if Windows drivers start before having a feedback signal from home theater or tv it doesn't work as it should. So if I turn my home theater on before the computer, it works fine with no issues at all.My setup is: RTX 4090 > HDMI > LG Oled TV pass through > e

:)

 

Dolby Atmos for Home Theater is missing from Spatial audio in Windows 11

i've spent the last few days trying to get Dolby Atmos for Home Theater to work in Windows 11. there used to be an option in Spatial sound drop menu for Dolby Atmos for Home Theater, but it has vanished and refuses to come back. So far it appears to be an issue with Win11 and not the hardware itself.

i have tried:

rolling back drivers

uninstalling and reinstalling drivers

uninstalling and reinstalling Dolby Access

swapping GPU ports

disabling exclusive mode for all input devices

entirely disabling all input devices

uninstalling and reinstalling the audio controller (via auto update, with nvidia driver update exe, as well as manually pointing to the drivers outside of nvidia's driver installer)

along the way i have foudn that Atmos DOES work, but only in specific situations, not as the default sound setting

instances where i can send an Atmos signal include:

running media file through VLC

viewing the demo clips in the Dolby Access app

using Microsoft Edge browser in conjunction with / "Netflix_Extension" by Ikmvip / to stream from Netflix.com (Netflix and the MS Store Netflix app both refuse to output in Atmos otherwise)

video games such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider refuse to output in Atmos citing that the Spatial sound mode needs to be set as such....

the fact that my receiver is able to receive and decode an Atmos signal being sent from my GPU tells me that this is a software issue someway related to Windows 11 rather than an issue with my gpu, my panel, my avr, or any of the cabling connecting the devices.

additional note: at one point windows did manage to add Dolby Atmos for Home Theater to the Spatial sounds drop menu, though it seemed to have been a glitch as it also included DTS which i believe it a pay-only item...which i did not buy.

it had also added Dolby Atmos for Headphones (another pay-only item i did not purchase)

both subsequently vanished on the next restart and have yet to show themselves again, leaving only Windows Sonic for Headphones

shortly before writing this, i signed up for the free 7-day trial of Dolby Atmos for Headphones through the Dolby Access app hoping maybe it would trigger Windows into ...i dont know.. Something useful. While the For Headphones option has been added to the drop menu, the For Home Theater version that is needed still evades all attempts at procurement.

 

doly atmos for home theater problem

I have this 3 channel dolby atmos soundbar.

First issue when I got this soundbar because i say windows 10 have dolby atmos for home theater in spatial sounds then it disappeared from spatial this year, not sure it was after last fall update or exactly then. I tried all kinds of possibility.

Then I contract Microsoft chat support and the technical support did not solve the issue after spending months finally told me the setting was removed by Microsoft because of incompatible with some drives.

I tried different settings and found out HDMI from PC to screen was retrived through intel display audio. windows audio and spatial sounds come out dolby atmos for home theater but now found then click on windows sounds dolby atmos does not stay, when
click dolby atmos for home theater, it jump to OFF.

any suggestions?

 

Dolby Atmos for Home Theater is missing from Spatial audio in Windows 11

yes, dolby access is installed. it cannot complete setup because it wants me to enable the option in the Spatial sound drop menu...but the option to do so is missing from the menu





on a related note, this was found on dolby's website

"There are no additional licensing costs to support Dolby Atmos in games. On PC and Xbox rendering to Dolby Atmos is done at the OS level from the audio passed to Microsoft Spatial Sound from the game's audio engine." ( Documentation | Dolby Games )