How to Enable Dolby Atmos in Windows 10 for Surround Sound

We use the computer to work or send emails but it is also common for us to bet on increasingly larger and higher quality screens that allow us a totally immersive experience in games or if we decide to watch movies online. But if we want a perfect image to be accompanied by quality audio, Windows allows us to activate spatial and surround sound that places the audio around us so that we feel inside the scene. If you want, you can activate Dolby Atmos in Windows 10 and we explain how you can do it.

4K screens are frequent but accompanying them with good quality sound, surround, helps us to get a better experience. Or simply if we are going to play any video game on our computer and we have good headphones that we want to accompany with a sound to match. In this case, using Dolby Atmos is a highly recommended option from Windows.

 Enable Dolby Atmos in Windows 10

What is Dolby Atmos?

Dolby Atmos is a surround sound technology that arrived in 2012 and today it is compatible with a large number of streaming video services to watch movies or series but also with formats such as DVD or video game titles. Dolby Atmos uses three-dimensional sound by mixing classic sound channels like 5.1 or 7.1, for example, and achieving a 360-degree audio experience.

Dolby Atmos, like DTS: X relies on twelve speakers with 7.1.4 distribution distributed throughout the room : seven speakers that function as satellites, a subwoofer speaker and four ceiling speakers (or two, in some cases) sound is totally immersive when we watch a movie or when we are playing games. In the case of Dolby Atmos for Windows 10 we achieve surround sound that will allow us to have a home cinema at home with great quality.

Dolby Atmos

Dolby Atmos with Windows 10

Go to the lower corner of your computer, in the task bar. In the menu where you will usually find the sound options, right-click on the speaker. You will see a pop-up window appear with different options. Among them, we see that there is “Spatial Sound”. Tap on it and there will be three options:

  • Windows Sonic for Headphones
  • Dolby Access
  • DTS Sound Unbound

Sonido envolvente

What Windows Sonic allows us is to achieve spatial sound when we use headphones. Surround sound with stereo headphones. For its part, Dolby Atmos with Dolby Access is useful for headphones but also for home theater if you have speakers prepared for it. To watch movies or to play games.

We explain how to use it step by step and what we must install and configure to have it.

Dolby Access

In order to have Dolby Atmos in Windows 10 and once you have followed the previous steps, we will need the Dolby Access application.

  • Go to the task bar
  • Right click on the sound icon
  • Open the Spatial Sound section
  • Tap on Dolby Access
  • It will automatically take you to the Microsoft Store

We will have to download the Dolby Access application. It is a paid application that you can download from the Microsoft Store but it has a free period of 30 days if you want to see if you are satisfied with using Dolby Atmos in Windows 10. You do not have to add any payment method to be able to do the test.

Dolby Access

Download and follow the steps to install Dolby Access on Windows and tap “Start” to start setting up surround sound on your computer.

Dolby Atmos

Now you will have to configure your headphones

  • Connect them to the computer
  • Tap on “Continue”
  • Choose the audio source you want to use
  • It is ready and configured

Configurar Dolby Atmos en Windows 10

Once activated, your computer will already work with Dolby Atmos for Windows 10. When your free trial ends, you will have to pay to use Dolby Access to continue taking advantage of these benefits and this type of sound.

DTS Sound Unbound

You may also see on your computer that you can use DTS Sound Unbound. DTS was born in the 1990s, Digital Theathre System, as Dolby’s main rival for surround audio technology at home or in the theater. For more than thirty years, it has also been a multi-channel audio format although with some differences, such as a more precise spatial sound or the possibility of encoding the sound with a higher bitrate in DTS: X than what we achieve with Dolby Atmos. Despite the differences between the two technologies, they both do the same thing: achieve higher quality surround sound for any content.

Tap on the right button on the audio icon and it will redirect you to the Microsoft Store . Once here, tap on “Get” DTS Sound Unbound to start using it and on Install once you’ve downloaded it, to start using it.

DTS Sound Unbound

When you tap “Start” a new window will open where you will see the DTS Sound Unbound functions. As in the case of using Dolby Atmos in Windows 10, here we will also have to pay, although with the option to try for 14 days at no cost. It is priced at 9.99 euros in case you want to use the DTS surround codec to play DTS content on your computer that is compatible. You can play it from your headphones or your speakers.

DTS X

You also have the option to buy DTS Headphone: X for 19.99 euros, which is a technology designed for games. As the program itself promises, you can have a “precise, realistic and immersive sound panorama in any pair of headphones” in video games like Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4, Gor Honor, Final Fantasy XV, for example.

Choose the one you want and tap on “Schedule free”. It will ask you for confirmation of your Microsoft account password and you will start the 14-day trial without having to include any credit card.

DTS

Windows Sonic

You can also activate Windows Sonic if you’re using headphones and looking for spatial sound. In this case, you do not have to activate any type of payment application or subscription period, so it is a very interesting alternative if you are looking for spatial sound compatible with many games, for a totally immersive experience.

To activate it you simply have to follow a few quick steps:

  • Go to the task bar
  • Look for the speaker icon
  • Right click
  • Tap on the option “Spatial sound”
  • Choose “Windows Sonic for Headphones”

Windows Sonic

This is how you will have activated it. It is a free option to the special sound that we can use in Windows 10 but also in Microsoft consoles, such as Xbox One.