Spatial audio finally gets useful in Netflix’s latest Premium plan upgrade
In July 2022, Netflix teamed up with Sennheiser to makespatial audio available to everyoneusing stereo speakers on their TV, smartphones, or headphones. Using some software magic, spatial audio widens the perceived sound stage to deliver a surround sound-like experience. You can get a 5.1 audio experience without the requisite setup. Initially, spatial audio was only available on some of Netflix’s original titles. The streaming service is now bringing the enhanced sound experience to over 700 titles on its platform.
Netflix plans to continue adding spatial audio to upcoming releases and expand the supported content library. All compatible TV shows and movies will display a spatial audio badge so you can quickly identify them. You can also search for “spatial audio” to go through Netflix’s entire content catalog, which delivers a more immersive listening experience. The enhanced audio output is enabled automatically for compatible content.
If you have a surround sound system hooked to your TV on which you stream Netflix, you won’t benefit from the addition of spatial audio. This enhancement will only be valuable to users who use stereo speakers, though Netflix notes spatial audio has been optimized for laptops and tablets. You will also notice the difference on your TV’s built-in speakers or when you hold your smartphone in landscape mode.
The bummer is that Netflix is making spatial audio available to only its most expensive Premium plan, which costs $20/month in the US. If you want to experience the company’s spatial audio implementation, listen to the short video it has released on YouTube above.
Besides the addition of spatial audio, Netflix is making another improvement to its Premium plan. From now on, you can download content for offline viewing on up to six devices, up from the current limitation of four devices.
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