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T-Mobile Data Plan, Dolby Atmos Streaming and Data Caps
I thought this deserved its own separate thread.
So, T-Mobile offers an “unlimited” data plan at $240 per annum. But that unlimited isn’t unlimited, it’s actually limited to 22 GB (can any lawyer here class action sue them for what is obviously a misleading statement).
So, the average size of a streamed Dolby Atmos song via Apple Music is up to 50 MB. 22 GB is 22,000 MB, which means that you can only stream roughly 440 songs per month before hitting that cap. Assuming four minutes per song works out to approximately 29 hours of streaming, assuming 100% Armos songs.
So, my question is this: has anyone who uses the mobile data plan and streams a lot of Apple Music (with Dolby Atmos enabled) or Tidal hit that data cap?
I have the unlimited plan. Listening to 100% online music (Apple Music Atmos content, Tidal, etc.), I have never run out of my "unlimited" internet, even with roadtrips involved. They had a cheaper plan that I tried the first month. That one I ran out of very quickly with all the Atmos content.
I watch youtube videos, netflix, Hulu movies, IPTV in addition to Tidal, so far no warnings. It's possible they don't want you to use it as your primary internet source, for example, you cannot have a car in the garage and use it as hotspot for your home internet like you use xfinity.
for some reason, Apple does not enable airplay in carplay, so you'd be using BT. if you use iphone its BT codex aac I think is pretty bad, android using aptx which is better
So using MBUX tidal and apple music would be better. (tidal especially)
Yeah, stick with the onboard, you get the goods that way.
I should clarify something here: At the time I got my car, onboard data didn't work, for anybody, it was fixed in a dealer installed firmware a few months after I picked it up. At that time, there was only one plan when you signed up in the car, don't know if it's the one referenced in the OP or not. Whatever it was, that was the plan I had. I never received any credit for the months I was paying for the hotspot that didn't work, but didn't chase it either, wasn't worth the aggravation.
Apple Music does do Atmos. You have to manually enable it in your audio settings. I forgot where it was it but there is a setting that turns it on or off.
I found the toggle for Apple Music Dolby Atmos. Goto Settings, Audio and scroll down to sources or streaming (forgot the name). There should be a setting next to Apple Music, select that and there is the Atmos option.
ah, right, I didn't know apple even had it. I thought they only had spacial audio. Turned out MB was the first one to have it now that I read about it in Oct of 22.
Yeah I’m pretty sure it was an MB specific thing with Apple Music at least for a while.
I used Tidal years ago and went back to Apple when they got lossless content just because it was easier. Never thought about Tidal having more stuff in Atmos, I will check that out.