Dolby Atmos Conversion Tool
The Dolby Atmos Conversion Tool is a stand-alone utility for converting Dolby Atmos master files between cinema and home theatre deliverable formats. It also supports editorial operations on masters, including trimming, joining files into compositions, adding silence, adjusting the first frame of action, and applying frame-rate conversion. In practice, this means converting between the IMF IAB (.mxf) format used for theatrical Dolby Atmos masters and the ADM BWF (.wav/.atmos) format used for home and near-field deliverables, work that otherwise requires a certified Dolby mixing facility. Dolby provides both a graphical interface for macOS and Windows and a command-line workflow for macOS, Windows and Linux, making it suitable for both interactive finishing and scripted delivery pipelines.
tech specs
history
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The Conversion Tool sits within the wider Dolby Atmos ecosystem, a technology Dolby Laboratories first brought to cinemas in June 2012 with the premiere of Pixar's "Brave" at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles. Adoption grew quickly, from around 25 installations by the end of 2012 to more than 300 by 2013, and to over 7,800 screens across 105 countries by April 2023. As Atmos expanded from theatrical releases into home entertainment and streaming, Dolby developed the Conversion Tool specifically to bridge the two delivery paths, letting studios and post-production facilities move masters between cinema and home formats without needing separate certified hardware for each. The tool has continued to be updated since, progressing through versions such as 1.9 and 2.0 to its current 2.1.2 release.
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