I think the general public will by default, but wont always know it or benefit. Heres why.
I think the new immersive mixes for theaters, and subsequently home users, will actually result in less overhead for the industry. One mixed soundtrack for commercial and home releases (instead of at least 3 now.) It would make sense, since everything is all about streamlining and economics these days.
There has been talk in a few podcasts of setting a single audio workflow and format spec that will be happy across all playback platforms. 2/2.1/3.1/5.1/7.1 This is offered by ATMOS already. Immersive is a magic bullet format, and that is why SMPTE and boadcasters are setting it up for the new standard. If DTS takes over the broadcast monopoly, dolby will just have the theater stranglehold (but just in North America.) DTS:X sounds like it is completely agnostic to placement and numbers of channels. I hope this is true.
It doesnt matter if there is mass market adoption or implementation. The formats fold down and support all playback scenarios. Once the workflow of post production houses is updated (and it would appear the major studios are already getting onboard) immersive is here to stay. It is not the same as 3D vs 2D as there is no choice to make between 2 products. All users are supported, and premium users get a premium experience.
You do not need an immersive decoder to play back a immersive track in a legacy system. You just dont get immersive. I watched John Wick on my TV with dolby ATMOS track selected. No big deal. The BD player automatically downmixed. Worked fine.
Cant wait for the DTS:X launch. Come on April 9!
