Hadn't heard they were doing that. (Again, my bad not paying attention.)
That's a big negative for me just hearing that though. So, we're restricting content again are we? Making the version sold to consumers reduced?
My knee jerk reaction when someone dangles something in front of me and then says "No, only I get this one! YOU can have this lesser version."
I want to be positive about this.
I mean, the only thing better than more channels is even more channels!
I think it's a really bad idea to introduce this right now before 5.1 is solid and commonplace though.
Let's get more 5.1 mixes out there and with proper mastering and THEN we can talk about massive speaker arrays like Atmos. If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding!
I need to find some title to filch somewhere that has all the discrete channels available. (So... need to get setup with the decoder.)
Not just some polite wiggles and warbles and ambience either. (Hmmm... Wonder what the Flaming Lips guys are up to these days.)
Then it has to be alluring enough to make me hang speakers from the ceiling and all that to hear the full mix in 3D. (I'd be soloing sets of channels on a 5.1 array initially.)
The encoder and decoder codecs have to be reasonably available. I don't just expect freeware (but would appreciate it!) but if this is another $12,000 software suite thing... you know where to shove that.
I'd need to be taken in enough to want to mix in the format. (I'll be easiest to sell on this one. I already think that sounds like fun in fact!)
I'd be nice to know that maybe 5 or 6 people might ever hear any mix I make in the full format.
Right now maybe dozens of people have heard some of my surround mixes. And that's OK.
My blunt concern:
Seeing this advertised with "Atmos" as a buzzword with shitbar fake speakers in Worst Purchase.
Yeah... Market this to people that can't even listen to stereo properly (because of the shitbar).
Makes me think this whole format will devolve into a movie soundtrack format and only have the occasional audio mix. And that with just a lot of ambient wiggles.