Calabasas, Calif. – DTS plans on April 9 to unveil more detailed plans for its DTS:X object-based surround-sound format, a Dolby Atmos alternative for use on Blu-ray discs and playback in home theater systems.
What DTS has said so far is that home audio manufacturers accounting for almost 90 percent of A/V receiver and surround processor sales will introduce products incorporating DTS:X object-based surround-sound decoding. Companies launching DTS:X electronics in 2015 consist of Anthem, Denon, Integra, Krell, Marantz, McIntosh, Onkyo, Outlaw Audio, Pioneer, Steinway Lyngdorf, Theta Digital, Trinnov Audio and Yamaha, DTS said during International CES. Blu-ray discs with DTS:X soundtracks will be available 2015, the company also said at the time.
DTS president Jon Kirchner previously said the emergence of DTS:X object-based surround as a Dolby Atmos competitor shouldn’t inject uncertainty or confusion into the market. For one thing, he said, audio suppliers already accommodate multiple formats – such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master—in A/V receivers and preamp processors, and they’ll likely be able to do it again. “Major chip companies historically have built multicodec solutions,” Kirchner said at the time. Many audio components are also firmware-upgradable, so it’s likely that many Dolby Atmos AVRs and preamp processors could be upgraded to include DTS:X decoding to prevent obsolescence, he said.
With DTS:X’s ability to support Atmos speaker configurations, another factor that could contribute to confusion is eliminated, he noted.