hi everyone I am planning on buying a Onkyo TX-SR 674 soon and I am curios if down the road I will be able to listen to the new HD audio tracks such as Dolby Digital Plus, HD DTS, Dolby TrueHD etc. I know the reciever is not able to decode those formats, however, If the new HD players (HD-DVD, Blue ray)will decode the formats can I send them to the reciever over HDMI 1.1. or multi-channel in and will the signal be true Lossless. Anyone?

thanks

I had to go look up the specs on the Onkyo TX-SR674. It is apparently equipped with two HDMI v1.1 inputs, which means that it will accept multichannel PCM via HDMI. I talk a bit about this in my HDMI FAQ , but basically there should be no issue with using HDMI v1.1 for a long time to come - in fact, it's likely that many HD-DVD titles (including all made to date, if what I've seen online is correct) will require that the decoding be done in the player even when HDMI v1.3 is available.

hey gonk, like always the first to reply, thanks for making the effort to look up the specs on the reciever. This helps alot in making the decision,the reciever will be in fact christmas gift for father in law and i just wanted to make sure he can use the new audio formats as well down the road. One more thing,if you looked at the reciever do you think it is a decent buy for just over $500 online?

thanks

It's got a good assortment of features (all the standard processing modes, 3 component inputs to go with the two HDMI inputs, video transcoding) and a decent power rating (although it doesn't even list a rating at 4 ohms, which might be an issue if your father-in-law has 4 ohm speakes). I don't know how it sounds, but from a feature standpoint it looks like a good mix - and Onkyo's got a decent reputation, so it ought to sound as good as any surround receiver in that price range.