After finding a used Onkyo TX-SR702 on ebay, I've decided to sit on the sidelines and wait to see what Outlaw will do next. With HD video still not yet mainstream (I still don't YET have an HDTV, but that will change soon) everybody is still an early adoptor.

The war between bluray and hddvd isn't over yet, but it's getting interresting. I was thinking about getting the Oppdigital DV981HD player when I pop for a new tv, but now it appears that for only $20 more I can buy a hddvd player (that will ALSO upconvert dvd's to near HD and play CD's and maybe sacd's too). That would make the hddvd player a no-brainer, if bluray wins out, I'm only out $20 for the player. This assumes NOT buying any hddvd disks, just renting them.

Maybe by the time the hddvd-vs-bluray becomes less blurry the hdmi standard will too.
Outlaws' next prepro / receiver would have to include hdmi 1.3 switching and be able to use the hdmi inputs as audio sources. There should also be the option to NOT pass the audio to the monitor
hdmi output (why drive the monitor's speakers if you are using the home theatre speakers?).

I hope the phono input is kept (wouldn't be an outlaw if we didn't like analog 'nscd's err?).
(that's Not So Compact Disks btw). Maybe a few extra 'aux' inputs for those that want to add external stuff such as Squeezeboxes, HD or Sat radio tuners, multimedia computers, etc.
Also USB and Firewire connections to allow using the box as a 'sound card' for a computer to stream audio / video.
Also alow renaming inputs, and redirecting the front panel input to real panel jacks. Have to have the on screen display available on the hdmi output as well. Of course, implement all the new hd audio surround modes.

Please consider a model that has high end video processing such as the Silicon Optix Realta / Reon or a comparable Gennum chipset. DCDI is growing really long in the tooth and while it's OK for 480i deinterlacing, it's really been eclipsed by the Gennums and Silicon Optix chips.

There aren't a lot of companies offering this sort of functionality in pre-processors, and it really improves the home theater experience for those of us with HD displays.

The only real competition in this space is from items like the much more expensive and also aging Anthem D2 - a more reasonably priced alternative with Outlaw factory direct pricing could really get the attention of a whole new audience for the 990's successor.

The Integra DTC-9.8 just set the bar as far as "feature set" is concerned. It'll be tough doing ALL that and not going over $1400 the the next gen 990.

I couldn't find anything on the DTC-9.8, but the DTC-9.4 has a list price of $2000 and didn't offer a lot more in featuers than the 990 (it added THX certification and Onkyo's Net-Tune, but lacked the 990's DVI switching). Is there some good info on the DTC-9.8's feature set?

Gonk - my friend - you are slipping...

Here you go:

http://www.av123forum.com/showthread.php?t=22046

Ah, OK. Yeah, looks mighty interesting. And it makes sense that Integra would be able to pull this off since Onkyo (their parent company) was the first to get HDMI v1.3 into receivers. Going to be interesting to see what the next generation of pre/pros bring to the table.

I was just poking around a bit at AVS and came across something that I hadn't seen mentioned previously (probably because I hadn't been keeping a particularly close eye on the nuances of Blu-ray player features and quirks lately). First, Sony's new BDP-S300 offers an HDMI v1.1 output and no decoding of TrueHD or DTS-HD MA (HDMI v1.3 had been widely expected, as I suspect had TrueHD decoding). That bit of news led me to a real curious tidbit: the only two HDMI v1.3 sources presently on the market (the Playstation3 and Samsung BD-P1200) do not support output of TrueHD or DTS-HD MA bitstreams. The hardware allows it (as required by the HDMI v1.3 spec), but both devices will require a firmware update to enable that capability. Nobody seems to know when such firmware updates might appear. Now I'm not one to shed too many tears over the presence (or lack of presence) of HDMI v1.3, but this brings up two issues that seem worth pointing out:

1. If you are buying an HDMI v1.3 receiver or processor right now, you should recognize that you are buying that TrueHD and DTS-HD MA decoding but will not be able to employ that decoding with any source for some indeterminant period of time. At least for now, you are still going to need to rely on the HD-DVD or Blu-ray player to decode the new formats (which means you still won't be able to decode DTS-HD MA, as no players support decoding it yet).
2. I don't doubt that there are ways to test and certify that receivers or processors with TrueHD or DTS-HD decoding are performing that decoding properly, but it's certainly going to be limited testing - possibly nothing but bench testing. I think it's reasonable to say that such tests can and will miss things. Once HDMI v1.3 sources start getting firmware that allows bitstream output of these formats, we may see some extra bumps in the road relating to that decoding. And this will affect anybody trying to roll out an HDMI v1.3 receiver or processor in the near future.

As I've said before, the mess that is HDMI has only served to further muddy the already significant mess that the current format war has dropped onto the market. This simple issue (not having firmware to enable TrueHD and DTS-HD MA bitstream output on two players) is just one more reminder of why I feel for the companies (like Outlaw) trying to develop good products in the present environment.

Thanks gonk, it is nice to have someone point out just where on the hype curve we are.
One other link in that chain is the source material. I am willing to bet that, even if HDMI v1.3 were fully adopted by the hardware manufacturers today, 5 years from now we will still be lamenting how few titles are available in 7.1 sound formats while we ponder whether we should jump on the 9.1 bandwagon...

It does appear that 7.1 content is going to be scarce, possibly very scarce. We're going to need these HDMI receivers and processors to at least provide something like PLIIx processing for all of these 5.1 sources, whether they're decoded by the player and passed as multichannel PCM or whether they're passed as bitstreams (assuming that becomes possible at some point) and decoded in the processor.

It is a failure of the manufacturers to use HDMI parts that actually have code embedded in them that do all the functionality of the specs. in question irrespective of the mess that is HDMI. If it is an HDMI 1.3 chipset (receiving or transmitter side) it should be able to do audo bitstreaming, DSD bitstreaming, auto A/V synch, DeepColor and xvYCC support, etc. The manufacturers shouldn't be able to just willy nilly pick and choose the options and only state it has version HDMI xx as the consumer's only guide.

I wouldn't mind if Outlaw took that $1,600 and with their more direct to the consumer selling model add better "hand picked" parts like much better capacitors, op amps, circuit boards, power supplies, etc.

As to the DTC-9.8 I have seen a preliminary specs. sheet that touches on the features I mentioned before. I would hope Outlaw uses either these top of the line Burr-Brown PCM/DSD DAC's or the top end Wolfsen PCM/DSD DAC's rather than those used before in their previous products.

Also, pure direct DSD compatibility via HDMI would be awesome! There seemingly are HDMI 1.2 and later universal players coming that can send the decompressed DSD bitstream from SA-CD's to outboard processors which can accept DSD data.

Dan