I think it would be very wise to get an HDMI 1.3 pre-amp to market that supports ALL of the features of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, plus:

The DSP engines should be real number crunchers to allow full 8 channel, 24/192 resolution post-processing (as well as tone/EQ control, channel delay/trim, bass management, Audyssey, etc.) support with no downconversion and no audible effect on sound quality. That will take some serious horsepower!

Allow Dolby ProLogic IIx post-processing for all 5.0/5.1 formats including full 24/192 resolution LPCM and DTS/DTS-HD.

Professional digital audio clocking system from Apogee for jitter free performance.

High end Audyssey auto calibration up to and including 8 channel, 24/192 resolution LPCM with additional auto calibration support for subwoofers, an area that the Audyessey calibration software is not, in and of itself, particularly good at. Allow after-auto calibration adjustments to the settings for further tweaking to taste. A weakness of some manufacturer implementations of Audyssey.

Top end components, plus the best 24/192 Wolfsen or EM Lab ADC's & DAC's with full support for DSD decoding.

Full, direct DSD bitstream decoding for SACD's via HDMI.

At least five HDMI 1.3 inputs. Two HDMI 1.3 outputs for dual monitors.

Full internal 1920x1080p/24 and 1920x1080p/60 video conversion and selectable pass through modes for each input. Full 1920x1080p on screen over-lay menu support (so, you don't lose HDMI handshaking every time you bring up the on screen menu).

Silicon Optix's best Realta HQV/Teranex video processing chip with full motion adaptive, reverse telecine support for superior 1080i to 1080p/24 or 1080p/60 conversion (user's choice dependant upon their display's capabilities), and superior 480i/480p/720p to 1080p up-conversion as well.

Full on-board support for HDMI 1.3 Deep Color and A/V synch capabilities.

I'd pay up to $2,500 for such a direct-to-consumer pro-grade processor. I'm sure it can be done.

I think that's a good list of options, but the $2,500 price seems impossible - the video processing alone (at the level we're talking about here, at least) would probably account for $1,000 all by itself.

I'd call it inevitable that an HDMI v1.3 processor will be offered by Outlaw, most likely within the next 12 to 18 months. I think it goes without saying, though, that the January announcement will not be related to HDMI v1.3 - it's too soon for them to have gotten anywhere close to production, and an HDMI v1.3 processor is likely to appear much like the 990 did.

Hello Folks, I hope the outlaws come up with something like the Gefen Home theater scaler. The price rage and value seems to be in-line with the outlaw ways. i think this is more in-line with what is being discussed hear. An affordalebe video scaller would be great from the outlaws.

Have fun

http://www.gefen.com/kvm/product.jsp?prod_id=4174

Gonk,

It's economy of scale. The Realta in bulk probably isn't that expensive as a chip goes (and if they had a pre-packaged HDMI 1.3 video/audio input board from a quality third party OEM vendor--as some companies do--without having to pay for R&D on their own it would lessen the costs; I bet Outlaw could work up a deal with Silicon Optix and Silicon Image to do the design for the digital input/output board for them to save on R&D as they have with Crystal semi-conductors, etc.). That's the reason for the HQV chip to lower the cost vs. performance of having basic Teranex pro-grade processing in consumer products.

Outlaw has done a lot with their 990 at the just over $1,000 price point (even giving us 8 channel balanced outputs). Add another $1,000 to $1,500 and they could do a whole lot more I'd imagine.

They could drop a lot of the antiquated analog audio/video connections (except a 5.1 analog input or two and component video) to lower the costs and put the money saved elsewhere. Drop the radio too.

One thing nobody has mentioned is the next logical step...a DVD player. Of this would also play CD's and various other formats. I would not be surprised if it was an Oppo in Outlaw clothing. This seems like the most logical step forward. Now you can get all your electronics online from your favorite supplier.

Tim

This announcement should be soon. It is Jan21 and if I do remember the Outlaws like Sunday announcements. Maybe we need the Patriots to lose so they can concentrate on business? (joking).

Side note: Maybe the next Outlaw Processor will look something like the new Sherwood Receiver announced at CES?? (without the amps and with Balanced Outputs)

Regards,

Charlie

maybe it will be something similar to the svs audyssey eq.

Re: “Drop the radio too.”
On weekend afternoons, such as when reading, I often want background music and am more interested in convenience instead of specific content. So I turn on the FM tuner of my Outlaw.

It would come close to a “deal kill” for me if the radio would be dropped in future products.

I’d much prefer it be enhanced with HD radio - that would be a product differentiator.

I like Dan H's suggestion. The 990 and Anthem AVM30 have been favorably compared. How about an updated 990 (995?) that compares with the AVM50 at the same price ratio as the 990/AVM30? That would be a hot seller!

Oh, I think we can count on eventually getting a processor that will fill the 990's spot in their line-up but with at least HDMI v1.3 - and I definitely agree that including at least some nice video scaling solution would be a great, cool touch. I doubt, however, that we'll see that announced this month - it's going to take until later this year at the earliest for outfits like Outlaw to get HDMI v1.3 product to market (I suspect more like early 2008, but that's a SWAG that includes some padding for development delays).