Lets keep this based on fact vs pessimism:

1. SN and many others developed "Next Gen," receivers and pre-pros. They designed these around a "3 chip," solution bypassing the fact that the power currently wasn't there for NextGen codecs.

2. Onkyo and Denon amongst others released "3 chip," solutions built for them by SN. During this process SN realized the cheating was actually detrimental to the codec.

3. SN and many others delayed their NextGen receivers and pre-pros waiting for a chip to be released. This chip was promised to them as early as October 2007.

That chip is the 49700 from Cirrus. The delays on this chip have cause every company that cares about sound quality to WAIT. October moved to January, then monthly got delayed. Chips are supposed to ship this week according to Cirrus.

So once the manufacturers get the real chips and testing is complete production will start. I'm sure in June the SN 872 will be shipping with a May Production stamp on it. The 972 has Reon and other things that I think will delay this unit until July (but they promise May/June).

The reason isn't SN in this case (as it has been much in the past). The problem has been Cirrus. NAD was forced to release their Receivers and Pre-Pros WITHOUT the chip and they didn't use the "3 chip," solution. Instead they made the units modular so the boards could be swapped out this summer.

Arcam, Anthem, NAD, Sherwood Newcastle, B&K, & Krell are just a few companies I know for a fact that have NextGen solutions in R&D waiting to be moved to production just from the lack of this chip.

If the chip really ships this week then this summer we will have MULTIPLE high end solutions to choose from. Receivers will likely go straight into production. Pre-Pros will likely not be out until after CEDIA. They may well ship the weeks following CEDIA after official product announcements at CEDIA.

SN has their Pre-Pro planned to be unveiled officially now at CEDIA with shipment immediately after announcement.

So I think the Outlaw unit may well be BEFORE that. Since that it how SN' parent company makes their money: as an OEM.

Did I read that right "2. Onkyo and Denon amongst others released "3 chip," solutions built for them by SN. During this process SN realized the cheating was actually detrimental to the codec." Sherwood Newcastle (Eastech or Etronics I think) builds for Onkyo and Denon? Also I thought Onkyo and Denon were using a Texas Instrument Chip (Not that I profess to know that much about chipsets!)

I don't know who builds for Onkyo and Denon/Marantz, but I do know that Onkyo has been using a TI solution (three separate chips in most of their products, although I think the entry-level HDMI receiver just uses one). I think that Yamaha is doing the same, but Denon is using another manufacturer for their units (Analog Devices).

Etronics builds the Receivers not the chips. They all seem to be using "3 chip," solutions except for some really inexpensive models which use 1 chip.

I wonder if it's possible or feasible to use a cell processor in a pre-pro. Seems like it would make for one hell of a brain. I know it can do the audio, but not sure about the video.

It's probably possible, assuming they succeed in adding DTS-HD MA decoding support to it, but I don't know how cost effective it is or how much extra programming would be required when compared to using a purpose-built DSP chip.

I'm sure cost is a big factor, but it would be a robust single chip solution. I know they've planned on releasing TV's with the chip, so the cost has to come down considerably for that to happen. However a chip like that would allow for enormous flexibility in product design and future upgrades.

True enough. It'd be particularly interesting if it could serve as both an audio processor (a la the Cirrus 49700) and a video processor (a la the Reon or similar). With some canned software written as a basis for those functions (Dolby and DTS decoding already certified, bass management structures, some basic video processing options, and so forth), it could be a nice compact solution. For that matter, if you look at what the PS3's doing with it, you could even build a media client into the receiver - just slap in ethernet support and cook up your own UI on the underlying code. Maybe now that Toshiba's stepped away from HD players and is taking over more of the Cell production from their original joint venture with Sony, they'll try to develop something along these lines - I doubt many manufacturers would be interested in taking the chip by itself and trying to build the software from scratch, but if they had some of those central building blocks (similar to what companies like TI and Cirrus provide with their DSP chips and companies like Genesis, Silicon Optix, and ABT provide with their video processors) it could quite probably find a market. There'd still be a lot of other things to consider, but if the Cell can handle all of those separate jobs at once (audio processor, video processor, possibly also media client) then it would be a real possibility. I wonder if it could also run EQ solutions such as Audyssey MultEQ or Trinnov?

This video of the cell processor in a tv is quite interesting. I image it would be a crazy workhouse in a preprocessor.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/159896.html

They say it can stream 6 HD video's at once.

What do you mean by "the power currently wasn't there for NextGen codecs"? Are you saying that Onkyo and Denon receivers cannot decode next generation codecs?

Also, how were Onkyo and Denon "cheating"? That is, what were they doing that was "detrimental to the codec"?

Thanx