HDMI v1.2 was finalized and officially published last fall. HDMI v1.3 remains an uncertainty - I've seen unsubstantiated comments online indicating that it will appear anywhere from later this year to never (my best SWAG would be some time in 2007).

I don't know that I'd say there are "plenty" of HDMI pre/pros, v1.1 or otherwise. In fact, they remain quite rare. Look at the various players in the surround processor market today. Anthem doesn't have HDMI, although the Statement D2 will have it and there will apparently be an upgrade path for existing D1's and possibly even AVM30's. Lexicon doesn't have HDMI. Meridian doesn't have HDMI. Sunfire (including the clones from Sherbourn, Emotiva, etc.) doesn't have HDMI. B&K doesn't have HDMI. Rotel doesn't have HDMI. Adcom doesn't have HDMI. Parasound and Halo don't have HDMI. NAD doesn't have HDMI. Fosgate Audionics doesn't have HDMI. Sherwood (including clones and cousins from BA and Outlaw) doesn't have HDMI. Classe doesn't have HDMI. Klipsch Aragon doesn't have HDMI. Cary Audio doesn't have HDMI. Integra Research does offer an HDMI module for the RDC-7.1 if you are ready to spend $5,000+. I'm probably missing a few names in that list, and of course I'm not listing receivers with HDMI (of which there are a growing number, including three units from Denon and two from Pioneer). Even factoring in the receivers, though, we're still a long way from plenty. I think it'll take at least 18 to 24 months after HD-DVD and Blu-ray launch for there to be an appreciable number of HDMI surround processors - the development cycles on them are too long to let something as complex as HDMI work its way in quickly, especially with the turmoil and uncertainty surrounding the lead-up to this new format war. After all, that uncertainty has to have kept most SSP companies (typically smaller outfits with less R&D depth to spare) from investing too much in the way of time and resources into developing hardware and software around a moving target.

Arcam's new FMJ-8 has HDMI.

Only other one I could find. Guess there aren't so many after all. Most of the HDMI pieces I have seen have been receivers, I suppose.

Mental slip on my part.

Here's the press release regarding release of HDMI 1.2 spec.

http://www.hdmi.org/press/pr/pr_20050823.asp

Call me wrong twice.

I knew I was missing somebody near the front of the alphabet (so many "A" names). EDIT: OK, I figured it out at last - at least a little. Arcam has revised the FMJ-AV9 (caught on after reading a news item on their site) and added HDMI, adding red text to the manual to explain it while leaving the original HDMI-free rear panel diagram intact. Did they recycle the AV8 manual, or did they add HDMI to the AV9 after it was originally released? Pretty disappointing manual for a $5800 piece of hardware. It looks like Arcam's $2200 DiVA AVP700 processor may also have HDMI, although it appears to be limited to video switching (similar to the DVI switching in the 990, 970, and 1070).

Yeah, just highlights why the 990 is so special.

I can't wait mine to arrive to see how my system will perform with all of the latest digital goodness.

Thnaks for all the posts

So from all this I would take an HDMI video output and run it through a DVI socket on the 990.

It would pass through the full 1080P signal from a high def player to the Sony Ruby with no encryption issues....?

How would i feed the audio?

Sorry if this a dumb question.

Rob

Robert: I may be missing something, and I'm nowhere near the expert gonk is...but...that said...the audio would be passed just as you would anyway. My SONY DVD has HDMI out and the usual audio:coax, analog, optical. I run the audio thru my 990. DVI handles the HDMI video signal. I have HDMI cable and HDMI to DVI adaptors.

Here's a source I may have mentioned in a previous post. I buy my coax and optical from www.totalsignal.com and they're also on ebay. I just go to their page and order what I want.

I recently bought LFM-1 and it needed to go a fair distance from the 990 (room config'n, size and furniture). I bought a 50 foot coax for cheap. Works well to feed LFM-1. I don't know if a think cheap RCA-RCA would be OK at that length, but I'm very happy with their cables. My .02 Hope this helps

Hi Robert,

To backup what nfaguys just said, yes, you would get an HDMI to DVI cable (Outlaw sells them for your convenience, I believe or you can also get them from BlueJeansCable.com). And yes, your HDMI devices, even those that are HDCP compliant will send a 1080i signal over the HDMI to DVI cable.

At least that's what I understand based on info that others have provided.

Basically think of an HDMI connector as a compacted version of DVI (albeit with the addition of audio just for confusion).

As far as moving the audio signal from your source to the 990, you would use either the normal L/R analog RCA out/ins, digital coax out/in or if available optical digital out/in...whichever you prefer and have available on your output device.

Hope that clears up any confusion. If not, my bad. Let us know and hopefully someone will make it clearer if needed.

It looks like we've got a good set of answers here - the short answer is an HDMI/DVI cable (simple adapters are also available, but in some cases you will have the problem of the HDMI connector being pulled loose by the weight of the DVI connector so I recommend a cable like the PDH ) to handle the video (all the way up to 1080p from Blu-ray) without any compromise. For audio, it's going to depend on the source component in question. If you are talking about any existing source component, a traditional digital audio cable (coaxial or optical) will handle the audio exactly the same as HDMI would. HD-DVD and Blu-ray offer some new audio formats that nearly all early adopters will be resorting to a mess of eight analog audio cables to transfer from player to receiver or processor; coaxial and optical digital will carry down-mixed DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1. Seriously, the 990's approach to this problematic issue is very nearly the best you can find, and doubly so in its price range.

Leave it to gonk to further clear up the situation.

I had completely forgotten about the multichannel sources.

Here I thought that SACD and the other multichannel CD formats were almost dead and it sounds like the HD DVD specs will bring them back to life, at least for the near future.

One thing I hope they change with HDMI is the connector. From what I've read it really needs to be made so it locks in somehow as it's pretty easy for current HDMI connectors to fall out or be pulled out.