obie_fl : I think you are misinterpreting what Bill is trying to say in regards to the HDMI spec and the transmission of the new sound formats. I don't want to put words into anyboby mouths here but here is the issue I see with your arguement. The current HDMI 1.1 spec may allow for the transmission of up to 8 channels but not at the higher bitrate the new codecs call for. If you're saying that the player is doing the decoding, then you're going to end up losing information. It will still sound good but it won't allow you to hear entirely what the format can present.

Here's my example: Take SACD over Firewire. It's doable and a bunch of players and receivers exist in all price ranges that are capable of it. You don't, however, get the full benefit of SACD because you end up transcoding DSD to PCM, thus losing what makes SACD a different format.

I know I over simplified that but it gets across what I'm trying to say. Until there's a unified, single connection that transmits all of the proposed formats they're talking about to equipment that can process the information properly, these new formats aren't going anywhere. Coming full circle, I think that's why Bill brought up HDMI 1.3 as neccesary. Why have the new hi-def audio formats if you don't have the technology to support them? Again, that's my interpretation of the article and you can certainly email Bill to see exactly what he meant.