Jason - I have to disagree with your analogy, you are correct a purist wouldn't want to convert DSD to PCM, but it is not analogous to the discussion at hand. (For the record I am a purist and would not want to convert DSD to PCM either.) Bitrate of the new codecs with regard to HDMI does not come into play if you are decoding in the player. Think of it this way if the player decodes the new codecs correctly to 24/192 PCM how is that different then decoding them to 24/192 in the Pre/Pro? All of these new codecs decode to some form of PCM, you are not changing formats just where the track is decoded. HDMI1.1 has the capability to transmit 8 channels of 24/192 PCM you aren�t converting to any intermediate format like in the SACD example.

I try to be open minded but I don�t see the downside here. Maybe there is some technical aspect I am missing. Again let me say that I do believe we will eventually transition to decoding in the Pre/Pros, I just don't see that many advantages over what we can do today with HDMI1.1 gear.