Hi,
I read an intresting article on the following dolby site:
http://www.dolby.com/consumer/technology/trueHD.html

As things stand today based on the article, ALL decoding ( video and audio ) will happen in the disc player.

Since majority of people use home theater for music and movies would it not be better for them to simply get a high end universal player that plays ( HD DVD, DVD etc) connected directly to a good 7 channel amplifier like 7125 + subwoofer in the future ?

What is the point of a preamp like 990, except switching audio/video sources ? The good quality DAC is anyway handled by the disc player as things stand proposed in the dolby article.

For a set-up based on a single player (even one that plays different types of discs), this could work.

For the rest of us that have multiple sources, some form of pre-pro or receiver would be necessary to handle switching, processing, etc.

Far from extinct. Check out my HDMI FAQ and look at HDMI 1.3 (which it now appears will be formally released in the near future - I'll be updating at least a little in the next couple days). HDMI 1.3 will allow audio decoding to shift back to the processor. Plus you've still got regular DVD's, cable/satellite boxes, CD's, and other sources that still output PCM stereo, Dolby Digital, or DTS that the processor decodes. And even with HDMI 1.1/1.2, the processor handles bass management, time delay, switching, additional processing (taking the decoded multichannel PCM from an HDMI 1.1/1.2 input and expanding to additional channels if it isn't already 7.1), and lastly D/A conversion. Plus, of course, video switching at the processor is steadily expanding to include transcoding (s-video and composite video up to component, with a few units starting to support transcoding component to DVI/HDMI digital), and even in a few pricey cases (the Anthem AVM-50 and Statement D2) video scaling and processing that applies to all inputs and is far more advanced than what an HD-DVD or Blu-ray player will do.

Well, sst, some of us actually use our preamps most of the time for other things than home theater. Most of the time my 990 is on one of our classical music or NPR FM stations. I also play CDs, and even vinyl records sometimes. In fact the presence of a phono preamp, plus a lower price than the Sherwood Newcastle P965, was what decided me on the 990 in the first place. That the phono preamp is as good as it is was frosting on the cake.

It would be interesting to know what percent of owners do use their 990's mostly for home theater, or more broadly, what proportion of on time is devoted to each source. Absent such figures I am skeptical of any "majority" claims.

Thanks a lot folks for a quick response ( gonk and sdurani). I guess in my case only HDMI 1.3 can make the strong case for using a preamp, wondering when will(1.3) it be incorporated in 990 or in future outlaw preamps.

You may find the debate that sdurani and I have been having in this thread to be of interest. My credentials are those of a hobbyist who's done a lot of reading over the years, but Sanjay's much more knowledgeable on the nuts and bolts of the industry than I am - his estimates of the time involved in getting any sort of HDMI 1.3 product to market seem to match up pretty closely with what I've gleened, and I trust his estimates. Figure later this year for HDMI 1.3 sources and some time next year (probably middle of the year or later) for surround processors in the price range of the Outlaws (I don't know whether Outlaw will be out there at the front of the pack or not, so I don't want to speak for them on what their plans are).

These predictions have been around for a while. Lets see I recall things like the "cassceiver" (cassette receiver) back in the 70's. Was supposed to make the separate receiver/cassette deck obsolete. Or the CD player built into the receiver, or just the receiver itself, why have separates?
My point is that while it is possible to do it all in a single box, it necessarily isn't the best, nor desired. Some early DVD players did in fact all the decoding in the box, then whoops! another standard came out.
I take all those with a very large grain of salt. While I think all decoding will be done in the box, I do not think it will obsolete separates from also doing the decoding. Not for a while anyway.

As long as there's money to be made from separates, there will be separates.

At the very high end, people expect to separate their components out, even to the point of getting outboard DACs.

It's just the best way to build no-compromise pieces and companies love to sell them because of the high profit margins involved (Outlaw and others as an exception notwithstanding).