I'm a happy Outlaw 990 owner, and am currently taking a very close look at the Panasonic DMP-BD10 Blu-ray Disc player. I have two questions regarding this potential combination of player and preamp/processor that I'm hoping someone can answer:

(1) It is my understanding that the only way to experience 7.1 channel TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio with my Outlaw 990 is to find a Blu-ray player that can decode and send these formats to my 990 over eight RCA cables... obviously HDMI is a non-starter for the 990, and digital coax and optical don't have the required bandwidth. Correct?

(2) Panasonic has promised an April 2007 firmware update that will add TrueHD and DTS-HD support to the DMP-BD10. But has anyone heard whether the DMP-BD10 (after the firmware update) will be able to send Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio as transcoded PCM over all 7.1 channels (assuming that the Blu-ray disc is authored in 7.1 channel surround sound)? (I've read some conflicting information that seems to suggest that only 5.1 channels of TrueHD/DTS-HD are possible over analog; i.e., you lose two of the surround channels.)

I'm hoping someone can shed some light on this very confusing high-def audio format situation. Thanks!