It would be interesting to see a survey of audio/video enthusiasts regarding currently available feature sets in the industry. I think many of the R&D and marketing boys push so much fluff that we begin to think we really need such features. Big Brother in action. This is always at the expense of ease of use, stability, and of course cost.

Good point and my justification in the case of BDP-95 is that it also decodes DVD, HDCD, SACD, DVD-A, and Redbook CD as well as flash media. That's hard to beat for those who have a large collection.

AusTexRocker wrote: I work with Marketing and Lab personnel daily in product development and it is Marketing, not the lab folks, who always give a full feature list to the Lab for product incorporation. Only when a new product faces severe margin crunch will Marketing seriously consider feature exclusion. How many of us really need a Composite Video input nowadays?

I wouldn't think very many. However the design I just released was required to have Composite Video input and output to support legacy systems. It's getting harder to find silicon suppliers though so I don't expect it to be around too much longer.

Heck how many of us require component video or S-Video? Those options will be going in no time. Add to that services like Spotify, Dina, ISF, RIHD, HD Radio, Pandora, Last FM, Rhapsody, Slacker, Napster, Sirius FM, Mediafly.

Onkyo has W.R.A.T which shapes the power of the amp. Their $330 receiver has it as well as their $3200 AVR also has it. So is the entry level AVR almost as good as their flagship?

I have an Onkyo 906 and I beefed up the W.R.A.T. by adding an Outlaw 7500 to it. Now it is really, really Wide Range Amplifier Technology.

Way too much marketing to sell this stuff AND drive the costs up.

Not all of us are starting out from scratch and instead a lot of money is tied up in older formats.

I require S-Video. I will not throw my DVD player into the trash just to upgrade to a new pre-processor. I also will not purchase a blue-ray player just to upgrade to a new pre-processor, since I watch newer movies by streaming and do not need a blue-ray player just to get HDMI output.

While we are on the subject of older technologies, I own about 50 VHS movie tapes, which I periodically watch. I hope no one expects me to throw these tapes and my VHS player into the trash (and buy these movies all over again on a disc)just to upgrade to a new processor.

So if I cannot watch these movies anymore using existing formats, then I will not upgrade to a new processor.

I for one have a lot of legacy equipment but.....I have plenty of ways to connect via my other equipment. Including S-video and other legacy connections on the 978 is a way to fill up the space especially if they can be upscaled.

Wow. I haven't used composite video since I needed it to see the OSD on my 990 when I initially set it up and haven't used S-video for anything in at least 6 or 7 years. HDMI makes things a LOT simpler. If I was in a niche market to sell to audiophile types and was cutting corners to fit important stuff in the budget, those are two connection options that I'd eliminate straight away.

Does anyone really think it costs a meaningful amount to support composite video or S-video (up-scaling aside)? I am guesing that the cost per unit of either of these and the related circuitry is probably less than $5.00. Personally, I still use S-video for my VHS player (the kids like the old Disney movies).

I suspect that the parts cost is negligible, but there are probably PITA issues on the software integration side.

VHS? What's that? Is that what people used before 8-track tapes?