It is good to hear that Outlaw is heading down this path.

I am sure there are those that stubbornly insist 5.1 era technology is more than enough for their home theater enjoyment but the market reality is driven by new formats for the content creators and firms that do not offer solutions to reproduce these formats cannot flourish.

I respect the decision of the Outlaw management team to be a little guarded about a release schedule and perhaps even keep some of the features close-to-the-vest, those of us that remember the unfortunate pressure from a North American based marketer of home AV equipment certainly do not wish to see that repeated.

Given the added computational power and extended high speed memory of the coming product I am sure it will include auto-setup features. It is my sincere hope that some thought also be given to the high resolution room correction as well as the increasing potential for "field upgrade-able" firmware to support features like Auro 3D should that become a viable format.

While current offerings from DataSat and Trinnov seem to targeting the most extreme end of the home-theater market I cannot help but think Outlaw could gain major market share and huge positive brand loyalty (to say nothing of massive demand...) if they approached this is a "rule breaking" manner ...

http://www.cepro.com/article/datasat_processor_amp_bring_movie_theater_quality_to_homes/

http://www.virtual-strategy.com/2015/01/...s#axzz3PZdKtyv4

While I am glad to see Outlaw lead the way into incorporating both technologies into one package I am skeptical as to how long these technologies will be the latest and greatest (think 3D). The only way for manufacturers to get us to spend more money on new equipment is to add more bells and whistles even if they don't have any source material which uses the newest gismo. I love technology, but getting new stuff just to say I have it is not my forte. I like the way Outlaw packages a functional design at a fair price without getting too drawn into the tech war. I am definitely allowing for the object oriented technologies in my theater space but I won't jump in with both feet until I see some great source material and a new OPPO-103.

While I agree that it is often foolish to be "first one on the block" to buy a product offering a new codec / format when there is little content to support the equipment and fully agree it is never wise to get new equipment for just the sake of having it, I don't think it is fair to say that the only way manufacturers can induce folks to spend more money it with "more bells and whistles".

Atmos, DTS:X and Auro 3D all represent a fairly fundamental shift in how audio designers that work on films and other content can record a mix for a more immersive experience. As the directors and audio engineers work together to capture / recreate more of the true ambiance of venues (or the digital created set on which content is imagined...) and this additional digital info is sent to the preamp / surround processor these discrete channel can be directed to the analog speakers in one's home theater in ways that up till now have not been possible.

This is not a development that is just a "bell & whistle", is whole new layers of sound.

{I may be in the minority but also feel the failure of 3D to catch on in home theaters was as much about the failure of engineers to consider basic ways that real people really watch movies as much as any technology or marketing issues. Putting on a rather unattractive pair of LCD active shutter glasses that need to have fresh batteries or a charge makes me and my guests look silly, especially if we already wear regular corrective glasses. Talk about "ultimate geek" -- might as well wrap some duct tape around the frame and doff brasiers on your head ! Toss in the practical matters of the LCD glasses darkening an already dim room, easily smeared lenses from typical movie time snacks (hello buttered popcorn) and tech issues are low on the list. Though in truth there are / were tech issues with 3D -- too few projectors / panel had sufficient output for the picture to really be as pleasingly contrasty / saturated, too many movies either went overboard with motion sickness inducing levels of 3D hyper-depth OR equally as ineffective, used 3D in just a tiny fraction of the actual filming and in ways that did not advance the story...}

The new "object centric" audio codecs are not completely out of left field. Gamers that have invested in multi-channel speakers or headphones have long known that the additional depth / direction cues increase their enjoyment of what they are playing. For decades the various ways to play with the time-delay techniques of audio systems have been an attempt to tweak the reproduction to match the 'space' of live recordings. With dedicated codes / formats and a standardized way of setting up the additional speakers this will no longer be a "hit or miss" guess at what the audio engineers were trying to achieve but a much more effective and reproducible system that offers a more accurate presentation of the audio designers' intentions. At the other end of "customization" some of the new formats do allow end users to "tweak" the dialog channels -- high on the list of movie watchers that too often have to battle with poorly recorded FX that drown out the spoken words. Better separation of the FX from the dialog allows each channel / speaker to be tailored to the needs of end users -- a very real problem with a population rapidly aging and too accustomed to hearing loss from overly loud environments and music...

I can understand some allegiance to other value oriented manufacturers and Oppo has been a laudable firm in paying heed to not just a highly accurate reproduction of the video info encoded on BluRay and DVD but also the 7.1 channel audio output. In a technical sense, the way that the additional Atmos info is encoded will require that you have a BluRay player that correctly handles Seamless Branching -- http://www.audioholics.com/news/dolby-atmos-old-blu-ray-players

One may need a new source / player and of course if the whole "chain" needs to be upgraded that does get pricey, but overall the direction of firms that choose to be "leaders" is commendable. The Outlaws have always be "value oriented" and there is no reason to think that this new offering will not follow that lead in offering exemplary performance at a very consumer friendly price...