I await the arrival with much eagerness. It is past time to upgrade the 990.

Hmm. I noticed there is a model 975 / Oppo 203 combo. Will there be a model 976 / Oppo 203 combo?

More than likely there will be a combo. Probably at least free shipping.

That would be cool, as I am considering both as part of my migration to 4k and if Outlaw can make a few shekels on reselling the Oppo, it would be good all around.

Do note that the 203 still appears to have quirks regarding HDMI IN and still does not support Dolby Vision, but still looks like an excellent 4k BD transport.

Awesome! Great news!!

Great to hear! Looking forward to getting one of these.

What AUDIO EDID modes does the 976 (or 975 for that matter) support on the HDMI outputs? LPCM 7.1 perhaps (assuming a downstream device actually reported that -- I can't see that a real display would though an HDMI sound bar might)?

Or just LPCM 2ch for a plain TV (the multi channel handled by the 975 through the analog outputs only)?

I would imagine, like the 975, the 976 would be able to decode DD True HD and DTS HD MA, 7.1 signals. Plus, deliver the core 7.1 from Dolby Atmos and DTS X formats.
TV's will handle PCM, some can decode DD, most can't decode DTS...Don't know about soundbars with HDMI, as even some stereo receivers with HDMI are unable to decode DD and DTS and therefore must be sent only PCM.

Oh, I would expect the same decoding capabilities. My question was not about that, but rather what audio was being sent over the HDMI outs to the TV.

See, the TV describes its audio capabilities via EDID. So, if you connect a TV that only supports two channel LPCM directly to a BD player, that's what it will send. With a pre/pro in the middle, the pre/pro will send a combined EDID to the BD player that contains the TV's video characteristics and its audio capabilities so the BD player will send better audio because the pre/pro handles the audio. What audio then, does the pre/pro send to the TV? Nothing? A downmix compatible with the TV? Usually, when splitting HDMI, the lowest common denominator EDID is sent to the source, though of course this does not happen in a pre/pro.

Here's why I ask: what if the downstream device reported 7.1ch LPCM capability? Would the 976 send 7.1 LPCM to it? Or, because the 976 expects a TV, and no such TV exists, does it just send a 2ch PCM downmix anyway? I would expect the main output might be so restricted but a secondary zone output (with its own pre/pro) might not.

I would not expect the pre/pro to transcode (say decode DTS HD MA and encode to Dolby TrueHD to the downstream device) but it might send the best LPCM mix the device says it can handle.

Here's why I ask: if I put a nanoAVR HD and nanoAVR DL and 8ch HDMI audio DAC downstream of the secondary HDMI out, and the pre/pro can send 7.1ch LPCM out that secondary HDMI output, the pre/pro could combine the 7.1ch analog result with the video for each source selection.

Practical upshot: you've just added Dirac Live to your 976.

The alternative would be a DDRC-88A between pre/pro and amps but that adds a A/D -> D/A step.

If the pre/pro could define a source by video from one HDMI input and audio from another that could avoid the external DAC but I doubt it has the extra HDMI decoder for that.

I am not sure why a processor or AVR would send anything other than a stereo audio signal back to a TV since TVs don't have surround capability. EDID is how a display tells a graphics card what video capability the display has to allow auto sync. It seems you want to add Dirac Live to the system in lieu of REW and the PEQ. No one knows what room correction (if any) the 976 will have but I would expect a basic setup to allow REW and PEQ to be used to mod the room.