Hey Everyone..
Check out the the "Product" section of the website. They have the IR1000 pictured!

Very cool. Good call, Richard_R!

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Gonk

Wow! Somebody saw it before Gonk. I'm seriously impressed.

Still no digital output, though. Surprising, considering it (a) comes from the Outlaws, (b) will most likely be connected to a 1050 or a 950, both of which will immediately digitize the input anyway, and (c) is a digital signal at its origin.

Yeah, I'm bummed too there is no optical output... not sure why they didn't add it.

Oh yeah, also not sure why it doesn't playback RealAudio files... all the stations I listen to broadcast over the net via RealAudio.

Well, it does support only WMA for now, but they DID say that they were going to upgrade it to support other formats. I assume that means MP3 and RealAudio. At least, I would hope that it would.

And the upgrade sounds like it will be fairly painless and FREE. Sounds cool enough to me.

Well, the bulletin says that MP3 is part of the upgrade, but no mention of Real Audio.

Real Audio is proprietary. They would probably have to license it from Real Networks and I would bet that wouldn't be for free. They would then have to pass that cost onto us the consumer.

Jeff

Can't the same be said of WMA? Knowing how M$ does business, there have GOT to be more strings attached to that then there possibly could with RealAudio.

You're forgetting one of MS's favorite tricks -- give a product away to corner the market. They did it with IE, and I think WMA is similar. Only catch with WMA is that you need an MS OS to play them, I believe (hence the WinCE on the IR1000).

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Gonk

The IR1000 sounds like a nifty little toy... I'm just not sure if I can bring myself to patronize the Evil Empire...

Please see my report from CES on the IR1000 for details of current and future format support: http://www.smr-home-theatre.org/ces2002/home_theater/page_01.shtml

I also specifically asked Peter Tribeman about the absence of a digital output. His answer was that they were concerned about getting wrapped up in a piracy debate. I don't think the absence of a digital connection should really concern anyone. It is unlikely that any extra a/d and d/a conversions will have a significant impact on the quality of streaming audio.

Ack! It's that damned RIAA again. _Somebody_ has got to rein in those people.

Why have the extra conversion in the first place? Besides.... I don't buy the piracy issue..... They have digital outs on DVD's, CD players, Minidisc players, and so on and so on..... You can even get digital outs for computer soundcards.

It may not have an extremely big impact on overall sound BUT it would be nice to have an ALL DIGITAL path to the processor/receiver. Being a computer guy by nature, I am more inclined to like pure digital paths, less room for error.

The IR1000 should have had the digital out.

Jeff

It ain't released yet... maybe there's still time! C'mon Outlaws! You're not going to let THE MAN force you to compromise on this, are you?

I just gave you the reason as they explained it to me. I didn't say that their reasoning was logical.

I appreciate the explanation, logical or not.

Jeff