To slightly change the subject from balanced connections to a different 990-related issue, there's an article at Video Business Online today that I stumbled across at The Digital Bits. It gets into HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. The article can be found here , but you'll need to register (it's free, so I went ahead and registered).

Here's the gist of it: HD-DVD is due out by the fourth quarter, but there are now concerns about that timetable because the technical specs and licensing scheme are still unresolved. Those were due to be finalized by the end of March in order to hit the Q4 2005 format launch, but estimates now point to some time this summer before either are done. Until those issues are pinned down, nobody can design players or produce discs, which means that the HD-DVD release could be delayed until early 2006 (around the same time that Blu-Ray is due to hit the US). This problem seems to be combining with management changes at Toshiba and Sony to create a cautious interest by both sides at possibly averting the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray format war and agreeing to a single unified format. I'd seen a couple of hints in the last week or so about Sony expressing a willingness to talk, and now this article suggests that the HD-DVD camp is also open to talks.

What this means for us as consumers is that we may not be faced with a format war in 2006, which is obviously in our best interests. It would also mean that the arrival of a high definition optical disc format could be delayed by up to two years while they hammer out a single standard that everybody is comfortable with.

What this means for companies like Outlaw is that attempting to plan for the audio and video formats associated with HD-DVD/Blu-Ray is extremely risky, bordering on outright loony. They might be able to include something that appears compatible now (although I'm not sure that's even possible without delaying the product for six months or more), but they run the risk of ending up with an incompatible product when the formats finally show up and a slew of unhappy customers who paid extra for broken technology. All they can do now is support the formats that exist today and include the 7.1 input to allow for external decoders (presumably built into the players, much like DVD players have done with Dolby Digital and DTS) for those future formats.