What stories have you heard about heat from HDMI boards? Also, have you heard of or seen instances of HDMI boards having insufficient ventilation space? I ask because I tend to be more aware of these sorts of issues than most (keeping things cool happens to be my day job), and in the hierarchy of heat-producing components inside AV equipment, I would put HDMI boards down around analog audio and video boards. That leaves them at the very bottom of the list. Audio DSP and video processing chips are probably the highest heat-generating components in a surround processor, with the power supply probably a close second and everything else way down the list. Even those are cool-running compared to the real heat sources in a surround system. The biggest heat-generating sources in a home theater system are the display (LCD, plasma, and CRT all make pretty good space heaters) and audio amplification. HDMI chips simply don't put off that much heat. I'd also offer the observation that Outlaw's designs have historically done a good job of managing heat rejection. They are already thinking about it properly.


A switch does take up some space, but it's going to take up almost as much space when it's tucked inside the surround processor's chassis as it will separately. It will also bring 16 to 24 additional cables to the most congested point in your system wiring. A separate network switch, on the other hand, will allow for more effective cable management and will take up a modest amount of space compared to the 10 or more game consoles you are describing. Combine those facts with the fact that probably 99% of Outlaw's customer base will need either no network switch support at all or at most a four-port or five-port solution (something that is easier to fit into an equipment rack when needed), and you can see why I am opposed to any sort of integral network switch - doubly so for a 16-port switch.


The TSS-10 is a very basic HTIB ("home theater in a box") with no video switching, one analog stereo input, and two optical digital audio inputs. It is a radically different animal from what we are discussing. It does cram a ton of stuff into as small a box as possible. There are six channels of amplification - including the sub - in a 3.75"x11"x8.25" box along with the audio switching, audio DSP, DAC's, and an ADC for the stereo input. Contrasts to the Model 990 (and thus presumably the Model 998 as well) are countless. About the only thing the two products have in common is the fact that they output sound.


Two HDMI outputs is possible, but most manufacturers are implementing them as an "either-or" arrangement, not two that are simultaneously active. They also aren't implementing any sort of second zone HDMI output. These decisions are made for practical cost-related reasons. Adding a third output would be an "either-or-or" design. It isn't practical.


The industry hasn't adopted a standard for 11.3 yet, so you may be looking at a need to update your system again in the future when it does happen. That is in the running to be the next "great hype" we'll see (something you were complaining about last night), but considering how little interest there has been from studios to produce 7.1 tracks on Blu-ray I suspect that any 11.x systems will be relying on matrix surround processing to expand 5.1 and 7.1 sources to the extra channels.


Multiple multichannel output zones isn't really practical for anyone. An implementation like that is going to need lots of amps, a space issue that you may not have been factoring in yet. It would also be easier to control if you had separate multichannel processors or receivers for each multichannel zone, assuming you need those zones.

SPDIF is limited to 5.1 lossy compression. You are likely to be more interested in HDMI as a source, at least for new sources like Blu-ray. This is because it supports 7.1 audio and lossless audio (multichannel PCM, TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master Audio). However, most of the sources you have been discussing to date have been legacy consoles that only offer analog stereo audio. Debate over optical, coaxial, and HDMI connections (to say nothing of previous interest in DenonLINK) don't even enter the equation. Analog stereo is simply not that widely used in modern home theaters, so manufacturers aren't going to be able to justify putting lots of stereo analog inputs on their processors. At the most, we might see a quantity similar to what is found on the Model 990 or Model 970. There may even be fewer.


The problem I see is that the system you are contemplating is extremely atypical. Cable box and DVD changer are normal enough. A couple or three game consoles are also fairly common. Everything else on your list is unusual to such a degree that no manufacturer can design around them. Likewise, 11.3 is not yet an industry standard and multiple multichannel zones are impractical because they require building multiple separate surround processors into a single chassis.