Originally Posted By: redman6
whether it be 978 or the 998, I think they should make the unit modular

Not going to happen. It's been tried by others, but doesn't seem to work. Problem is you have chipsets that support a lot of these features and it would be too difficult to do.
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up-convert all soundtracks to hd audio where possible...

Why? It's not going to improve the sound. Compressed audio doesn't have the information needed to make it high definition.
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3d support as an upgrade feature at some stage....

This would just come along with HDMI 1.4a
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pro cals should be standard...
Are you referring to Audyssey XT Pro and Color Calibrations?
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price range 2,500-5,000..
ouch!
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the biggest failure with the umc-1 is the lack of support with hd codecs, I feel with the this unit emo dropped the ball in a big way, they seem to softcode firmware to suit suit missing hardware sometims it works sometimes it doesn't..
agreed, essential

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the idea of more hdmi removes the need to add a secondary AV switch similar to the denon hdmi expansion switch or mounting gear on a 8x4-12x8 distribution pre-amp
How many?