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.
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.
3d support as an upgrade feature at some stage....
This would just come along with HDMI 1.4a
pro cals should be standard...
Are you referring to Audyssey XT Pro and Color Calibrations?
price range 2,500-5,000..
ouch!
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
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?