Hi, just noticed this thread and thought I'd weigh in on the HDMI/BluRay issue. I do all the soundbar measurements for Sound+Vision and I just reviewed the Atlantic PowerBar 235. (I think that's going to be in the December issue but I'm not sure.)

HDMI would have a sonic advantage only if your soundbar offers DTS-HD Master and Dolby TrueHD. The only soundbar I've tested so far that offers those formats is the Definitive Technology SoloCinema XTR, and that costs $1,999.

The improvements you get by going from DD or DTS to one of the lossless formats are usually pretty subtle even on a good 5.1 system, and would probably be very hard to hear on a 2.0 soundbar.

If you wanted to put more money into the PowerBar 235/Outlaw OSB-1 to improve the sound quality, you'd be better off IMO by putting in a more refined passive xover, or biamping and doing digital xover/EQ, or beefing up the woofers and amps even more, or adding center-channel drivers.

HDMI can be a great convenience feature thanks to ARC/CEC, but from a sound quality standpoint I don't believe it's important in a soundbar, unless maybe you start to get into a very expensive and sophisticated soundbar.