I just stumbled across this thread and it's good to see some rational dialogue going on about the merits and the flaws of HDMI. Several months ago I posted some comments on both the AVS forum and my home forum (HTF) regarding Outlaw's decision several years ago to wait for HDMI to mature to the point where it was prudent to add it to a receiver. Outlaw was taking some cheap shots from some know-it-alls regarding the use of DVI video switching rather than succumbing to the lure of HDMI and I was defending them. After all HDMI was changing quicker than one changes their sheets and it was a moving target. Although I took a lot of heat on this (I'm used to this - after all, I beta tested the 950!) I still contend that Outlaw made the right choice at the time. HDMI was a complete mess, with various companies interpreting the HDMI standards on their own resulting in some handshaking knightmares. HDMI itself was not completely blameless in this because even though their specs were quite clear, little was being done to assure that manufacturers followed those specs. I'm glad to see that the industry is trying to add some HDMI certification to the process, as gonk pointed out in his reference, and now that some "major retailers" are insisting on all the HDMI products they carry meeting some HDMI criteria this can only help the situation. And for those who constantly insisted that HDMI was just fine with no problems at all it's a wake up call when retailers begin to realize that there has to be some order out of chaos. Time for those people to drop the pollyanna attitude.

That said, HDMI has reached the point where it will in all probability be an integral part of the next Outlaw Pre/pro. There are a number of reasons for this. For one thing there are now some serious products out there (like HD/BR players) that incorporate HDMI output so the need for HDMI switching is greater than in the past. Add to that the fact that the latest firmware versions of both HD-DVD and Blu-ray players now pass the new audio codecs (decoded via PCM) through the HDMI jack and it now becomes important for any receiver from this point forward - especially one capable of handling 7.1 audio - to include HDMI. And while the next generation pre/pro will in all likelihood include HDMI 1.3 it's important to note that even with HDMI 1.1 inputs on a pre/pro you can accept all the latest audio codecs since the decoding is done within the player and not within the processor. I know this for a fact because I own both a Toshiba XA1 (firmware 2.0) and a PS3. Both pass the 7.1 audio codecs just fine into my (temporary) HDMI pre/pro. When the first Outlaw pre/pro with HDMI is released, I'm there.

A couple of other points. Part of the problem with HDMI happens to be with the many misconceptions floating around. One of the biggest errors is thinking that in order to handle 1080p video you must have HDMI 1.3. This is completely wrong. 1080p video as been part of the HDMI spec since version 1.0 and any HDMI jack can handle 1080p. Yes, HDMI 1.3 has added some additional video functionality with greater color depth and bandwidth, but the industry is just catching up with 1080p at this point so I seriously doubt we will see many practical displays (read: consumer) and sources that go beyond "standard" 1080p for a decade or so. Another misconception is that you need HDMI 1.3 to listen to all of the new audio codecs (those out on HD/BR discs and those in the hopper). Yes, it is true that each new generation of HDMI increased the audio capabilities of the previous one (see gonk's excellent FAQ on this) but that is only important if you want to pass the raw audio data - unprocessed - to the pre/pro. As long as the player does the decoding of the audio codec (as the Blu-ray and HD-DVD players now do) then any modern 7.1 pre/pro equipped with even HDMI 1.1 can handle the resulting PCM bitstream. There's no need for 7.1 analog outputs and inputs to get the unprocessed audio into the pre/pro. (Your SACD and DVD-A discs need not worry about having to relinguish their analog inputs to new audio codecs.)

Yes, HDMI holds a lot of promise of being a "one wire solution" if everybody plays by the rules. But it certainly was not the case (and still is fraught with potential pitfalls) back when the 970 and 990 were being designed so Outlaw can't be faulted for taking a wait and see attitude on HDMI. I've followed this situation closely (including many discussions with Jano Banks, the co-inventor of HDMI, whom I met at CEDIA)and I stand by my position that Outlaw made the right decision at the time regarding an emerging technology. All is not a bed of roses, but at least now someone is tending the weeds so things will get better. I look forward to outlaw products with HDMI now that this is the case.