I'm hoping someone from the HDMI org can answer this. Assuming I had a reciever with hdmi 1.3 and internal decoding/processing of TrueHD & HD-DTS audio tracks and I also had a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player with hdmi 1.3 that passed the unprocessed audio. Would a TV with hdmi 1.2 restrict the reciever from decoding the HD audio, even though the TV would have nothing to do with the audio portion? Does the weakest link in the overall chain dictate everything, even if it actually plays no part in the desired feature? I have been unable to find a clear answer to this. Some clarification would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hey ironcross:

Does HDMI_Org's response in this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=791634) answer your question?

Nope. I downloaded entire 1.3a specs after his response and going through them. It's 276 pages, highly technical. It will take me some time. Also, I'm reading some articles which try to explain HDMI in layman's terms, written with assistance of HDMI Org people all the way to the president. They're never going into great details on this particular issue, but always mention that all devices in a network fall into common set of features. I was hoping HDMI_CoInv will chime in.

Some have said that if your receiver is 1.3 and the source is 1.3, between them you can get the features of 1.3 even if the end device is 1.1. I'd like a definitive answer to this one as it may effect the Visio TV purchase I made at Costco.

The short answer is that you can absolutely still get your TrueHD/DTS-HD experience, even though the TV says it can only handle 2 ch stereo. The rule about "common denominator" does not necessarily apply when you have a device in the chain (such as an AV receiver) that has audio & video processing capabilities. Most AV receivers will present the source with its own list of capabilities only, and not convey the (more limited) capabilities of the TV to the source. So the AV receiver gets its best audio & video formats, renders the audio, then processes the audio & video into a format that the TV tells it that it can support. Such an AV receiver is actually 2 devices in one: an HDMI sink and an HDMI source, with the ability to decouple the capabilities of itself and the TV that is downstream of it.

Thank you so much for clearing this up. I have been wondering this for several months. Definitely helps me with my decision making. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.