I agree with SS9001. First and foremost, a receiver is an audio device, and with no mention of I-link for DVD-A, and SACD, Pioneer is forsaking one of the best features of their previous designs. I-Link, and open standard, eventually adopted by some including Denon and Yamaha, was the reason I was an Elite fan. High resolution audio through a digital connection with bass management and speaker distance compensation for me is critical. I don't want to use analog ins for DVD Audio. Interestingly we now have HDMI which is capable of passing all of the audio formats, but no single source capable of playing CD, DVD, DVD-A, SACD, Blu-ray, and HD-DVD. If I remember correctly, the Panasonic Blu-ray player plays DVD-A, and I assume outputs through HDMI, but no SACD. The PS3 plays SACD but as it's a Sony, no DVD-A. Does the Pioneer Elite Blu-Ray player even play CD's?
I'm not ready to give up my DV-59AVi DVD player as I am unwilling to forgo DVD-A and SACD over I-Link.
From the looks of things at this point Pioneer with its current or announced line up has taken away our ability to use their products for DVD-A and SACD using Pioneer products exclusively. What I would like to see is a new Elite combo player that will play everything, and output high rez audio digitally. I would also like to see a new Elite receiver with I-Link so legacy DVD players aren't obsoleted.
Another concern includes the Faroudja video processing although if it's a new chip perhaps my concern is not justified.
My other quandary evolves around the HDMI 1.3 spec and the ability to pass True HD and DTS Master for processing in the receiver. I'm sure I'm confused, but my understanding is all current HD-DVD and Blu-ray players decode high rez audio in the player and output as LPCM. So, at this point there is no way to send an un-decoded signal to a 1.3 capable receiver for decoding anyway. If the option to output an un-decoded high rez Bitstream? becomes available in future HD players my understanding is it will then depend on how the disc is authored as to whether or not high rez audio can be passed to and decoded in the receiver. I thought I read that if the disc is authored as advanced, decoding must be done in the player, and if it is authored as basic and can be decoded by an outboard processor, but some interactivity will be lost.
I'll be very interested to hear the first report of somebody stating he has actually lit either his Dolby True HD or DTS HD Master Audio light on the display of his new HDMI 1.3 receiver.
I hope I'm wrong on some of these points but it sure will be interesting to see what happens over the course of the next few months.
I'm not ready to give up my DV-59AVi DVD player as I am unwilling to forgo DVD-A and SACD over I-Link.
From the looks of things at this point Pioneer with its current or announced line up has taken away our ability to use their products for DVD-A and SACD using Pioneer products exclusively. What I would like to see is a new Elite combo player that will play everything, and output high rez audio digitally. I would also like to see a new Elite receiver with I-Link so legacy DVD players aren't obsoleted.
Another concern includes the Faroudja video processing although if it's a new chip perhaps my concern is not justified.
My other quandary evolves around the HDMI 1.3 spec and the ability to pass True HD and DTS Master for processing in the receiver. I'm sure I'm confused, but my understanding is all current HD-DVD and Blu-ray players decode high rez audio in the player and output as LPCM. So, at this point there is no way to send an un-decoded signal to a 1.3 capable receiver for decoding anyway. If the option to output an un-decoded high rez Bitstream? becomes available in future HD players my understanding is it will then depend on how the disc is authored as to whether or not high rez audio can be passed to and decoded in the receiver. I thought I read that if the disc is authored as advanced, decoding must be done in the player, and if it is authored as basic and can be decoded by an outboard processor, but some interactivity will be lost.
I'll be very interested to hear the first report of somebody stating he has actually lit either his Dolby True HD or DTS HD Master Audio light on the display of his new HDMI 1.3 receiver.
I hope I'm wrong on some of these points but it sure will be interesting to see what happens over the course of the next few months.
Hopefully they will release the full spec soon and all things will be cleared up.
