Broadcom's BCM-7440 ...It's time to find out what is really going on!

I'll give it a shot as well when I get a chance, but if anybody is able to get somebody on the phone that knows about this, see if you can get information on some of the OTHER audio issues -- i.e. dropouts on SD DVDs, multichannel TrueHD support, support for hidden track over spdif for TrueHD, etc.

Thanks,

Larry

Good luck to both of you! I also would buy one to replace my returned one.

HOWEVER.................................................

If I remember correctly, several people tried to do this when the owners thread first started getting concerned about the long term prospects of the Broadcom chip. Seems like even a reviewer tried to contact Broadcom.

Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

Some forum members who have dealt with Broadcom in the computer field say that this is SOP for them. SileasReseach claimed to know somebody who had a connection, but never heard the results.

I mailed Broadcom but no response.

If a question is specific to the 5k, I do not believe Broadcom can legally disclose any information as this is based on internal/3d party contracts the details of which will not make it to the public. Samsung will have to give us the info, even though they may only be a messenger here.

There is no need to ask Broadcom about any proprietary information that they have contractual agreements with 3rd party vendors. All we need to ask is about their BCM-7440 SoC design and if it can support (decode) all the Hi-def audio formats like multichannel True HD and DTS-HD-MA. They should answer this question with no sweat. If they sweat... well, then that speaks louder than anything else. In that case, if you really want the hi-def audio decoding, better return your player and look elsewhere.

I suspect that they lost the project expert(s) who was supposed to finish this design for them and so cannot finish it correctly (and are trying really hard to find someone who can or are training someone at this time to come up to speed on how to do it). Either that, or they know that it cannot support it at all and are afraid to reveal it. I hope they can sort it out because I would like to buy the Samsung BD-UP5000 back again if all this gets enabled and fixed. BTW, I just jumped and ordered a Samsung BD-P1400 to hold me over...

Well, the PDF states TrueHD and DTS-HD. It does not go beyond that (multi-channel TrueHD and DTS-HD-HR and DTS-HD-MA).



http://www.broadcom.com/collateral/pb/7440-PB02-R.pdf

The press release for the reference platform (BCM-97440) states - The HD DVD and universal dual format application software will be available in the first half of 2008.

http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=1092214

That may be all we will get out of Broadcom.

its its its

but absolutely no one has any evidence one way or another.

its allllllllll just a really big guess.

and now people are conjecturing that employees have quit Broadcom and left them without the ONE person in the whole company that knows anything about the chip?

WTF?

come on people. Rope it in.

Whats next? The Easter Bunny hopped into Broadcom and ate the paper that the code was written on and dragged the coder off to the North Pole where Santa Claus is waterboarding him (or her) until he (or she) writes code for Santa's upcoming Xbox720/PS4/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD/SACD/DVD-A/UltraHD Streaming HTIB/HTPC 4K resolution upscaling Waffle maker?

Well, the LG BH-200 doesn't have the ability to bitstream the advanced audio codec as well. The LG BH-200 and the Samsung BD-UP5000 use the same Broadcom BCM7440 SoC, so it may not be a really big guess, but yes it is a guess (educated, IMO).

It just so happens this is not all conjecture. Someone mentioned in another thread that a Tom McMahon had left broadcom. I searched and found a thread about it, he seems to have been a prominent technical director type at Broadcom and due to ill heath or an accident that left him in bad shape, he had to leave. He apparently was and still is an AVS Insider poster. But he had announced that he left Broadcom due to his unfortunate circumstances. See this thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&&#post9452841
I would not post FUD here.

Also you apparently are not totally aware that some companies really do have situation where one engineer or developer knows it all or most of all of a development project and has no backup people to competently take it over should that engineer leave or quit. I am a Senior Software Engineer type for many years and have seen this first hand on many projects. That's life. So all I was saying that it is a possibility that Broadcom has encountered this situation as one possible explanation of why they are not delivering the goods on this SoC. Why would they remain mum on such a matter. It is not like they are giving away any deep trade secrets. Until Broadcom comes public and officially states the situation of their SoC design... no one will know what's the real deal. I returned my Samsung BD-UP5000 which uses this SoC because of their silence on the matter. Shows no confidence on their part. If they were sure they could deliver, I am sure they would be advertising and bragging about it a long time ago.

Unbiased-

Thanks for that link, didn't know about what had happened to Tom. Sounds like an outstanding person based on his email. I hope his condition has improved and will continue to do so.

Gives us all a little insight to what MIGHT be going on at Broadcom.

I guess that I had better develop patience. Sounding more and more like those who want decoded multi-channel advanced codec via analog must wait untik May or spend big $$$$ on the new Denon in a couple of weeks.

The Duo may have been too good to be true (returned mine at the end of my return window).

From what I have gathered, Stephen Gordon, formerly of Sand Video and now Broadcom is the man behind the BCM7440 and he is still there....

is there any evidence at all that he is involved with the 7440? Is there any information as to who IS involved with the 7440?

until someone KNOWS this for a fact, posting that someone has left Broadcom and now there is no one there to code the thing is pure conjecture.

There is now a hint that a "BIG" firmware update is coming for the LG BH200. I just wonder if Broadcom has now figured out the DTS-HD MA issue. Maybe the 7440 will now be able to decode all formats.