I purchased one for my father-in-law, who has been surviving on TV sound.
I'm not sure what the HDMI pass-through capabilities really are on the soundbar. Can anyone confirm what it's supposed to do?
When I purchased, I was thinking that his 2 x HDMI sources (BD and DirecTV) VIDEO would pass through the soundbar to the TV, and the soundbar would peel off the audio. However, when hooking up a Panny BD player to HDMI1 and plugging in the Panny TV to HDMI-out on the soundbar, I didn't get either sound out the bar nor any video to the TV. Error code on the Panny BD player read "U73", which points to an HDMI issue. The cables are all 3-4ft long and decent quality (Monoprice, of course). Tried the usual power on/off sequencing to fix, but didn't get it going.
Since I didn't have time to troubleshoot, I reverted back to using HDMI direct to the TV and using RCA audio out to the soundbar. For his needs, it's just fine and frankly, given the 2.1 capability - shouldn't really make a difference.
So, I'm not sure how useful those HDMI inputs really are (barring user error on my part).
Another Note: If you table-mount the soundbar on its included feet, you may have a problem with cable bend/clearances - unfortunately, the connectors are all facing down in that configuration. I had problems with the thick HDMI cables.