Question:
Hi, Big Picture Big Sound,
1.) I want to upgrade my system to a better receiver which includes 1080p HDMI inputs but is it really worth it or should I wait? I was thinking of getting a Denon 2307 or Outlaw 1070. Something like these is kind of in my price range. Can you recommend a good receiver for under $1000.00?
I was wondering if I will notice the change? I presently have a Yamaha 2004 model (5760). It has all the all the Dolby sound modes, but no HDMI inputs.
I have JM lab speakers (Focal) in the front - 716, center channel and sub. In the rear I have Monitor Audio SFX wall-mount speakers. My DVD player is a Sony upconverting DVD player that does come in kind of good. For a display, I currently have a Sony SXRD 1080P rear projection TV.
2. Also do you think it is worth getting a HD DVD player or Blu-Ray player yet? I have been trying to figure out if the Oppo dv-981hd dvd player that says it converts to 1080p is a better option? Have you tried this one out yet? Also I need help convincing my wife this is worth it - any help there would be great too.
Thaks a bunch.
-Mike G., Nashua, NH
Answer:
Hi, Mike,
Well, for your wife, you're on your own, except maybe making a point of how much you'll save on going out to the movies when you have a kick-ass home theater system. Or just buy her a nice piece of jewelry and hope she doesn't notice the steady stream of boxes coming in from UPS. Works for me. Ouch. My wife just slapped me. Looks like I'll need another trip to Tiffany's.
As for whether now is the time to go HDMI/1080p on the receiver, there are certainly some excellent choices out there right now and the prices are coming down all the time. The Outlaw to which you refer does not have HDMI switching, but there are models from Onkyo, Sony, Denon and Yamaha that do (among others). We currently have an Onkyo TX-SR674 in the labs that does a great job with HDMI sources such as Blu-Ray Disc and HD-DVD players.
The Onkyo also does analog-to-HDMI upconversion - it will accept composite, s-video and component video inputs (from DVD players, VCRs, game systems, etc.) and output them all over HDMI so you only need one cable between your receiver and TV.
But most of the current HDMI-switching receivers do not yet support HDMI version 1.3, which features "Deep Color," and can support the newest DTS and Dolby Digital Lossless sound encoding formats (DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD). Does this matter to you? Probably not. Your current TV doesn't support HDMI 1.3 either, so forget about "Deep Color." DTS-HD Master Audio is still more theoretical than actual on the hardware and software side. And current HD-DVD and Blu-Ray disc players expand Dolby TrueHD soundtracks into lossless linear PCM (L-PCM) format, in multi-channel mode. The current players convert TrueHD tracks to PCM so they can mix in commentary tracks and menu sound effects. So these multi-channel digital audio tracks are passed along (via HDMI) to current receivers for processing. To do this, the receiver only needs to support HDMI 1.1 or above, and include multi-channel PCM decoding (most hdmi-switching receivers do).
So if you buy an HDMI-switching receiver today, you will get the added convenience of a single connection for digital video and audio, as well as use of the receiver as a true audio/video switching device for your entire system. But you probably won't get HDMI 1.3 support (which as we've discussed, isn't really that important today, but might be more so in the future as more source devices, displays and software begin to exploit it).
There is a brand new Onkyo receiver (TX-SR505) which sells for under $300 and supports HDMI 1.3, but for switching/passthrough only. This means it will not decode Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio. It simply passes the HDMI 1.3 signal to your display device in case your display and source device support "Deep Color." Onkyo will have a model available in May (TX-SR605, MSP $599) that will offer native decoding of DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby True HD as well as full transcoding of composite, component and s-video sources to HDMI (at the native resolution of the source). Expect models from Yamaha, Denon, Sony, et. al. later this year.
As for whether to get a Blu-Ray Disc or HD-DVD player now, or wait. Waiting will always get you something cheaper (and usually better), and may add some more clarity to the whole "format war" but how long do you want to put off watching real Full HD 1080p movies on your fancy 1080p HDTV?
Even the best upconverting DVD players (and from the reviews, the Oppo certainly seems like a good one) do not compare to watching a movie in true 1080p on Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. The latest Toshiba HD-XA2 HD-DVD player also happens to be an excellent upconverting DVD player, so it will make your existing library of DVDs look as good as they can look, but once you put in a real HD-DVD title, the difference is obvious.
If you wanted to hedge your bets, you could get an HD-XA2 which is now selling for under $600 on Amazon, and a Sony PS3 Blu-Ray Disc player/game console (also under $600 on Amazon) and this way you'd have one player of each format for a total cost that is *still* lower than some Blu-Ray only players.
Regards,
-Chris
