Dolby HD - requiring HDMI?

[grit]

I ripped this off of Dolby's website (click here to read the full page).

Dolby TrueHD allows owners of current A/V receivers equipped with Dolby Digital decoding to experience a significant improvement in audio performance when they connect their receivers to a next-generation optical player that supports Dolby Digital 640 kbps output. Consumers who own a receiver equipped with multichannel analog inputs will be able to experience the superb audio quality of Dolby TrueHD, coupled with the expanded capability for full 7.1 discrete channel playback. For the ultimate Dolby TrueHD experience, consumers who recently purchased the latest A/V receivers with HDMI(TM) inputs can experience lossless 7.1-channel playback via a pure digital connection.

Let the speculation begin! What I really don't understand is that A/V receivers with HDMI in the back can already decode "Dolby TrueHD"? What does that say about the processor chip? No work? Just pass it on to the DACs? Will we have a 'bypass' mode where you can skip the processing and just decode the signal straight to the DACs? Makes you think twice about wanting to upgrade your pre-pro, eh?

[Kevin D]

They can't decode it. There might be some that can get an upgrade, but it's highly doubtful. That's why I like Rotel for waiting on HDMI until they know they will be able to decode both Dolby and DTS HD audio.

Kevin D.

[Aussie Geoff]

Hi,

What I think this also means is that Dolby's (very sensible) design requirement for licencsing Dolby HD in HD-DVD players etc is that as a "backwards compatile measure" the player both put out a SPDIF stream (Fibre or Coax) at the maximum supported Dolby Digital rate of 640 Kbs (well up from the normal DVD rates of arround 375 Kbs). And also provide 7.1 analogue outputs (at last I get to use the 7.1 input on my RSP-1098!)

A smart move as it means that most people don't have to upgrade their reciever / processor to get a good proportion of the sound quality benefit of the HD Dolby format...

I have also heard that they were looking at doing a similar thing wuith the HDMI interface so as to not leave all the "early adopters" in the cold. They were going to put (as an option I suspect) a currently decoded digital format on the HDMI for the sound so that that too could taken and decode a digital source at the maximum backward compatable resolution.

All impressive. It will be interesting to see how well it works..

Geoff

[Andrew M Ward]

Hdmi 1.3

HDMI 1.3 specifications include SACD (Wow!) i'm shocked... backwards compatiblity is right.