Well it took me all day since my entire system is "in wall" making connections and running cables is worse than waterboarding :M (but it looks darn good). But I completed the swap, now my new blueray player and plasma are through and through 1080p HDMI connected. Compared to upconverting 1080i at the TV there is a modest improvement. My plasma is 50 inches so I didn't expect it to be earth-shattering and it isn't, but if you look hard enough back to back thre is a slight improvement in the overall sharpness of the image. It looked awesome with component video and it looks slightly more awesome now. Since I was chomping at the bit for 7.1 I set the Blue ray player to output everything PCM. The only thing that has been 7.1 has been the beginning of the Planet Earth DVD (the rest of the disc is 5.1). It sounds fabulous on both formats and the player decodes them back and forth without any qualms. The 1069 treats it as multi-input and provides the 5 or 7 channles automaticaly and unerringly. The sound is breathtaking but, in the limited selection I have tried up to now (Planet Earth and Life of Brian) improvement has been exactly zero since aside from the prelude of planet earth its all been 5.1.
The 1069 remote is a definite imrovement over the 1068's it is much smarter than before and training is a snap, furthermore, it includes codes for what seems to be every electronic component ever devised plus it knows all rotel components by model, very, very convenient!
The upconversion of of all other sources (XBOX and cableTV in my case) to 1080p is flawless as is all switching. The audio setup is almost identical to the 1068 and thus excellent in all respects. Sound quality as far as I can gather in my very short expirience is just as good as in the 1068. The main difference is that the controls seem to work in a slicker manner.
Conclusion, the 1069 is an improvement on the 1068 primarily because it allows you to now hook up HDMI components. On the video side HDMI allows 1080P unfettered transmission which honestly is a very, very slight improvement over 1080i over component video on my 50inch 1080P plasma ( purported to be the best TV ever made) maybe it is more noticeable at 60in. If your TV is less than 50 simply don't bother. The ability to stream 7.1 is great whenever 7.1 titles show up, however as with 1080P I don't think its going to be an enormous difference over the pseudo 7.1 rotel offers with dolbyPLII+XS and dts es.
The skinny: if your TV is less than 50 inches ignore 1080p entirely, the benefits of 7.1 audio are a promose unfulfilled as of yet. The 1069 is a very nice upgrade to the 1068, however, even with the equipment to exploit it there is no urgent need to go out and replace the 1068. If you don't have the goods to expolit its additional features (ie 7.1 and a tv over 50 inch) simply forget about. :later:
The 1069 remote is a definite imrovement over the 1068's it is much smarter than before and training is a snap, furthermore, it includes codes for what seems to be every electronic component ever devised plus it knows all rotel components by model, very, very convenient!
The upconversion of of all other sources (XBOX and cableTV in my case) to 1080p is flawless as is all switching. The audio setup is almost identical to the 1068 and thus excellent in all respects. Sound quality as far as I can gather in my very short expirience is just as good as in the 1068. The main difference is that the controls seem to work in a slicker manner.
Conclusion, the 1069 is an improvement on the 1068 primarily because it allows you to now hook up HDMI components. On the video side HDMI allows 1080P unfettered transmission which honestly is a very, very slight improvement over 1080i over component video on my 50inch 1080P plasma ( purported to be the best TV ever made) maybe it is more noticeable at 60in. If your TV is less than 50 simply don't bother. The ability to stream 7.1 is great whenever 7.1 titles show up, however as with 1080P I don't think its going to be an enormous difference over the pseudo 7.1 rotel offers with dolbyPLII+XS and dts es.
The skinny: if your TV is less than 50 inches ignore 1080p entirely, the benefits of 7.1 audio are a promose unfulfilled as of yet. The 1069 is a very nice upgrade to the 1068, however, even with the equipment to exploit it there is no urgent need to go out and replace the 1068. If you don't have the goods to expolit its additional features (ie 7.1 and a tv over 50 inch) simply forget about. :later:
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