Naylia

[Naylia]

Yes – he owns an X-Meridian

[Naylia]

In my setup – for almost all my sources – audio goes to the AVR, video goes to the TV. All connections to the tv are HDMI or component depending on the source. All audio connections are analog or SPDIF.

Running video direct to the tv means you can’t rely on the AVR to perform input switching by itself, but it also means that when anything changes with regards to my ability to output a video signal I only have to worry about the tv.

Now with the AVR – there are a couple reasons to upgrade:
– More power
– New features

IMO, you are much better off increasing power by adding external amplification. Upgrading from a 90W AVR to a 100W AVR is not going to buy you the headroom of dedicated amplification. Nicely, my older Denon has 7.1 PreOuts. This have since been removed from any Denon model less than $1200 (wouldn’t want anyone buying the $379 Denon and adding their own amplification 🙂 ).

New features falls into two categories for me – Surround format support and other. In Sound formats we have DTS-HD and Dolby True-HD. In the Other category there are things like Audessy EQ.

With a full HTPC running Blu-ray playback I have decoding support for DTS HD and Dolby TrueHD in my PC and can send this to my AVR using Analog out. The same would be possible if you have an old AVR with just HDMI 1.0 or some such. Decode in the computer and output LPCM. None of my other sources take advantage these formats. So no worries there.

These leaves me with Auddessy EQ as a reason to upgrade. It’s tempting, but tough to justify considering that that would be the only thing I would get from a new AVR. Theoretically I have Room Correction in Windows 7 – I’m just a little scared of it, and I think one issue is that to use it I have to revert to the Win7 default audio driver. Maybe I’ll try that one day and see how it sounds.

As long as I can continue to support new surround formats on the HTPC, there is little value to upgrading my AVR.

[Naylia]

In my setup – for almost all my sources – audio goes to the AVR, video goes to the TV. All connections to the tv are HDMI or component depending on the source. All audio connections are analog or SPDIF.

Running video direct to the tv means you can’t rely on the AVR to perform input switching by itself, but it also means that when anything changes with regards to my ability to output a video signal I only have to worry about the tv.

Now with the AVR – there are a couple reasons to upgrade:
– More power
– New features

IMO, you are much better off increasing power by adding external amplification. Upgrading from a 90W AVR to a 100W AVR is not going to buy you the headroom of dedicated amplification. Nicely, my older Denon has 7.1 PreOuts. This have since been removed from any Denon model less than $1200 (wouldn’t want anyone buying the $379 Denon and adding their own amplification 🙂 ).

New features falls into two categories for me – Surround format support and other. In Sound formats we have DTS-HD and Dolby True-HD. In the Other category there are things like Audessy EQ.

With a full HTPC running Blu-ray playback I have decoding support for DTS HD and Dolby TrueHD in my PC and can send this to my AVR using Analog out. The same would be possible if you have an old AVR with just HDMI 1.0 or some such. Decode in the computer and output LPCM. None of my other sources take advantage these formats. So no worries there.

These leaves me with Auddessy EQ as a reason to upgrade. It’s tempting, but tough to justify considering that that would be the only thing I would get from a new AVR. Theoretically I have Room Correction in Windows 7 – I’m just a little scared of it, and I think one issue is that to use it I have to revert to the Win7 default audio driver. Maybe I’ll try that one day and see how it sounds.

As long as I can continue to support new surround formats on the HTPC, there is little value to upgrading my AVR.

[Naylia]

Actually, my obsolete sound card is what enables me to avoid investing any money in slightly improved receiver after slightly improved receiver. Out of my entire setup it has made my AVR the one thing I don’t care about upgrading. If I got new speakers, I might be tempted to add an external amp, but the AVR would still be a completely functional PrePro.

I can always run my video direct to the tv and not have to worry about my AVR molesting it because it supports the wrong HDMI version.

[Naylia]

Actually, my obsolete sound card is what enables me to avoid investing any money in slightly improved receiver after slightly improved receiver. Out of my entire setup it has made my AVR the one thing I don’t care about upgrading. If I got new speakers, I might be tempted to add an external amp, but the AVR would still be a completely functional PrePro.

I can always run my video direct to the tv and not have to worry about my AVR molesting it because it supports the wrong HDMI version.

[Naylia]

I read the article a little deeper and it brings up the idea of sending video to a friend – so if you watched a show and loved it you could “fling” it to their playlist.

[Naylia]

I read the article a little deeper and it brings up the idea of sending video to a friend – so if you watched a show and loved it you could “fling” it to their playlist.

[Naylia]

[quote=”jbachman2″]
I guess I might have to go LPCM for analog HD Audio.  I am currently running an Auzentech Meridian (I believe) sound card, would it handle this?[/quote]

I’m running the X-Meridian, and it works almost flawlessly for this. It is very easy to set up.

However, TMT does downsample the audio from 24-bit to 16-bit. I haven’t been able to conduct testing anywhere to see if that is something where I can hear the difference. The only way to retain 24-bit audio in TMT is to bitstream to an AVR.

However #2, It looks like about half of the Blu-rays out there, maybe more are only using 16-bit sampling anyways..so for about half your movies you will get the full complete audio signal without alteration using analog. [url=http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=760714]Unoffical Blu-ray AV Specs at AVSForum[/url]

[Naylia]

[quote=”jbachman2″]
I guess I might have to go LPCM for analog HD Audio.  I am currently running an Auzentech Meridian (I believe) sound card, would it handle this?[/quote]

I’m running the X-Meridian, and it works almost flawlessly for this. It is very easy to set up.

However, TMT does downsample the audio from 24-bit to 16-bit. I haven’t been able to conduct testing anywhere to see if that is something where I can hear the difference. The only way to retain 24-bit audio in TMT is to bitstream to an AVR.

However #2, It looks like about half of the Blu-rays out there, maybe more are only using 16-bit sampling anyways..so for about half your movies you will get the full complete audio signal without alteration using analog. [url=http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=760714]Unoffical Blu-ray AV Specs at AVSForum[/url]

[Naylia]

39.99 for lifetime?

I’ve been thinking about that and been trying to decide if the ability to stream Netflix and Hulu to our iPhones is worth it

[Naylia]

39.99 for lifetime?

I’ve been thinking about that and been trying to decide if the ability to stream Netflix and Hulu to our iPhones is worth it

[Naylia]

It’s true that Netflix enablement could help sell standalone HD200s (of which they don’t have any…)

The reason I’d like to think that it’s about CableCard is because historically SageTV has been all about being a great PVR application first, with all other media coming second…and in maintaining dominance as the best and most flexible PVR application around.

I contacted microsoft’s PlayReady question line to inquire about what participating in the Master Licenensing agreement provides, and to see if they could share how long SageTV has been a member.

[Naylia]

It’s true that Netflix enablement could help sell standalone HD200s (of which they don’t have any…)

The reason I’d like to think that it’s about CableCard is because historically SageTV has been all about being a great PVR application first, with all other media coming second…and in maintaining dominance as the best and most flexible PVR application around.

I contacted microsoft’s PlayReady question line to inquire about what participating in the Master Licenensing agreement provides, and to see if they could share how long SageTV has been a member.

[Naylia]

Of course, I’m not taking this so far as to be pre-ordering a Ceton tuner just yet 🙂

[Naylia]

Of course, I’m not taking this so far as to be pre-ordering a Ceton tuner just yet 🙂

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