[Ryan Peddle]

After reading RAF's essay on components in the home theater world and read a few other posts about stand alone decoders for Dolby TrueHD and what not I started thinking about my AVR. My Yammy HTR5860. Simple and effective receiver. But all I have going to it is and Optical cable from my upscalling dvd player, and a coax cable from my HD digital cable. ALL my video (HDMI and component) goes straight to my projector. Hell, even when I had my Xbox it was optical and component. As would be when I pick up a 360.

So whay do I need a receiver or even a PrePro filled with useless inputs? In an all digital world, for me, I don't need any compostie video, Svideo, or two channel audio.

Now I know there are a lot of people out there that use some of these connections. But I do not. And I bet there are a lot of other people out there that don't use them either.

So my proposition is that in a setup where you are only using HDMI and Component for video, and Optical/Coax/5.1/7.1 analog for audio, why can't there be a dedicated audio decoder for DD, DTS, DPLII (and any other DSP you might want) as well as DD+, Dolby TrueHD, DTS MasterHD and PCM, from there use preouts to a 5.1 or 7.1 dedicated amplifier, and then to your speakers. And the video side can go to a dedicated vid pro and then to you display/projector.

In this scenario I would be eliminating all the electronic connections that I do not require, saving a lot of space and probably improving the overall quality dramatically.

Does anybody remember with Prologic receivers were the norm and when DD/DTS came out you could be an outboard decoder (Technics) to do that processing. Well that is the direction I would like to go. Why can't we have this?

Discuss.


(BTW, If this needs to be moved to a more appropriate section, please do.)

[RAF]

An interesting proposal Ryan and, perhaps, the way that things may go in the future. I totally agree that there is a lot of acreage on the back of many pre-pros and receivers that is taken up by jacks I never use (do I really need 5 composite video inputs?) and I certainly would welcome more jacks that fit my needs (like more HDMI jacks) than stuff from the last century. This even extends to some of the newer components out there. For example, about the only thing missing from my excellent DVDO VP50 video processor is Dual HDMI output (I run two displays, my FP and my RPM - although not at the same time). When I asked the DVDO people at CEDIA 2006 why their new VP50 didn't add one more HDMI output to the similar VP30 they explained it was a question of "acreage" or space available on the back of the unit.



That said however, I also understand the needs for the general public (even the HT obsessed). A manufacturer has to provide as many options as possible for as many customers as possible in order to turn a profit and, for better or worse there are still plenty of uses for S-Video and even composite video inputs out there. Will some manufacturer take up the gauntlet and provide "modularized" outboard devices? Perhaps. I've learned never to say never (and these things might actually exist in the custom world) but I doubt you will see what you propose until the last components with the older outputs and inputs disappear from general circulation.



But I do like your thinking in this regard and maybe some others can provide insight into whether such devices are on the horizon or available from specialty shops.