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Originally Posted by Robscix  Even most newer entry level receivers will come with HDMI A/V connectors. You don't need $10,000 is audio gear to enjoy high resolution standards. If anything, these newer standards may help people get the most out of the gear they already have which may already be compatible. |
I just picked up the LG HD DVD/Bluray combo reader (GGC-H20L) yesterday and connected to my Cambridge Audio home receiver, via the S/PDIF.
I'm using the on-board sound from my Asus P5B mobo, which means I'm limited only to 5.1 of audio (compressed), which only allows for DTS-ES or Dolby Digital EX. Although the Cambridge Azur 540v3 receiver is new (only got it a month ago), and it does have 2 HDMI inputs/1 HDMI output, it does not handle the lossless audio. To get into that level of sound you would be looking at about $1400 (such as the Denon AVR-2808CI) plus the speakers etc, as well as the aforementioned Azuntech (or similar) sound card. Just because a receiver has HDMI connections doesn't mean that it will do audio switching as well, most lower end receivers will only handle video and will require a separate connection via SPDIF for audio.
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Originally Posted by Robscix Digital S/PDIF standards right now are very limited compared to HDMI. Surround formats presently using digital Coax and optical are using lossy compression meaning your losing some fidelity just in the encoding. Of course these are emerging audio/video standards and will take awhile before they become more main stream in price and affordability. |
True. If you observe the audio data traffic being transferred while playing back via SPDIF you will see you're getting about 450Kbps, whereas if you are using a lossless format you're pushing about 4600Kbps. Numerically it is very significant, however I have yet to hear the difference myself.
If you consider how slow Bluray is being adopted, and how expensive stand-alone players still are, and the dynamic nature of the Bluray standard, I can't imagine you'll see much public acceptance until at least the end of this year.