Firmware Upgrade?,new dolby and dts formats

[HTHOLIC]

I recently decided to buy the yamaha rx-v 2600 instead of the 4600 due to hdmi features. Did I make a mistake?, the 4600 has 1394 which means that any audio device can output specific sound that's the receiver doesn't have encoded-, ie sacd, dvd audio,etc.

Since the yamaha only has hdmi 1.1, I am very worried. Do I have to buy a new receiver in order to get dolby digital plus and HD?, I understand I can use the "mulit-channel in"- but can't yamaha give us firmware upgrades, how is that done, via the rs-232 port.


I guess if I am out of luck, I will have to wait 1 1/2 years to get a new receiver- I just wish yamaha could have allowed us to set both presence and back speakers at the same time also. Since that is a properity feature- maybe they can do the same thing for Dolby digital PLus and HD.


Another question, can I use the $100 hdmi cable I bought with the HDMI 1.3 specification, and no it wasn't monster cable(it was impact)

 

[mfabien]

May I ask why you did buy the RX-V2600? In other words, what is your objective for sound reproduction now and a year from now.

 

[j_garcia]

The cable doesn't care what version.

New chips are required for the new DD and dts versions, so it definitely won't be by firmware update. Did you make a mistake? No. Just use the 2600 for now, and sell it when receivers start to hit the market that support the new formats. It will still be at least until later this year before we start to see receivers that do.

 

[HTHOLIC]

The cable doesn't care what version.

New chips are required for the new DD and dts versions, so it definitely won't be by firmware update. Did you make a mistake? No. Just use the 2600 for now, and sell it when receivers start to hit the market that support the new formats. It will still be at least until later this year before we start to see receivers that do.

Yeah, I wonder if yamaha will have presecne speakers to run with the 7.1 formats, now that would be awesome.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Yeah, I wonder if yamaha will have presecne speakers to run with the 7.1 formats, now that would be awesome.

The new formats most likely are backwards compatible. I doubt there will be much audible difference in them, especially when you are enjoying the movie instead of concentrating to find faults with the audio

 

[j_garcia]

I believe it was discussed or someone linked to an article on it here - the new formats are backwards compatible IIRC. The new formats are capable of lossless playback though, so I would actually expect a fairly noticable increase in sound quality with a receiver capable of decoding the format in lossless form.

 

[goodman]

I suspect the new sound formats will sound noticeably better, too. If you listen attentively to dolby digital, it really isn't that good. Sure, it gives you plenty of whump and thump, but music sounds screechy in the upper frequencies. I'm hoping that the new sound formats are as good as SACD or better. Can you imagine a concert video of your favorite musicians with a high resolution picture and pristine sound?
I was hoping that the players to come would process the new sound formats and pass them through to our old receivers, but people who know have told me otherwise.

 

[mfabien]

I had the HD-A1 player for a few weeks, last month, and it was quite pleasant to use. I returned it because I'm not one to build a movie library. My DVD collection, except for 2 movies, is entirely music concerts and that appears not to be in the works for HD DVD for the next few months.

As for new sounds and the new codecs:

My first discovery was multichannel 5.1 analog and once I calibrated the speakers and the bass management in the player, I found that to be a very enjoyable listening experience with CD's and with certain concerts such as Diana Krall's "Live in Paris".

I bought HD DVD movies Serenity and Apollo 13 and listen to both in DD Plus (only new codec available for these two movies) using multichannel 5.1 analogs and then, using SPIDF, the DD Plus bitstream is treated as if it was DTS because of the 1.5 Mbps audio bitrate. In both cases the sound is more real, richer than normal DTS or DD.

With the multichannel 5.1 analogs movies in DD TrueHD can be heard in Stereo, at this time, and in DTS-HD core in 5.1. Perhaps a future update for the player will give access to DD TrueHD in 5.1 and to lossless DTS-HD.

Today I accessed the online owner's manual at:
http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/dvd/product.asp?model=hd-a1

(press "Resources" the "Owner's manual" 4.0 Mb PDF)

and went to page 59. There seems to be a change for HDMI. With the manual that come with the player in May, I don't recall seeing the qualifier: "Depend on HDMI receiver" for setting "Auto" (but, I may be wrong). To me that implies that the receiver must permit certain functions when set to "Auto" (if even possible). Otherwise, the HDMI setting in the player should be set at PCM or Bitstream. But I'm sure the qualifier is not suggesting that the receiver must carry the new codecs.

 

[HTHOLIC]

7.1 HD support

I wonder when we can finally use those 7.1 speakers natively, meaning the content is actually designed for 7.1 rather than having to duplicate, place certain 5.1 content in the remaining two speakers.

How did 7.1 come to be anyway?, There still isn't a native 7.1 format- until now but no receiver supports dts-hd and dolby hd and the players can only output 5.1.'

6.1 discreet dts discs are rare, so how did this 7.1 start anyway, was it a manufcaturing or advertised to get people to buy more?

Can the firmware on the yamaha be upgraded? What is the rs-232c port for, I guess Ill just wait for the new chips.