this is not news
I am a big supporter of TI, but how is this news? The reason I ask is:
1)DD Plus is up to 1.7mbps on BD and 3-6mbps on HD-DVD; Dolby TrueHD is up to 18 mbps on both formats.
2)DTS Encore is up to 1.5mbps on both formats; DTS-HD High Resolution Audio is 3 mbps on HD-DVD and 6 mbps on BD; DTS-HD Master Audio is 24.5 mbps on BD and 18 mbps on HD-DVD.
3)Both next gen format disc players downmix to allow transmission over coax/optical anyway. The Next-gen codecs have legacy downmix codecs built in. It would be stupid not to.
4)Pretty much any receivers out there that can decode DD and DTS also have analog ins. These would STILL be a better solution b/c you take full advantage of the next-gen audio formats.
So in summary, this solution does NOT give you the next-gen audio formats over coax/optical it gives you a downmixed version; However, both next-gen format players automatically downmix the audio to send over coax/optical anyway (legacy is built into the next-gen audio codecs). If you own a digital receiver that decodes DD or DTS you can get this downmix already AND you most likely have analog ins which are a better option because you get full advantage of the next-gen audio formats. Finally, this chip is going into new receivers right? So why buy a new receiver that won't do anything new when you can get an HDMI receiver that will truly decode these next-gen formats. Or why not keep your current receiver and use analog ins or optical/coax downmix? So the 2 takehome points are:
You don't need HDMI anything to get the next-gen audio codecs right now...use analog ins. If you want to use coax/optical...you already can, you don't need the "new" TI chip. This is just marketing in my opinion.
