Why wait for HDMI 1.3

[Jay]

I am looking to possibly purchase the Denon 3806 but I recall someone telling me that I should wait for HDMI 1.3 and buy a cheaper receiver and if I need HDMI switching buy a separate HDMI switcher. Could someone please tell me why I would want to wait for HDMI 1.3? Will something not be compatible and/or work properly? I would hate to spend the money on this amp and have something not be compatible next year.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

I am looking to possibly purchase the Denon 3806 but I recall someone telling me that I should wait for HDMI 1.3 and buy a cheaper receiver and if I need HDMI switching buy a separate HDMI switcher. Could someone please tell me why I would want to wait for HDMI 1.3? Will something not be compatible and/or work properly? I would hate to spend the money on this amp and have something not be compatible next year.

Read this. If you plan on running a newer HD DVD/Blu-ray player through your receiver, I'd recommend waiting on the 1.3 version. You may also benefit from the newer sound processing with 1.3 if the recording labels take to DTS-HD and Dolby True HD audio.

There's some outstanding buys on the Onkyo 703, the Denon 3805 and Yamaha 2500 in B stock right now. Component will pass 1080i, and you still have digital surround with optical/coax audio outs.

http://www.hdmi.com/resourcecenter/index.asp

 

[Jay]

Interesting read, thanks Buckeyefan. So, it seems to me that if I buy the receiver I am interested in now and run HD broadcast to the projector through the components, then when I get an HD DVD or Bluray player next year after HDMI 1.3 players hit the market, I could run it via HDMI. That way, I would not need to also buy a new receiver at that time as well. Does this sound correct? The other question I have is should I run an HDMI cable now or will HDMI 1.3 be a new cable?

 

[supervij]

Stupid question, but does that apply to HDTVs as well? I mean, should I be waiting for an HDTV that offers HDMI 1.3, as well as receiver and player? Or will the picture quality be automatically upgraded if the player has HDMI 1.3?

cheers,
supervij

 

[EastCoaster]

Or will the picture quality be automatically upgraded if the player has HDMI 1.3?

cheers,
supervij

It's not about the video, HDMI 1.3 is about the audio. You won't see any picture quality improvement.

 

[dponeill]

Interesting read, thanks Buckeyefan. So, it seems to me that if I buy the receiver I am interested in now and run HD broadcast to the projector through the components, then when I get an HD DVD or Bluray player next year after HDMI 1.3 players hit the market, I could run it via HDMI. That way, I would not need to also buy a new receiver at that time as well. Does this sound correct? The other question I have is should I run an HDMI cable now or will HDMI 1.3 be a new cable?

You only need HDMI 1.1 to take advantage of the advanced audio formats. The only thing 1.3 will give you on the audio side is the ability for the receiver to do the decoding instead of the player. My HDA1 decodes TrueHD and DD+ and sends it over to the receiver as 24/96 pcm.

 

[EastCoaster]

You may also benefit from the newer sound processing with 1.3 if the recording labels take to DTS-HD and Dolby True HD audio.



http://www.hdmi.com/resourcecenter/index.asp

That's a very big "if".... I wouldn't count on anything, other than needing a receiver that can pass a 1080p signal... The Yamaha 2700 can pass a 1080p signal, and has HDMI 1.2(a), which can do SACD in HDMI. Who knows when the 1.3 will come out (probably early '07)... If one needs a receiver now, might as well buy it...

 

[supervij]

As to no video upgrades, this is from the link that Buckeyefan gave:

"Deep Color: HDMI 1.3 supports 30-bit, 36-bit and 48-bit (RGB or YCbCr) color depths, up from the 24-bit depths in previous versions of the HDMI specification.

- Lets HDTVs and other displays go from million of colors to billions of colors.
- Eliminates on-screen color banding, for smooth tonal transitions and subtle gradations between colors.
- Enables increased contrast ratio
- Can represent many times more shades of gray between black and white
- At 30-bit pixel depth, a four times improvement would be the minimum, and the typical improvement would be eight times or more.

Broader color space: HDMI 1.3 removes all limits on color selection

- Next-generation “xvYCC” color space supports 1.8 times as many colors as - existing HDTV signals
- Lets HDTVs display colors more accurately
- Enables displays with natural, vivid colors"

Isn't that picture quality improvement? Or have I misinterpreted again?

cheers,
supervij

 

[infoe]

The link that buckeye posted the hdmi press states that the video will see much improvement also. Why do you all say that the only improvement will be in audio?

 

[LEVESQUE]

I've read that in another forum and it,s really interesting:

"When using a HD-DVD player, if you are playing a movie you can bring up the movies setup menu and it overlays on top of the movie and the movie keeps playing. Also, you can get menu sound effects which are mixed right into the audio of the movie itself when you interact with that overlaid menu.

In essense that is 'advanced content' on the disc. Another example would be a directors commentary being mixed into the movies soundtrack while it is playing instead of being a completely different audio track. Other things will offer advanced content as well.

To be able to do these sorts of features the player must be able to mix together multiple audio streams while the movie is playing. To be able to do this the audio must be in the LPCM format within the player. In other words the player must decode any encoded audio. Since the player decodes the audio automatically for any HD-DVD marked as using 'advanced content' (which I believe is literally all of them) even with HDMI v1.3 a player won't spit out bitstream (still encoded) audio. It can't do that and be able to perform the advanced content functions. The HDMI v1.3 player is going to decode the audio, do any advanced content mixing it needs to and spit out the decoded LPCM over HDMI.

So.... even if one had a HDMI v1.3 player and a HDMI v1.3 compatible pre-pro (with full support for decoding DD+, DD THD...etc...etc.. internally) if you played a HD-DVD marked as 'advanced content' (which is all of the titles out so far) in the player, the *player* is going to automatically decode the audio within the player (to be able to handle advanced content) and spit it out as multi-channel LPCM.

In other words the reality is the audio transfered from the player to the pre-pro is going to be no different then what occurs today with HDMI v1.1."

That is why HDMI v1.3 for audio will NOT be giving you anything more compared to HDMI v1.1...

 

[dponeill]

The link that buckeye posted the hdmi press states that the video will see much improvement also. Why do you all say that the only improvement will be in audio?

That doesn't mean that there will be improvements in current video formats. If someone comes up with a new format that can take advantage of the extra bandwidth, it is there to use. Maybe in 5-10 years this will be useful.

 

[EastCoaster]

That doesn't mean that there will be improvements in current video formats. If someone comes up with a new format that can take advantage of the extra bandwidth, it is there to use. Maybe in 5-10 years this will be useful.

Exactly - there is no content out there on the video side that can be used right now, and probably won't be for a while. If you need to buy now, buy now. If you can wait a year without giving yourself a headache, wait (1.3 will probably come out early next year, and within 12 months become affordable).