Question:
Hello BPBS;
I've been listening fairly closely to the HDMI news, as I'm sure everyone has, but I'm curious if there's a tangible difference when using HDMI as opposed to DVI. It seems everyone who reviews receivers these days thinks HDMI is an absolutely necessary feature, but to me it seems more a way to reduce cable clutter. Also, is it difficult to translate DVI signals into HDMI signals? It seems a lot of TV's are not offering DVI connections in favor of HDMI, so that's also a consideration.
The point of these questions relates to the Outlaw 1070 receiver. Is there any downside to having DVI ports on it besides more cable mess and possibly the need to convert signals?
Thanks,
-Evan
Answer:
Hi, Evan,
Theoretically, DVI and HDMI handle video identically, and there are very inexpensive DVI to HDMI adapters (or cables that have DVI on one side, HDMI on the other) - it's not complicated to adapt the signal from one format to the other. I have heard of a few compatibility issues with DVI displays used with HD-DVD or Blu-ray Disc players using HDMI outputs, but these seem to be the exception rather than the rule.
But there is one significant advantage of HDMI over DVI, other than reducing cable clutter. HDMI is currently the only connection format that can carry next generation surround sound formats digitally, including DSD (Direct Stream Digital) used in SACD players, DVD-Audio, Multi-channel uncompressed PCM (used by Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD players), as well as Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio and DTS-HD Master Audio.
Multi-channel PCM audio requires HDMI 1.1 or above. DSD, DVD-Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio support was enabled with HDMI version 1.2. Bitstream audio support for Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio is available in HDMI version 1.3. Not all HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc players will support all of these formats, but without HDMI, you cannot pass these signals to a receiver or processor digitally. Traditional "S/PDIF" coax or fiber-optic outputs can only pass stereo PCM or the "legacy" compressed Dolby Digital and DTS surround formats.
It is, of course, possible to do the surround sound decoding in the player itself, then pass the sound to the receiver or pre-amp via six (for 5.1) or eight (for 7.1) analog RCA audio cables, but this makes the wiring even more complicated, and it requires that the player support decoding of the specific surround sound format. This is not always a foregone conclusion. For example, the upcoming Toshiba HD-A35 HD-DVD player will only support the DTS-HD format via a digital bitstream output to a compatible receiver or processor. It will have no on-board DTS-HD decoder. This means the high quality lossless DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack that may be featured on your shiny new HD-DVD will be truncated down to lossy standard DTS for playback on your system (unless you have an HDMI 1.3-compatible receiver with DTS-HD Master Audio decoding).
The Outlaw 1070 receiver is a fine component, our own Eric Bergman really liked it in his review. Also, HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc titles with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks are currently fairly few and far between (there are more titles available with Dolby TrueHD or Dolby Digital Plus soundtracks). But you might also want to consider current HDMI 1.3-compatible receivers from Onkyo, Integra and Pioneer, or upcoming models from Denon, Sony (and others), if you feel that these new surround formats will proliferate and you are interested in distributing the audio and video signals digitally among your various components.
Again, if you can find a player that includes on-board decoding for all the formats in which you're interested, and you don't mind the additional wires between your components, then you really can get by without HDMI in your receiver, and the Outlaw 1070 would make a fine choice.
Regards,
-Chris
