It was only a matter of time, with parent company Onkyo announcing its upcoming HD-DVD player, but now Onkyo's high-end brand Integra is also entering the next generation DVD format fracas with their DHS-8.8 HD-DVD player ($1100, coming in the fourth quarter). The unit was on display at CEDIA Expo in Denver last week.

Specs on the player are very similar to Toshiba's HD-XA2 (they should be, since they share the same platform), but the Integra includes some enhancements such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD bitstream out via HDMI as well as 1080p/24fps (frames/second) support (a.k.a. "1080/24p").

These new features are expected to be available for the HD-XA2 later this year in firmware upgrades, but the Integra player will have them right out of the box.


The Integra features high-end Wolfson and Burr-Brown 192 KHz/24-bit audio DACs (Digital Analog Converters) for higher quality sound from CDs and DVDs, via the 2-channel or 5.1-channel analog outputs. Like the HD-XA2, the DHS-8.8 also includes the Reon-VX video processing chip from Silicon Optix, so it should do an excellent job upconverting standard DVDs to 1080p resolution.


Also at the Integra booth in Denver were receivers in their new line, several of which support Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding. Pair one of these receivers with the DHS-8.8 and you'll be in some kind of High Def Nirvana with high quality lossless multi-channel sound, and 1080p/24 or 1080p/60 full high definition video.

Yes exciting times are ahead for high definition videophiles and audio aficionados!