As I pointed out a bunch of posts ago, I updated equipment in my gym. I updated my TV to a 42″ LCD 1080P HDTV and I replaced the receiver to an Onkyo TX-SR605 (my selection was primarily due to the recommendations of The HT Guys where they have talked about this unit several times over the last bunch of months if you search for it on their site.
I have found that the Onkyo sounds amazing and is very easy to use but that really is the core of this post. I really wanted to talk about HDMI. HDMI is a specification that allows both digital video and audio to go over one cable for a source. The current specification is up to 1.3 (which this Onkyo supports). This greatly simplifies cabling which is amazing as I can attest to given what I replaced in the gym and how many cables I didn’t have to use – just WOW!
I love the above but HDMI does have one downside too. HDMI does have some sort of signal verification (maybe it’s even DRM) built into the specification. This really slows down connections when the system is turned on. This is not very user friendly. I mean with the slowness of things like HD-DVD and Bluray players already, having HDMI slow things down even further is just wacky.
The players designing these technology are really not thinking about the users.
I am currently using HDMI for video only (PS3 into a Panasonic Plasma TV). Audio in my setup is from a Denon AVR 4800, which pre-dates the standard. I’m torn between upgrading my beloved receiver for a unit that supports HDMI (and possibly being disappointed) or staying with the current setup. I may wait awhile longer….
In my other theater setup, we have HDMI to DVI converter to an early generation Pioneer Elite Rear Screen Projection HDTV which also means that we have to do separate audio. I am very hesitant to upgrade the receiver and TV as both work well. There is the cost to keep with the size (65″ TV) and then quality so I’m with you in that I’ll wait a while longer…