Toshiba HD-A2 - $200.00 plus shipping

[Quinn]

You have to get the higher end players like the HD XA2 to get one that will send the new lossless formats decoded over analog. The PS3 doesn't have analog outs either.

I'm not replacing my Marantz SR7200 just to get the new audio formats. I will be using a toslink and the "older" audio formats.

[Eddie Horton]

Actually, my Toshiba D1 that I bought in April of '06 will send DD+ and TrueHD over analog and it sounds great. I have a Yamaha HTR-5790 that doesn't do HDMI.
Ed, the new receivers take the bitstream and do the D/A conversion. Older, 1.1 or 1.2 receivers, or those with analog inputs take the signal after the D/A conversion is done in the player.

[tp7539]

I've actually built a pc and will connect the xbox 360 hd drive to it. I have a 7.1 sound card with analog outs....and will run that to my receiver. As it's been stated, this will give my system the ability to play the new audio formats. But as I understand the main difference between running the sound over analog and having a receiver that accepts the sound of over hdmi, is that with analog I won't be able to manage the bass effectively. It will pass through and deliver bass to each speaker equally, but may be lacking as it relates to the real low frequency on the dvd soundtrack that is intended for the sub.

I'm sure it will sound exquisite, and I've set my system up intentionally this way. But without having heard it yet, this is my input based on research.

[Eddie Horton]

From my experiences, that's the main advantage of HDMI as it relates to these players and AVR's.......bass management. In my setup, using analog, the bass management is done in the player. Fortunately, my AVR will remember different speaker and sub level settings for analog inputs and digital inputs, or it would be a pain to level match everything since the sub level is low out of the D1. It took some tweaking and turning the sub up to compensate for the analog level out of the D1 and cutting the sub level in the AVR for all my digital sources so all inputs were still level matched. HDMI makes this much easier. I'm thinking of picking up a Yammy RX-V661 for pre-pro use. It's getting great reviews, has tons of bells and whistles, and will layer 7.1 on top of 5.1 HDMI sources from my D1, and all for under 400 bucks. The only drawback is that it will not transcode component to HDMI and it only has 2 HDMI inputs, but nothing's perfect.

[muzz]

Everyone is making a BIG DEAL of this HDMI CRAP, listen, HDMI WASN'T created for YOU, it was created for THEM....... CONTROl......
HDMI is NO better than 6 analogs,show me proof it is, I'll give ya a gold star!!

[Eddie Horton]

Muzz, totally agree. You can do anything with analog that you can with HDMI. It just takes more cables.

[BradJudy]

Everyone is making a BIG DEAL of this HDMI CRAP, listen, HDMI WASN'T created for YOU, it was created for THEM....... CONTROl......
HDMI is NO better than 6 analogs,show me proof it is, I'll give ya a gold star!!

Errr...you can transfer video digitally to a digital display without ever doing D/A/D conversions. Can't do that with analog.

[Eddie Horton]

Yeah, but then you get into the debate of whether those D/A/D conversions are detrimental or noticeable. I'd guess that on 90% plus of displays, that the conversions aren't noticeable, and that on the remaining 10%, about 90% of most people see what they want to see. Wow, that's a lot of percentages.

[muzz]

Errr...you can transfer video digitally to a digital display without ever doing D/A/D conversions. Can't do that with analog.

This is true, they could do that with DVI as well.

[BradJudy]

This is true, they could do that with DVI as well.

Which has the exact same copy protection as HDMI, which is what I thought you were complaining about.