Michael (HomeDad),

Thank you very much for the follow up. Your impressions are the same as those I have read elsewhere; namely, no/negligible difference with HD-DVD but better upconversion of standard DVD with HD-XA2.

What is interesting on the audio side is that, for people without HDMI on their receivers, both the XA2 and A2 will transcode and output the "core" DTS audio in DTS-HD High Resolution Audio and DTS-HD Master Audio as 1.5 Mbps DTS via SPDIF. For Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby True HD, the A2 transcodes and outputs these also as DTS at 1.5 Mbps, whereas the XA2 ouputs them as 640 Kbps Dolby Digital. In this regard, A2 is little more favorable for people without HDMI for audio. Of course, for receivers that have HDMI, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby True HD can be sent as PCM over HDMI in both A2 and XA2 and should sound better than the 640 Kbps DD via SPDIF.

Why did everything become so complex when the concept is a simple one of getting both audio and video in one cable/connection?

Thanks again

John

John
Our HT