Just read great summary about HDMI 1.3 Receivers over at AVSforum. I thought it was good info and would pass along here.

Here is the first post from the AVS thread...
Quote:

"Official" "Why you don't need HDMI 1.3" thread

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There is a lot of interest in HDMI 1.3. Many people were hoping for more of an HDMI 1.3 presence at the latest CES 2007 show in the city of Lost Wages.

This thread will (hopefully) clarify some points on why you don't necessarily need to wait for HDMI 1.3 in an AV receiver.

* You don't need HDMI 1.3 to take advantage of Dolby True HD
* You don't need HDMI 1.3 to take advantage of Dolby Digital Plus
* You don't need HDMI 1.3 to take advantage of DTS Master Audio
* While you do need HDMI 1.3 to take advantage of Deep Color, there are no imminent sources for Deep Color
* Even if you did want to wait for HDMI 1.3, there are limitations with passing on the bitstream from the player to the AVR
* 1080p is supported in HDMI 1.1; Some receivers simply did not implement it

If you want to take advantage of any of the new "high definition" audio formats encoded in HD DVD or Blu-ray soundtracks, your receiver needs one of two options. It either needs multi-channel analog inputs, or the ability to properly handle multi-channel PCM. Not all receivers with HDMI inputs handle HDMI audio. Some apparently don't handle multi-channel PCM properly. Of those that handle multi-channel PCM, some won't boost the LFE channel by 10Db which is needed for a proper LFE level. Hopefully all newer receiver models advertising HDMI audio handling will properly handle 5.1 PCM for 5-channel models, and 7.1 PCM for 7-channel models. In the meantime, please read the stickied Future Proof Receiver thread.

Deep Color is not present in any current source. Some people have speculated that it would first appear in video game consoles. Waiting for an HDMI 1.3 receiver to pass Deep Color information makes little sense until there are Deep Color sources, and displays with Deep Color.

Most people seem to know the situation with 1080p and HDMI. Just to clarify though, HDMI has always supported 1080p in the spec. In the future most or all HDMI 1.1 compliant receivers should handle it. An increasingly large number of mid level HDMI receivers are handling 1080p.

What about HDMI 1.2 and 1.2a? The most likely desire for HDMI 1.2 is to pass DSD from an SACD player directly to the receiver. The newer universal players with SACD support can output to PCM similar to how the new high definition audio formats for HD DVD and Blu-ray work. I know of no HDMI 1.2a receiver that has a built in DSD decoder. In summary all other things being equal, current HDMI 1.2a receivers are not adding any value.



-Dave

M80s VP150 QS8s EP500s
ravenmanor.com/cinema/