It is a common practice for the chip manufactures to reserve functionality of their devices. ABT is probably the best at this practice. They have an unusual philosophy where they keep their chip’s abilities secrete. They then equip differing lines of their own products under the DVDO badge with the same chip, but give each devise different functionality at differing price points in a manner that no one can determine just exactly what the chip’s limitations are. The same goes for receiver manufactures that buy their chips. Each one, depending on price, will have different limitations. ABT is not alone with this practice either. The Reon was the hot chip two years ago. Everyone wanted it and would pay extra to get that name on their receiver’s face plate. It wasn’t until it was too late (money already spent) that the realization hit that their new toy with the shinny new ‘state of the art’ Reon only had half the functionality as their buddies’ AVR with a Reon.
I own a DVDO VP50pro. The Pro is DVDO’s $3500 flagship machine. It has been on a beta firmware version for almost 18 months now while DVDO has rolled out two new, lower end products and several firmware upgrades for both of those products. Both have more, and also less, functionality as the Pro. DVDO has offered me downgrade path to the $1200 Duo for no charge (the audacity of the bastards). They will not make an official statement whether the Pro will get additional firmware or not, or if it will be discontinued or not.
Rant aside, it is for these reasons that I suggested to test each device to see which one, or which combination provides the best or most desirable results. Asuming one machine does a better job than another just because it has a particular chip in it is the wrong approach.
