To all:

here is a somewhat controversial article about HDMI 1.3

http://www.avreview.co.uk/news/article/mps/UAN/791/v/1/sp/

There are three controversial items in this article:

1- The Deep Color video format

This allows for digital video streams to have more than 24 bits per pixel (8 bits per primary color). 8 bits means 256 shades of a given color.

There are currently no standard video sources that provides more than 24 bits per pixel. HD broadcasts as well as HD-DVD and Blu-Ray video material are all 24 bits per pixel. It is very unlikely that studios will change all their material in a near future to provide 30, 36 or  48 bits per pixel in a few years because everything in the production line has to be changed, from cameras to broadcast equipment. Switching to high definition TV has been already very difficult for TV stations.

2- Decoding of True-HD or DTS-HD audio streams in the A/V processor.

Apparently, all the decoding need to be done in the HD disc player to allow soundtrack mixing and other audio effects present on the disc. Only LPCM audio streams are required as output.

3- Short useful life of A/V equipment

The author is somewhat cynical in the last paragraph of his article.  Life will be tough for high end manufacturers if his prediction comes true. But it is doubtful that movie and TV studios will follow. The cost of replacing all their equipment every few years will be prohibitive.

Good reading!

Jean Vezina

 

Deep Colour would be the only reason you'd need HDMI 1.3-- but there are noe Deep Color sources ...

 

• 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-HD Master Audio
• While you do need HDMI 1.3 to take advantage of Deep Color, there are no imminent sources for Deep Color
• Sony appears to be releasing xvYCC camcorders and a TV with HDMI 1.3 and xvYCC; I suspect the number of people in the market for this is limited (The TV Sony announced was a 70" LCD that's supposed to cost $30k USD)
• 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.

 

How about lip sync?  Anyone run into problems with this in real life?

If its not handled automatically by your STB, then you should be able to time-delay in order to match video/audio - most decent processors allow for this.