Anthem (non-HDMI)

[canman93]

First, great forum!

Now, having maxed out my budget a couple years ago on a new system I find myself behind in times with HDMI being everywhere especially with me finally starting a Blu-ray collection.

My plasma is only 720p/1080i and my pre/pro, an Anthem AVM30, doesn't even have a HDMI connection. I contacted Anthem and they want $2000 to upgrade the AVM30 with new video circuitry (same great video as the AVM50) and HDMI connections ver 1.1 (they too believe 1.3 is a marketing gimmick at the moment).

This was the reason I hesitated but with the new Panasonic 35 & 55K players TBD later this month I see no reason to be worried....or should I? These players offer full lossless decoding and feature 5.1 (35) and 7.1 (55) analog outputs.

Now here is the question: If I get one of these players (most likely the former since I only have 5.1 analog inputs in the AVM30) does that mean I am not limited to all the new audio codecs using the multichannel outputs/inputs and pass video over HMDI directly to the TV?

I appreciate your help and knowledge.

[Driver_King]

First, Welcome to Blu-ray.com! The Panasonic 55 can internally decode all HD audio codecs and send them out as PCM via the multichannel outputs. So you should be all set there.

[MacDaddyOJack]

The only problem is that you will be using the DAC's in the panasonic instead of the DAC's in your Anthem. I'm sure the Anthem has the nicer of the two sets of DAC's. However, this is not something that I would spend $2,000 on

[canman93]

Agreed - maybe down the line I will upgrade but don't have the $$ right now.

One more question - you can set the video over HDMI while using the multichannel analog outputs for the audio? Does this cause any conflict with the audio stream?

[MacDaddyOJack]

You should be fine, I did that with my Samsung 1400 for a while before I got a new reciever that accepted HDMI audio. I didn't have any problems