Should receiver or player decode?

[Beta Man]

wow..... good question. If you're trying to get a stand-alone player, then it'd be in your best interest to get the player to do the decoding, but really if you get a "top of the line" receiver, I'd imagine that it decodes more efficiently/better ??? (does that even make sense) For the "best bang for the buck" though, you'd probably be better off getting a player that decodes, then a TOP OF THE LINE receiver from the previous year that didn't...... All the players are "close" in price, but a Receiver that is pass-through only can be had for about HALF of what it was just last year..... and it still has all the quality components, and everything else that was "High quality" from last year..... it's basically a little programmed chip it's lacking, just because technology is moving fast, as it always does.