Buying a UHD722 today would still be a great purchase for anyone running a Meridian system. Especially since the newest version of the UHD722 also got updated for HDR10+ and Dolby Vision as well, something you want considering how much of that content is available on VOD like Amazon, Paramount, Hulu, AppleTV and others. Not to mention UHD BD as well.
eARC isn't really relevant for us Meridian owners either, since ARC already provides us DD or DTS audio which the UHD722 can do (all versions). And direct HDMI gives us the bandwidth eARC does for LPCM 7.1. The UHD722 is perfect paired with the latest AppleTV since that device sends out all non DD 5.1 bitstreams as uncompressed multi-channel PCM, something M processors love for MHR.
You can even get working AAC 5.1 sound via the HD621/UHD722 as well, some VOD providers send AAC 5.1 instead of DD/DD+. Meridian UHD722 allows us to get the native AAC as MHR which other boxes and mainstream processors won't support, only Dolby/DTS. So AAC support is another benefit of the Meridian HDMI processors.
The biggest hassle right now is the wait time just to get a new UHD722 with the latest HDMI 2.1 (2.0b?) board. I ordered 2 new ones in the fall to replace the ones I have with the outdated board, it'll be a near 4 month wait by the time I get them hopefully in a couple weeks. Used UHD722s come up from time to time well below MSRP, but they'll have the old board and won't support the new dynamic HDR standards.
Unless you are a gamer, I wouldn't be too concerned with 8K to be honest.
4K UHD will be the last ever physical disc format for home video and the titles for it keep growing by the month. It took a good 6-7 years after the introduction of HD before HD DVD/Blu-ray hit the market, and other 10 years after that for UHD.
UHD Broadcasts on Cable TV are still a rarity in the US. It's mostly VOD and 4K has only recently gained mainstream awareness in the last couple years. 8K content is ultra niche, the most of it is strictly promo type stuff for proof of concept. The industry reception to 8K has been quite cold.
8K upscaling will be more of a selling point gimmick for TV makers more than anything else. Content wise, you won't be able to get 8K out of 35mm film scans as at that res you are just scanning the grain of the filmstock. 4K UHD will be the last and best version of many 100s, if not thousands of films.
Perhaps at the end of the decade, 8K might be more of a thing for super premium VOD solutions like Kaleidescape - but those boxes are for clients that don't use Blu-ray anyway. Amazon recently had a 1 one off 8K promotion with the Lord of the Rings show, but it was exclusive to the flagship 8K Samsung TV using a convoluted playback method via a special link/program. It'll be years before you see VOD boxes like AppleTV's with 8K output support.
Buying a UHD722 now, purely for entertainment, it won't be obsolete for at least 5 years. I'd say that's a pretty damn good ROI considering the cost of what M gear goes for.
Just the way I look at it.
P.S.
I use an HDFury device as well, but strictly for the purpose of getting LLDV playback on my Samsung OLED TV.
Google Search
|
Meridian Systems
|
Meridian Streaming
|
Restaurant
|
WiKi
|
Duncan's Meridian Info
|
Board Rules
|
Restaurant Rules
