Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems CES Questions!

Another Thank You here, John,much appreciated news from the two towers of M

~M~ (different one obviously )

I would add my thanks to John K. for 'representing' us at CES!

The only thing I would add is that it may be sufficient to just get audio into G68XXX, and continue to use HDMAX for video. We would need something like an HDMAX 422 - with 2 parallel HDMI outputs, one into the G68XXX and another to the display. This would negate the need for HDMI output on the G68XXX, and would probably only require a single HDMI input.

BTW, I assume the upgrade path for 861 is more likely (and clearer)?

Thanks!

Simon

Simon,

Then you're forcing an external box onto everyone that wants to upgrade, which would have its detractors as well.

Well, I see 861 as being a more straightforward upgrade requiring two cards, one for input, one for output.

The input card would contain the necessary DSP on the card to process the new formats directly and pass PCM streams to the DSP core, just as the current digital receivers decode DD/DTS and pass those along to the DSP core.

The output card would send video only to the downstream display.

Cheers,

I'd be fine w/an audio only solution for the G68 -- losing video switching is solveable by other means. As I recall, hardware upgradeability was in at least one of the brochures. Seems like they're hedging now.

So, reading smoke signals: it is unlikely that the G68 will be able to decode the new audio formats. Anyone disagree?

Totally agree rblnr.

I think it is such a shame Meridian advertised the G series as hardware upgradeable / being modular in construction therefore allowing for hardware upgrades.

I seriously doubt that it would of made a substantial difference to their sales and would have prevented all this ill feeling as we all would have known where we stood.

From all the evidence and responses from M on future upgradeability it would appear there seemed to be no intention of hardware upgrades as nothing seems possible without a major rebuild - I mean what on earth did M think they could have offered by way of hardware upgrades?

I really hope M are reading this and will not make the same mistakes again on release of their next gen equipment - I doubt even any of us dedicated supporters would believe any claim on future kit anyway....

Gripe over but a point that really needs to be hit home with M.

Yes, that is a good point!

I suppose from my perspective, since the HDMAX are just switchers and are controlled through COMMS, they can be hidden behind other equipemnt and do not need 'face time' in the rack. Consequently, for me, another box would not be a big deal.

As far as 'possible' vs. 'economically feasible', I would offer this: I paid around $9,000 for my G68AXV. Figure that any next generation G series processor would be at least as much, probably more. Once such a successor was announced, the used market value of my G68 would likely fall to less than 1/2 - so figure a resale of $4,000! So, even if the HDMI 1.3 audio capability upgrade was $3,000 (or even $4,000) it would still make sense for me, and perhaps for others.

Simon

I don't know that I would necessarily conclude that. Since the HDMI 1.3 chipset is 18 months (?) away, if I were M, I am not sure I would want to make any kind of statement yet - simply opens one up for criticism and back-peddling. Keep in mind that there has been no announcement for 861 either, and that appears to be a more feasible upgrade.

Having said all that, I will be dissapointed, yes, if there proves to be no upgrade path for G68 - particularly, as has been pointed out, since the orginal brochure promoted upgradeabilty as a M advantage.

Simon

Simon,

I'm just guessing here, but I think that the sample silicon for HDMI 1.3 is going to ship around the CEDIA timeframe this year.

Manufacturers that have HDMI experience are going to have an advantage over manufacturers without HDMI experience.

We also have to remember that we have know idea what M is working on ahead of the new format introductions. It could be that they release concurrent with, or shortly after HDMI 1.3s release to the market their 1.3 upgrades.

Also, if you aren't going to pass video from the processor (whether it's G6x or 861) then it's a less intensive upgrade.

Finally let's remember that everything I type is speculative

Cheers,

I'm also very interested in the G68 upgrade outcome. On a positive note though, it's been a plug and play experience with my G68 and the results are outstanding. Enjoying the music will be my priority for the next 12-18 months.

On a similar note though it is astonishing how quickly things have moved on. Only a couple of years (less than two?) after release, the G68xxV analogue video switching functionality is, for many, obsolete...

I agree that it is slightly surprising that most G-series upgrades require a "major rebuild". However, I'm not convinced that the two-thirds of a G68 replacement suggested by JK could have been predicted three+ years ago when the G68 was on the drawing board. It's unfortunate for those of us stuck in the money-still-an-object "mid-high-end" category where kit costs a fortune but doesn't have the hardware flexibility of the true high-end equipment.

John:

Yes, but I think educated speculation! Anyhow, speculation, and grumbling about presumed future compatibility, is part of the fun

Simon

I would disagree with this, in that M- of any other designer in world knows the technical requirements for lossless data rates having invented MLP, having invented and deployed MHR;

I think M- would know more than enough 3 years ago about the architecture and processing required for an eventual HDMI (or other) interface to accomplish this - we're not talking about knowing the actual protocols, formats, algorithms etc.; just the amount of processing and architecture required;

It's not that big a stretch, given the knowledge M- has about these issues and I would consider it a failure on M-'s part if they did not provide the path, even if on the expensive side;

ken

Ken:

Even knowing the amount of processing required doesn't really mean much. If the processing exceeds what's available, then they're screwed anyway as that's a DSP upgrade.

With Ms distributed processing architecture, they do have an edge as they might not need to touch the DSP core. I don't know yet.

However, I believe that you are being quite unrealistic with your expectatons. Why? Because you can't know the amount of processing required without knowing the specifics of the codec. They do have a tremendous advantage when it comes to Dolby TrueHD, but with DTS-HD they're pretty level on the playing field.

Cheers,