Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems CES 2007 Hitchhiker's Q&A with Meridian

John

posted? Where

hddvd's, and anyone else.

See page one for posting.

LOL It took me a while to work it out!!

Cheers, Chris

Malcolm:

I have to agree complete with Mr. Meridian. Meridian is a relatively small business and discussing new products, new upgrades and timelines gives up information to their competitors.

The last I checked; other high-end audio and home theater companies don't divulge this information either.

It is one thing to be a company like Intel, Microsoft, Ford, etc to discuss future plans. It's another for a small, specialist business to do likewise.

Well, on the positive side, I actually felt better about the HDMI and related issues; A solid in the category of 'can't talk about future product' I saw as a positive. Especially coupled with the response about Gseries modular architecture able to accomodate 8 channel inputs. Just the capability, lead me to positive thoughts about the ability to handle some sort of HDMI solution, even if pricey.

A couple of answers though I thought were a bit lacking,(Although I'm sure this can be frustrating for Bob as well), such as:
question: upgrade like TAW...
answer: Who is TAW?
hmmmm, not sure what to make of that one... The Rock anyone?

question: safe volume feature...
answer: Can you suggest a safe volume?
well, if one doesn't come to mind, how about 0; or just let the user select it.. I do this now automatically on shutdown via programmable remote with 30 volume downs, no-matter what it was while listening.

Also, the 'finding lip sync in Mconfig' answer:
'well, you found it';
well, yes; but it took much longer than a Google for TAW..
--actually that one did give me a chuckle---

Overall, some good positive responses -and a committment to work interactively with the forum is great... Looking forward to new product announcements this year... Just have that feeling--

Thanks much JK, Bob- for the interaction; Always a pleasure...

ken

I think there's a subtle but important difference between "not talking about future product", and "timelines on upcoming enhancements which we all know are in the pipeline".

So, yes, I completely agree with there being no mention of or commitment to a HD player. That should be announced only when it's ready to go.

But an HDMI card for 861 ? That should absolutely be pre-announced; it's an entirely predictable development, gives nothing away to the competition, and makes existing owners and potential customers feel happier about their spending plans.

Then there's a third category, strategic direction stuff. That's a little more difficult. Again, I totally agree with M not saying anything about, say, a specific media receiver product until there's something ready to ship. However, an announcement of "M acknowledges that media servers are becoming more and more important in the AV world, and intend to introduce G-series solutions that will play nice with open network standards while providing seamless integration with other M sources, processors, and DSP speakers" would again help sales of current products because owners would know what they were getting into.

Regards

Mark

Are they even in business anymore? They are such a minor player in the industry that I'm not surprised that Bob doesn't know them by name. Name dropping is much better if you pick a company like Lexicon which has had trade-in offers in the past.


The point of the question is that the concept of "safe" is highly subjective and the powerup source can be variable... Is it 75, 65, 30? Yes a user selectable power-up volume would be much better. Even that won't be perfect.

I understand their PoV. It is in the most logical place to be located from their PoV. Can you make a compelling case for it to go someplace else that is more intuitive?

MarkH

I totally agree with you. In another word Meridian say to us "Screw you all and no HDMI for the 861 anytime soon" hehehe. This Meridian CES crap is pathetic.

Even though we all knew why Meridian was holding off HDMI, it is good to actually hear it from them directly.

And why do we need it anyway ? MHR still is king, and HDMI 1.3 equipped HD players have barely hit the market.

So yes I am very pleased Meridian chooses to communicate more directly with HH. Which is interesting for both (Wiki manuals hurray!)

I'm quite satisfied with the answers as I actually got more of my questions answered than I expected...

Key learnings:

1) As we knew, M are working on HDMI.

2) HDMI video processing and audio delay by external video processors should not pose a problem with audio clock recovery as long as the metadata is correctly modified.

3) 8-channel digital inputs architecturally possible with 861 and G6x.

4) HDCP could present a problem. I take this to mean that HDMI --> MHR --> processor may be, as I suspected, a large political obstacle.

Thanks JK and thanks Bob! Really looking forward to visiting the Mothership on the 10th.

BTW, even though I am vocal on a lot of issues "Meridian" , like Mr Meridian I also have concerns about the visit on the 10th. Let's go easy, enjoy it, and be realistic for the Q&A session! (We might even get invited back! ).

Like the non-matching subs...

Thanks again JK and Bob. I'm happy, my G68 may still live on to grow up and be fitted with HDMI1.3 and support 8 channels

Thanks John and Bob.

That`s encouraging to see that M is looking to take a more active role in this forum and the Wiki throughout the year and that they appear to welcome the idea of two threads dedicated to support/requests. It might actually get us back to discussing Meridian products more.