Meridian should get their act together and better do something about HDMI soon. Back when I bought my 861, my decision was based on the quality and upgradeability of the unit. Where is that now? HD DVD is almost one year old now and we have no way of using the new codecs except for a solution with the IA45 card, which is not a solution for me because it sounds worse than the 1.5mbps dts bitstream via optical/coax out.

It doesn't have to be HDMI 1.3, a solution with 1.1 and LPCM would be fine. That way we could use the advanced codecs from HD DVD and BD, as well as PCM tracks from BD.

I still think the 861 is an excellent processor, but there are better analogue two-channel pre-amps. There are also multichannel processors that are very close to the 861. If I'm still sitting here by the end of this year without a working HDMI solution, I'll probably get rid of my 861 and buy a Audio Research Ref3 and a Halcro SSP80/100 (they're working on LPCM, which is 2-channel only with current units).

I thought about adding a Ref3 to my 861 before, so that would be a plus to the above solution.

I know one thing for sure, if I'd be in for a new processor right now, I wouldn't consider the 861 at this point due to the lack of HDMI and no announced upgrade plan.

In the end it's up to Meridian if they make their users happy or if they push them off to other manufacturers.

- Stephan