Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Meridian CEDIA 2007 HH Q&A Session

Ditto that for the F80. Not that sound quality is an issue, but its so much easier to navigate a DVD-A disc without a display then it is to do on the DVD-V side.

Also, I would like to like a few options for the F80 - like display the clock when playing something, sort out the DVD drive standby issue and allowing audio settings (width, tilt etc) to be changed using the remote.

Well, call me a cinic, but i see receivers in the market with multi channel PCM input via HDMI 1.1 or 1.2 for 500 Euro, and from 1200 Euro up there is HDMI 1.3a with full processing of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD.

I would at least expect an annoucement in which direction Meridian is going.
I can also understand they are not happy to jump into either HD-DVD or Bluray with the 'war' still going on, but the explanation that the software catalogue is still bigger on DVD than on any of the new formats does not make me happy. That will be the case for many years, do i have to wait these many years ?

It is possible that what Meridian is doing is not run of the mill and thus requires collaboration and agreement with other parties. Bob Stuart said at the FF factory tour when he said that they had been working with (at least one) other company. This could be an indication of some form of technology sharing. Plus there was the bungled Microsoft announcement from fairly high up within Microsoft - an odd thing to do if there was not some grounds to it.

I can see that M would not be in a position to make any announcement until all hurdles were cleared and all parties were in agreement.

So we know that Meridian are working on HDMI, we just do not know in what form and who with.

I believe it's possible that Meridian needs agreement to pass HDMI audio to its processors and, critically, to its DSP loudspeakers via MHR. Meridian is, of course, unique in this requirement.

VK:

Why would they need any special dispensation for the player --> processor? This is no different than player --> receiver.

I get the issues with player --> receiver --MHR--> DSP Loudspeaker as being potentially problematic. I don't see the processor portion as being "special" for Meridian when Anthem/Paradigm have HDMI in their processors already.

Cheers,

Since the M- processor uniquely delivers digitally all the way to the speaker (end device); the 'end' device in the chain becomes the speaker.

I think HDMI requires digital signals to retain HDMI copyright encryption through final device in the chain (TV or monitor for video). I think M- has to get permission to transpose the copy protection.

I had always thought M- to be in the best position for this as achieving approval for MHR to carry full digital signals with it's copy protection.

ken

Assumption on your part that this is always the case. Not true; many people use analog loudspeakers (even M branded ones) with their M processors.


This could be done "as easily" (note the quotes) by adding an HDMI adapter to the speakers. This would allow HDMI to the first of the pair and then MHR to the other half (for paired speakers).



I would hope (in the end) that it is not a blocking point.

My assumption was that M- would not release an HDMI solution for analogue speaker configurations BEFORE or WITHOUT a solution for their DSP speaker configurations. I still assume this, but I have more respect for your opinion than my own, so I'm sure you're assumption to the contrary is right...



It's my understanding that external modules are not allowed - it must be carried internal to the device; Further even internally it cannot be easily tapped digitally and must carry to an integrated analogue stage. Perhaps I'm in error...


yes - although actually I saw this as an advantages. M- was the only company to achieve this approval that I'm aware. My thoughts were this would put them at an advantage in getting the necessary approvals.

ken

In the past, I concluded that Meridian may need to come up with a variation of MLP that added a HDCP layer on top of what they already have. Assuming that the encryption layer of MHR was not able to be ratified as secure. HDCP is only one such method of encryption of data over HDMI/DVI.

Others encryption methods for HDMI possible, but as yet, I have not seen any mention of any alternatives to HDCP. But MHR may be up to the job and I could see this taking time to get agreement on. Sticking to the letter of of the law, would a Meridian processor be an HDMI source - assuming that it did have an HDMI input? If it was not a source, then surely it would not matter what was output to the speakers? But if it did not matter, why did M go to the effort of incorporating MHR into the speakers in the first place?

Meridian are fairly unique the implications of its methodology of DSP speakers. Its a minefield and I can see why things may possibly be taking time to resolve.

I can personally see an MHR2 coming along, in one form or another, that would include an industry standard encryption method such as HDCP.

Not a straight forward proposition and a commercially sensitive issue. And I don't blame Meridian for keeping quiet on the subject.

Sorry for keeping off the topic of general CEDIA questions, but I think it shows the level of interest in this topic. And unlike previous Q&A sessions, the silicon is now available and alternative products available.

Meridian might want to upgrade their players to accept HDMI and output it over the MHR connection. In this case, agreement would be needed to transfer the data digitally without using HDCP.

That seems like a backwards approach to me for the simple reason that it forces an upgrade to both players and processor.

The processor is going to require upgrades in all likelihood to handle an (in spec) requirement of 8 channels.

Cheers,

Well, we need to (keep on) wait(ing) for Meridian to announce their HDMI solution; and Meridian has more to lose from not delivering than I do.

Edit: In theory you could avoid the hardware upgrade to the processor by an upgrade to the firmware to allow 4x SPDIF inputs. There are so many user scenarios, it will be very interesting to see what is offered.