My 800 version 3.0 should arrive within a week. I am also excited, however, without the corresponding upgrade to the 861, I will have very little to examine until the 861 gets upgraded. I really hope they get the 800 series upgrades going by the end of the month and can offer a one week turnaround time.

I am mostly excited about getting DVD-A working as well as Trifield working in all channels. I switched Trified to UPSAMPLING ON, and have only had Trifield working in the front three channels (and I don't like Trifield without the rear channels).

I hope the 800 will resolve those awful layer changes that have been occuring with using the Sony 7700 (with Cinematrix). I have been dealing with the audio relay shutting off and back on at layer changes which mutes around 3 seconds of the movie as well as hearing the audio click on and off. Just terrible. I assume that this will be resolved once I get the 800 in place.

Its nice to see you are happy with the video, however my front projector cannot display the 480i output. I don't know how the video quality can be affected very much because every DVD manufacturer uses the same chips for the most part. Video buffering, as in RAM buffer? What do you mean? Even if their was a RAM buffer for the video, that is something that might be useful for a layer change, or if there is a chance of skipping (ala minidisc and playing from RAM if the laser loses tracking for a second or so). 'Smoothness' should not be effected since that is more a function of de-interlacing/judder. I'd be curious to know what is unique, or perhaps superior about the video section in the Meridian 800 because they use C-Cube, Macrovision, etc... While I'd love to see improvement in the video, I only have excpectations for better audio and digital DVD-A capability. Quite frankly I'd expect better video from a Panasonic RP-91 with SDI digital output.

7.1 System