Must-have HDTV addons
By John P. Falcone,Philip WongFeb 19, 2008
4. HDMI A/V receivers
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The A/V receiver is the nexus of any good home theater, and the upgrade to high def requires one with the latest HDMI connectivity. To maximize convenience (and to future-proof your system), you'll want a receiver that offers:
- Analog-to-digital video conversion
- Deinterlacing of analog video (conversion of 480i analog video input to 480p digital video output)
- Ability to pass Dolby Digital, DTS, and multichannel PCM audio via HDMI
- As many HDMI inputs as possible (at least two, preferably three)
With those features in hand, you should be able to run a single HDMI cable from the receiver to your HDTV and use the receiver to toggle between all of your high-def video sources (DVR or satellite/cable box, game console, disc player) and any of your legacy standard-def sources as well (VCR, GameCube, and the likes). If you're not in a rush, though, you might want to wait until 2007. That's when we should see the first receivers equipped with HDMI 1.3, which should allow built-in decoding of next-gen audio formats, such as Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD.
