Except that since the A2 doesn't have 5.1 analog outs, your receiver must have an HDMI input, otherwise you miss out on both DD+ and Dolby TrueHD.
Actually MS, and user reports, has confirmed that the add on will work when connected to a PC, there just aren't any software players out right now that support HD-DVD playback. But once those come out, and assuming you have all the hardware necessary for playback, you'll be able to use the 360 add-on with a PC, no problem.
True, most folks I've talked to believe HDMI is one of the best things about HDTV. FOr those willing to wait, I believe the highly touted HDMI 1.3 will come out in Jan or Feb year for both HDTV's and players. Something to keep in mind if your willing to wait for a significant improvement.
Significant improvement? Please don't spread the marketing hype. HDMI v1.3 doesn't mean much. There are two things that v1.3 are touted to bring, "Deep Color" support, and support for next gen audio formats. For the first, neither BD or HD-DVD support "Deep Color" in their specs, so outside of the potential once in a blue moon console defining PS3 game, there will be NO content encoded in "Deep Color". And for the audio support, and decent HD-DVD or BD player has or will have the ability to decode the lossless formats (ie TrueHD & DTSHD-Master Audio) and output them as LPCM, making HDMI v1.3 completely and utterly superfluous technology. Death to all marketing hype!
I'm also looking to get the 360 add on. However, I was under the impression that the only time it passed DTS to the optical output was when the disc itself had a DTS soundtrack. DD+ and Dolby TruHD are decoded in the 360 and re-encoded to DD 5.1. Can anyone with the 360 add-on confirm this?
No, you're right. I wrote that well before the final specs for the add on were released, and wrongly assumed from rumors on avs from some relatively reliable people that the add-on would operate the same way as the Toshiba stand alones when it came to re-encoding the next-gen audio codecs and passing them out through the optical out.
DTS Sound Output is Coming to the Xbox 360 HD-DVD? >> From amirm (Microsoft HD-DVD insider) on avsforum.com: News-Source: avsforum.com Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com (Wednesday 29 November 2006 23:37 EST) - (PermaLink) - (Digg News) (Posted by:: XanTium)
@error5: I have the 360 add-on and the only time it passes DTS is when it's on a standard DVD. The DTS soundtracks on HD-DVD's (examples: Tomb Raider, U571, Sahara) are re-encoded to DD 5.1. Like you said a future update should enable re-encoding to 1.5 Mbps DTS. I have no complaints with picture quality though.
