Sony's STR-DG1000 "designed to optimize Blu-ray disc"

[Roger]

Sony unveiled several new products today, including LCD’s in the BRAVIA range and several more with the WEGA moniker. It was the announcement of a new surround sound receiver however that caught my attention.

Sony’s STR-DG1000 is described as “Designed to Optimize Blu-ray Disc” keep in mind the quoted text is Sony’s, not mine. So I thought to myself hey cool, someone’s finally put Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD decoding into a receiver.

Nope, apparently that’s not what “designed to optimize Blu-ray disc” means. Being the inquisitive sort I am, I went over to SonyStyle for further clarification. Same spiel there “Sony unveils first AV receiver designed to optimize Blu-ray disc, other HD sources”

Ok, now I’m really scratching my head, what do they mean by “first”. There are several receivers on the market right now with HDMI 1.1 support, capable of decoding a PCM stream at 96kHz/24bits, so this must not be what they mean either.

Sony’s press release also states The STR-DG1000 receiver has several HD enhancing features, beginning with:

“dual HDMI active intelligence, which automatically detects and receives the best possible video and audio signals from connected devices. This all-digital path from source to display also handles 1080p resolution and up to eight channels of uncompressed audio.”

Maybe they mean “first” for Sony, browsing through SonyStyle.com I see several other A/V receivers with dual HDMI inputs, maybe its the “automatically detects and receives the best possible video and audio signals from connected devices” part they mean is a first.

Again it may be a Sony first but my year old Marantz receiver defaults to the highest quality available source, I’m lost here, what am I missing?

The receiver does feature ‘dual’ HDMI inputs, 120watt, 7.1 surround decoding, S-video and component video up-conversion, multi-room audio output and an optional XM radio module. The STR-DG1000 retails for $800.00.

Listen, my stance on Blu-ray aside I’m not anti-Sony. I happen to think they make some of the best displays available. As a matter of fact if 10k was to suddenly drop into my lap, I’d have a new Sony projector hanging in my living room tomorrow.

What I am against however, is misleading marketing-speak that only serves to confuse the average consumer, who doesn’t have enough time to thoroughly investigate the techno-babble behind these claims.

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