The HDMI Shuffle
The Anthem includes the ability to process hi-res multichannel PCM over HDMI. This means that the AVM 50 can extract the utmost in the high-definition surround sound from Blu-ray and HD DVD. Although the latest grade of AVRs and a scant few pre/pros now include HDMI 1.3 switching and Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding, these are currently irrelevant features. Lemme 'splain.

The touted video features of HDMI 1.3 are Deep Color (expanded color bit depth) and x.v.Color (a wider color gamut). The catch is that to enjoy either feature the source material must be encoded using these standards as well. This isn't going to happen any time in the foreseeable future. To wit, the encoders used for VC-1, AVC and MPEG-2 are 8-bit to this point, so considerable changes would have to take place for Deep Color to be accommodated.

As for x.v.Color (also known as xvYCC), there are currently camcorders that use this standard, and it's rumored some video games will follow. Those of us who have spent time measuring displays laugh when manufacturers who have seldom been able to follow either of the previous color standards that have been in use tell us earnestly that they have a completely new standard to disobey. I've heard no discussion of x.v.Color appearing on HD DVD or Blu-ray either.

As far as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio goes, I know these are being sold as compelling events for which you should upgrade your AVR or pre/pro. This is false advertising. There is no performance advantage whatsoever we can see to decoding these formats in the AVR, and to the contrary there are some serious disadvantages. If you decode in the AVR or pre/pro you lose all secondary audio streams and cripple the interactivity features of both Blu-ray and HD DVD, and for no good reason.

And secondary audio isn't just obnoxious button click sounds in the menus. If you select a Picture-In-Picture stream, you'll get picture with no sound. Kinda takes the fun out of it. And again, there is no performance advantage to decoding in the AVR or pre/pro. As soon as an AVR or pre/pro decodes a compressed stream it in fact turns it into PCM for processing. We've heard no qualitative issues, so far, from doing this conversion in the player.

Audio Setup
This processor is just about as loaded as they come, and rather than enumerate all the features that are typical, I'll tell you to assume that the AVM 50 has all the pedestrian stuff and highlight some of the more interesting aspects of its operation.

For any source you can select one of two speaker configurations, Cinema or Music Speaker, as the default. Each configuration is completely customizable in terms of the number of active speakers, the type of speakers used for surrounds (Direct radiating or Dipole), speaker size, crossover settings for speakers designated as "Small," and much more.

The delays are set by entering the distance from you to the each speaker in the Listener Position menu. I know this is easier, but I miss being able to enter delays in actual milliseconds. You can cheat some additional delay in if you want it by entering a distance for the surrounds that's closer than actual- each foot is about equal to a millisecond of delay. Thankfully, speaker levels can be set in 0.5dB increments, which is more precise than the 1.0dB offered by some of the competition.

THX Re-EQ can be engaged with or without the rest of the THX processing suite. Center, surround and sub levels can be bumped or trimmed on the fly from the remote. When this is done the trims remain in effect even after the processor is powered down and back up.

The Source Setup/Preset menu allows almost infinite adjustability for each source input. You can change the names of each; the names you choose appear in the front panel display and on–screen menus, though of course the remote's input source labels remain fixed. The on-screen menus themselves are deep, but the layers are well structured and intuitive and easy to interact with. People with some degree of experience will positively fly through them.

All of the physical audio and video inputs are completely assignable to any of the source inputs with no discernible limitations or caveats. Either the Music or Cinema Speaker Configuration can be the default for any Source Setup, and thanks a recent firmware update, there are two default Video Output Configurations that can be set up independently and assigned to any source.

As is increasingly necessary these days, you can adjust in up to 85 milliseconds of Lip-Sync Delay, which is handy.

You can also choose a default surround processing Mode Preset for different audio formats. For example, for DD-5.1 you could assign None for no additional processing with those signals, or select THX Cinema.

Video Setup
The Video Output section of the Setup menu allows you to set the resolution, and the choices are sufficiently broad enough for any conceivable display. Here you can also choose the Color Space- HDTV, SDTV or Auto- and the Data Format- YCbCr in either 4:2:2 or 4:4:4, RGB, Extended RGB or Auto. Auto for both the Color Space and Data Formats will be fine for most, although these can be used to tweak some issues out of your signal chain. I will go into these settings more in the Video sidebar.

Gennum's widely respected VXP processing powers the video section, and it's premium. This solution has a remarkable amount of versatility, offering a staggering depth of options but also chooses its defaults wisely so you don't have to tangle with it if you're a novice.

It can accept and process all currently in vogue HD signals, including 1080p at both 60 and 24fps (frames per second) over HDMI. It can accept component sources at 480p, 720p and 1080i and cross-convert and upconvert them to HDMI as high as 1080p. The Gennum deinterlacing is outstanding, and overall this is an excellent implementation of one of the premium video solutions out there. It's got incredible complexity and depth but the defaults are chosen well enough that non-power users can get by on instinct. But there are many handy tricks in here for the people who can use them (see Video sidebar).

As it currently stands, the only minor difficulty here is the lack of a "Native mode," which means a way to send out whatever signal comes in instead of choosing a fixed output. In a Native mode, if 1080p/24 comes into the processor, the output would automatically be 1080p/24. As it stands you must set the output resolution and frame rate. So, if you set the AVM 50 to 1080p/24 for the input assigned to your Blu-ray Disc player, and then play a concert video on BD that's 1080i, you get problems as the AVM 50 forces 1080/24 output.