James Fee
01-23-2005, 04:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://blog.seanalexander.com/PermaLink,guid,e975d0bc-f8b8-4884-840f-6f16ff9e4b90.aspx' target='_blank'>http://blog.seanalexander.com/PermaLink,guid,e975d0bc-f8b8-4884-840f-6f16ff9e4b90.aspx</a><br /><br /></div><i>"For a while now, if you wanted to enjoy WMV HD movies or WMA Pro audio on your PC and get 5.1-7.1 audio, you needed to have a sound card that supported the format (eg. SB Audigy) and connect 5+ discrete audio cables to a receiver that supported analog-in. If you connected a single, thin S/PDIF optical or coaxial cable to your receiver, you'd get only 2-channel stereo audio (PCM) out of your system. The only way to get WMA Pro over your S/PDIF was to buy a $4000+ Pioneer Elite VSX-59TXi line receiver (pictured). Not exactly affordable for Media Center owners. Not to mention I wouldn't trust most furniture to hold this thing up- it's so heavy it takes two people to move around the demo unit we have at work."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/pioneer_receiver.jpg" /><br /><br />Sean Alexander has a nice chart showing the latest information about Pioneer's new receivers starting at under $300 that will support WMA Pro decoding. Ease of use is how things get adopted quickly and not having to be an electrical engineer to get WMA Pro to work is a huge step in the right direction. 2005 could be the year of Windows Media.