With both units stacked one on the other, you
can see that there are a lot of connection possibilities. However, unlike
most SSPs which only have one chassis, the two chassis of the No 40 spread
things out so you have plenty of finger room to make the connections.
HDMI
The High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is now becoming ubiquitous. HDMI
brings with it the convenience of transferring both audio and video on a
single cable, thus greatly simplifying connectivity. The ability of the No 40
to support this new interface is re-assuring as it realizes the benefits
offered by its upgradeable architecture.
True to the architecture, the form this upgrade takes is through a new card
(see photo above) which provides three HDMI inputs and one HDMI output. This card is installed on the
audio processor. The installation process is similar to what one might
undergo to install a PCI card on a PC. You find an open slot and slide the
new card in. Unlike a PC, however, one does not have to open up the chassis
here. You remove the plate on the back panel, slide the new card into the
slot, and then lock it in place with the screws. It is just that simple!
Once the new card is
installed, you then need to install some firmware that will let the
processor recognize it and allow it to perform its function. This is much
the same as having to install a driver for the new hardware on the PC. While
multiple instances of other types of input/output cards can be installed,
the HDMI card is limited to a single instance. This provides a hard limit of
three HDMI inputs which could be limiting for some installations. It would
be nice if another card only offering HDMI inputs were allowed.
Mark Levinson provides custom software on the PC to facilitate the firmware
download. The data are transmitted over the serial port on the computer and
received via an RJ-11 input on the video processor. Multiple files,
presumably with firmware for different sub-systems, are provided. You can
either update all the files or select a subset of them. In the case where
all files are marked for update, the application cycles through these files
in a pre-determined order. The update process is really quite
straightforward.
Once the card and its accompanying firmware have been installed, the inputs
on the new card show up in the user interface, and the same action to assign
audio and video inputs applies here. 7.1 PCM audio can be received with the
HDMI input.
In an installation where audio for a given input can be received
through multiple paths, the following priority has been established: HDMI,
Digital, Analog. If desired, the higher priority path can be over-ridden
using the migration feature which simply cycles through the different paths
in order of their priority. An option is provided wherein the audio is not
processed by the No 40 and instead passes through to the HDMI output.
For video, this card merely serves as a means to pass the signal through.
There is no video processing capability on board. As a result, OSD is not
available over HDMI, and neither is there any capability to perform any
cross conversion of the analog video inputs (conversion of component video
to HDMI). All resolutions except for
1080p are supported. According to ML, the receiver and transmitter chipsets
are capable of supporting this resolution. It is the FPGA used as the switch
matrix which limits support for this resolution. I would have really liked
to have this card support 1080p since the new optical playback devices are
now capable of passing the native 1080p resolution which is available on
most discs. Down the road, it might be possible to add support for 1080p24
via a firmware update; however, it is unlikely that 1080p60 could be
supported.
Go to Part IV.