QUOTE(Kira Yamoto @ Sep 25 2006, 12:11 AM)
The 60GB model is yet again the choice for HT setups. Because you don't want to be using TV speakers (as HDMI carries audio/video signal) they give you another port to hook in directly into the reciever. You hook the other one into the TV. Using HDMI enables high-def audio so this is important for movies and some games that have high-end sound.
1st - There is no such thing as "high-def audio" There is such thing as surround sound and it's carried over a digital S/P-DIf interface (It stand for Sony/Philips Digital Interface). SPDIf only requires 1 wire and it is exactly the same whether that is an optical cable, a coax cable or a single wire inside of an HDMI harness. (if you're wondering there is only 1 audio pin (SPDIf) on an HDMI connector, it's pin #
2nd - Every HDTV that I have ever seen with an HDMI port has offered an optical or coax out so you can feed the audio back into a reciever (thus no need for a 2nd port)
3rd - Every surround sound reciever I have ever seen with an HDMI has both an input and output where it strips the audio from the signal before passing the video off to the HDTV.
4th - Even sony's explanation for including the 2nd HDMI port was not for splitting the HDMI signal but for output to more then one monitor... meaning that each port would be outputting a completely different audio/video stream.
5th - The PS2 backpannel as well as the prototype PS3 backpannel have a Toslink connector for SPDIf audio... why would sony remove that from the final unit?
If they're not planning on doing dual displays it wouldn't make sense for them to include a 2nd port... even if they did I still don't think it would be all that desirable to "HT Enthusiests" (
which I consider myself to be)