New Apple TV -- Anyone planning on it?

Is there a way to hook up the ATV so that video goes through HDMI and audio goes through an external DAC for 2-channel? How do you all handle this?

I am about to buy an Arcam AVR600 receiver - will the DACs in the AVR be good enough so that I don't need to worry about this and can just send it all over HDMI?

Thanks

I love my 160 gb ATV. One thing that I have done is to run a long HDMI cable to a new hp computer monitor. The monitor doubles for the ATV and my PC. With the monitor's controls I just switch the source back and forth depending on which I'm using, PC or ATV. really cool.

Mateored -

I have an HDMI connected to my TV and use the optical out to my DAC (2 channel, not an AVR). There's a Dolby Digital output selection under one of the settings, and I have it set to off. I'm assuming having it set to on would be some sort of surround format? At off I get stereo digital output.

Sorry of that sounds confusing.

Kbark -

Thanks for your response. Does this mean that you can only use the ATV for 2-channel for all purposes? i.e., is there a way to have sound for movies go to the AVR via HDMI, while music travels over optical to the DAC?

Still confused.

M

I just got an Apple TV ver 2, and connected it to my PS Audio III DAC, feeding a Pass Aleph P pre-amp, Krell FPB 200 into Martin Logan ReQuests. My testing so far shows no difference in sound quality, as long as I import my CD's as wave files. There is a difference in spacial quailities between Apple Lossless, and wave files.

The convienence is incredible, and I just got a 1 TB drive to import my 900+ CD's into iTunes.

Brave Apple!