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Arcam has officially confirmed the launch of its DiVA AVR350 home cinema receiver (pictured above) and upscaling DiVA137 HDMI DVD player. The £1500 AVR350 is a 7.1 audiophile design with 2-way HDMI switching, 7 X 100w amplification (120w in stereo) and a second zone AV output.
The model up-converts composite to s-video or RGB, but stops short of up-rezzing standard definition to 720p or 1080i.
The unit has the usual complement of audio decoders, plus a 7.1 analogue input for DVD-A, SACD or Dolby TrueHD. There are also six Arcam-optimised surround processing effects modes for 2 channel sources.

In addition to the dual HDMI inputs (above), the unit also has five composite and s-video inputs, plus three matching video outputs.
The AVR350 will be joined by the matching DiVA137 1080p up-scaling DVD player.

The £1250 player (pictured above) can scale to 720p, 768p, 1080i and 1080p, courtesy of the latest Anchor Bay technology, so that users can best match their display device.
At its heart are Wolfson 8740 DACs and the latest Zoran Vaddis 888S core processor, which offers compatibility with DVD-A, SACD and Divx files and formats.

Says Arcam’s MD Charlie Brennan: “The DV137 is the result of the most intensive development project Arcam has ever undertaken. The company’s partnership with Zoran, in which our engineers worked hard to ensure that every single processing was of audiophile and videophile quality, has allowed us to be the first to market with this brand-new processor. We can now deliver universal music replay, stunning overall video performance and even better CD sound quality. This is a truly universal player and a great reason not to be a beta-tester for Blu-ray or HD DVD!”
Both products should be available from May.