Hi All,
I thought I would chime in here and provide a little background based on what we've learned about the issues you are experiencing. First of all, technically speaking, the V3 is the source of the "problem" with the MTII and the Sony D50. The original V3 firmware does not indicate high sample rate information properly. Also, in consumer mode, bit depth is not indicated. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, at the time we developed the V3 the IEC-90958 standard (the official spdif specification) did not include implementation of bit depth indication and there was no consumer recording equipment that supported high sample rates. Second, the AES-3 specification allows for bit depth and high sample rate indication but it is not a requirement. With this we implemented sample rate indication for 44.1kHz and 48kHz to satisfy consumer DAT and CDR recorders but assumed that if you were recording at higher sample rates your equipment (hard disk recorder or DAW) would require you to set the record sample rate and bit depth manually. There was also an issue with memory space in the V3 processor not allowing room for these extended registers. We have now updated the original V3 firmware so that it will indicate high sample rate information in both professional (AES-3) mode and consumer (IEC-958-3). It will also indicate 24 bit data at all times in both professional and consumer mode. Jamie, our firmware wizard, was able to streamline the code enough to include these. This new firmware is being beta tested presently on the MTII and will be shortly on the Sony D50. The V3 firmware lives on a socketed IC chip that can be easily replaced in the field. When the testing is complete we will ship new chips to anyone who wants the new firmware free of charge. I'll post a link to an online order form on our web site when it is ready. In the mean time I apologize the the inconvenience that this has caused.
With the large quantity of older equipment out there and the fact that these standards change often, it seems like a bad idea to design a piece of equipment that relies only on embedded digital stream data and does not allow for manual override of record settings. I applaud M-Audio's rapid response to this issue with their new firmware.
Michael