@erik_squires - My understanding is that the differences in HDMI capabilities are related to chipsets and not baseband FW. I wrote and received a reply from MiniDSP asking me to wait until the user manual is available as it will have more information. I specifically asked questions about the items in my first post.
With the announcement of the Marantz AV30, the MiniDSP could still be a good offering or at least be a competitive alternative.

