Well, well...
I just walked out of a large major retail chain store after biting my tongue when a salesperson told me that because my (supposedly) "old" TV has HDMI v1.1, I would not be able to watch Bluray source.
I was only in there looking at TV stands - yet he was the one asking me all the regulation questions about what equipment I had. Imagine what other drivel he would have come up with if I actually wanted to buy a TV.
For those playing at home, the name of the retail store rhymes with Smarmy Storeman
Strongly resisting the temptation to slap him around the head, I just nodded politely and shrugged and tried to divert the conversation back towards why the TV cabinet (which was the only thing I was actually looking at in the store) was so grossly over-priced for a bit of MDF and some glass.
For the record HDMI v1.0 will happily support/display video from a BluRay source at 1080p... so do not go putting your HDMI v1.0 flat screen TVs out for hard rubbish collection just yet !
For video ...
The HDMI v1.3 features such as Deep Colour and xvYCC (marketed as alternative colour sapce or x.v.Colour or something sexy like that) are not supported by DVD-Video, HD-DVD or Bluray, but are supported by the high-definition recording format AVCHD (found in some of the newer handheld "camcorders". So, for ordinary Bluray viewing the source material does not use these formats - they are a marketing gimmick.
For audio ...
Yes, HDMI v1.3 supports HD audio bitstream.
The reality however is that, your source (Bluray) player or AV Receiver will be the thing that does the HD Audio decoding to PCM and transmit the audio stream via HDMI v1.0. So, even if you happen to use the TV for audio (which most people wouldn't as that's what the AV Receiver and speakers are for), it could still be capable of receiving the "HD" audio over HDMI v1.0.
It's a sad indictment on the industry that the major retail chains are spreading this misinformation about consumer electronics in the hope that people endlessly upgrade equipment. The manufacturers (are you listening Sony) of course would be loving it ... they are most likely the ones responsible for the "training" of the staff in these stores.