A/V receiver help?

UncleChet

Help me G&T. I'm an a/v newb and I'm in the market for a new home theater receiver. The ideal cantidate has atleast 2 but 3 would be better hdmi inputs and 1 output. It would support 5.1 sound (more is okay) and cost at or below 300$. Is this a posibility? Would this thread be better in H/A? Stores I have access to are Bestbuy, circut city and over priced home and car audio stores.

I look forward to your taunts and assistance. ;-)

CZroe

UncleChet wrote: »

Help me G&T. I'm an a/v newb and I'm in the market for a new home theater receiver. The ideal cantidate has atleast 2 but 3 would be better hdmi inputs and 1 output. It would support 5.1 sound (more is okay) and cost at or below 300$. Is this a posibility? Would this thread be better in H/A? Stores I have access to are Bestbuy, circut city and over priced home and car audio stores.

I look forward to your taunts and assistance. ;-)

Are you looking for HDMI pass-through or HDMI upscaling?

Rivulent

I started my endeavor about 2 months back, buying a (on sale) $250 Onkyo SR 505, with HDMI pass through. I ended up returning it and downgradiing to the Onkyo 304 for half the price.

HDMI Pass through is a joke. As the name implies, it's only a pass through and the receiver still needs a seperate audio cable from the HDMI component to the receiver (for sound), and also you need both an HDMI cable and a component cable running to your TV. Basically, it's just a big gimmick. I guess you could look at it as adding an hdmi porn (2 in, 1 out), but for $130 bucks no thanks.

The 505 also had a bunch of accessories I'd never use, such as Ipod connectivity (aka line in cable), and 7.1 vs. 5.1. I just use 5 mid-size speakers (no sub at the moment), so 7.1 is useless for me.

I don't see you getting an true HDMI receiver at this point in time for under $300. If you already have a receiver that works, I would hold off another year when the true HDMI receivers get cheaper. I have a pretty good ear for what sounds good and what doesnt, and between the $150 onkyo and the $300 onkyo, there was no difference.

Hope this helps sway your decision.

UncleChet

This helps a good bit, as I'm a n00b. I can't tell the difference That much in sound, I'm using two rather large speakers for fronts and then the sub, center and rears that came with my current receiver. I guess what I was looking for was passthrough, but the guy at CC said I'd still want to use optical for audio to get the best 5.1. This sounded odd to me as HDMI supports video and sound. I wouldn't need upscaling per se, just a way to hook the PS3/360/cable box to the receiver and single cable it to the TV, all the while, generating 5.1 sound.