Does it run hot? or does it have a fan?
No fan that I can see, does not run hot. It's very well ventilated (slots on the top). My cabinet has an open front and lots of open room above and below. My IR Thermometer says it's ~115F (ambient air temp 72F) and that is just running 5 speakers at a moderate listening level for TV. So it's warm to the touch but not hot. I'm sure if I were blasting music it would jump up some but that gives you an idea.
As for future proof, I'm hoping that if the output is capable of 4K that a firmware update will make the inputs 4K compatible later. To be honest, I'm so old that 4K will doubtfully ever be something I must have but I'm certain you young kids will have it in about 10+ years as standard stuff.
As for how this receiver functions, it's pretty nice. My wife hates it from the perspective that she now has to turn on the receiver in order to hear the speakers. My DirecTv remote doesn't turn it on when you press the "On" power button. There might be a work around to make that function but I doubt it, short of leaving the receiver on all the time.
One thing I don't like is I am unable to relabel the inputs. I'd like to change GAME to DVR2 and change CBL/SAT to DVR1, but mostly just change GAME.
One problem I had this morning was when I tried to turn it on this morning using the remote the audio functioned but there was no video on my TV. I had to turn off the receiver using the front panel switch and then turn back on. It was like it rebooted saying "ONKYO" and then the picture was restored. Not sure what happened there at all. If it occurs again I will report it.
vTuner isn't that great. Selecting stations and memorizing them as a favorite doesn't seem to work well. I need to spend more time with this which is one of the problems, it should just work without much effort. The audio stream quality isn't the best, a comment from my teenage daughter which shocked me, but I fully agree. This has nothing to do with the receiver, it's the service.
Pandora [free] streaming sounds very good. I haven't listened to over 30 minutes of it yet but I will soon to see if it stops playing after a period of time as I expect. All the music appears to have the Thumbs Up automatically selected but I'm hoping it is just a GUI error. Signing up my account was easy except the comma and period are right next to each other on the TV and they look identical. I recommend using the front panel display as it's very clear to read the characters.
When you select "NET" on the remote or front panel, the last network stream that was playing will automatically start up, very nice feature.
The FM tuner is nice and sensitive as it was pulling in radio stations that most other receivers in my house and car cannot pull in.
Setting up the video and other setting is not that easy. I've seen much better GUI's. To be honest, I found a menu on changing the video settings (brightness, color, etc...) but damn if I can find it again. Again, time to read the manual.
Speaking of the manual, it's so large it's a pdf on a CD. No printed manual which doesn't work for me as my computer resided in one room, the A/V equipment in another. I ended up printing out the entire manual and using the pdf to search for things, write down the page number, then when I'm futzing with the receiver I can just thumb to the page I need. Wish they provided a printed manual.
The automatic speaker tuning appeared to be accurate enough for me. I did the quick single location setup but will redo everything using the three spot calibration and then tweak down the surrounds just a little as my wife doesn't really care for them so much. Hopefully I can figure out how to save two different settings so I can enjoy the surrounds when watching a movie when she is gone. My family room is not a home theater layout so this is why the surrounds are not great for every seat in the room.
I do believe this receiver is worth the money and would do it again. I can't wait to play around with the Zone2 settings as I'm looking to add a set of speakers outside on my deck. The Android Application works well so far as I only briefly used it but I'm hoping it can control Zone2 as that will make it really a functional item. Who wants to buy another remote and fire it into a window or run an IR blaster? Not me.
This is not a full review of the product, just a few observations.
