Any opinions?

[quickcougar03]

I apologize in advance for any dumb questions that I may ask. I have been reading about receivers for about 3 weeks now and have officially confused myself. I am in the process of putting together a home theater system. I bought a 46” Samsung series 6 LCD 120Htz and I plan on using my PS3 as my blue ray player and upconverter for regular DVDs. I am now in the process of looking for a receiver. I am looking to spend under $400 (I live in an apartment and don’t need anything REAL powerful, I am just looking for something that will look and sound great, and decode or upscale anything that I might have missed). I will be connecting a ps3 and HD direct TV/DVR. I would like to run everything through the receiver, and then have one HDMI going to the TV. I am confused about the following:

1. Do I need an upconverting/upscaling receiver for any reason?
2. Do I need a receiver that is “blue ray ready?”

Are there any receivers that you would recommend? I have been looking at the following: Pioneer VSX-819H, Yamaha RX-V465, Onkyo TX-SR507, and Denon AVR-590.

Thank you very much for any help that you can provide.

 

[XEagleDriver]

No dumb questions (some are just funnier than others)

I apologize in advance for any dumb questions that I may ask. I have been reading about receivers for about 3 weeks now and have officially confused myself. I am in the process of putting together a home theater system. I bought a 46” Samsung series 6 LCD 120Htz and I plan on using my PS3 as my blue ray player and upconverter for regular DVDs. I am now in the process of looking for a receiver. I am looking to spend under $400 (I live in an apartment and don’t need anything REAL powerful, I am just looking for something that will look and sound great, and decode or upscale anything that I might have missed). I will be connecting a ps3 and HD direct TV/DVR. I would like to run everything through the receiver, and then have one HDMI going to the TV. I am confused about the following:

1. Do I need an upconverting/upscaling receiver for any reason?

No, but many new receivers will come with this ability anyway, don't try and "avoid" it--won't hurt anything. Do ensure the receiver has HDMI 1.3 and can decode the "new" Blu-ray audio codecs (Dobly-HD and DTS-HD).

2. Do I need a receiver that is “blue ray ready?”

Not sure this is anything meaningful beyond some marketing hype. If they mean it can handle the Blu-ray audio codecs referenced above, than yes, you want that ability.

Are there any receivers that you would recommend? I have been looking at the following: Pioneer VSX-819H, Yamaha RX-V465, Onkyo TX-SR507, and Denon AVR-590.

A good basic list of reputable manufacturers.

Some other things you may want to do are:

1) Be sure to view a picture of the receiver's back-side to get an idea on number and layout of connections.
2) Google and read some user/professional reviews (sometimes it is hard to find on lower end AVRs).
3) Download the AVR manual to get a sense of capability, user interface, and complexity.


Enjoy your search,
XEagleDriver

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum!

XEagleDriver already addressed most of what I was going to say (thanks, man!). I do have a question - what speakers are you going to be using (make and model), or are you needing to buy those, too?

 

[quickcougar03]

I will be running some old Sony speakers initially(from an old theater in a box system, ss-v230 x4, and a ss-cn230), unless I find some that are of interest. However, I am still in the process of finding a decent set of speakers that interest me. Again, I don't need anything too big and loud, I'm just looking for a good sound at reasonable price.

And yes I know, those old speakers suck.

 

[Knucklehead90]

Any of the receivers you've singled out should do everything you want as long as they have audio over HDMI. Your PS3 can be set to bitstream mode for the HD audio formats.

A couple of others to look at are in your budget roundhouse because they can be had refurbished - the Onkyo RC160 which is basically a 607 with a few features lopped off. Also in your budget is the Harman Kardon 354 which would be out of your budget if it weren't refurbished and being sold on ebay by Harman. They have none listed at the moment - probably winding down their auctions until the turn of the year.

 

[quickcougar03]

Thank you very much for your input. I will do some research based on everyone's input. If you have any other tips or suggestions, please feel free to throw them in. Thanks again!

 

[cjsiv]

I would go with either the denon or onkyo due to the Audyssey processing which will work wonders at lower volumes in your apartment. I would lean toward the denon. I tried an onkyo 606 and I thought the picture looked crappy when using the receiver to switch to hdmi.

 

[quickcougar03]

That's what I was thinking as well, so I decided to go with the Denon AVR-590. Now I just have to find a decent set of speakers to accompany them. Thanks for your help everyone!