Pioneer Elite VSX-84TXSi - Here it Comes!

[krabapple]

Not only does the 84 upconvert to HDMI (which the 74 does already) it will process and scale, up to 1080P I believe.

The 74 doesn't 'upconvert' -- it simply transcodes (from whatever input format, to HDMI output). Upconversion means 'process and scale' (up).

 

[Geoh]

The 74 doesn't 'upconvert' -- it simply transcodes (from whatever input format, to HDMI output). Upconversion means 'process and scale' (up).

But the 84 will upconvert with it's built in Faroudja upscaling

g

 

[Tomorrow]

I read HDMI 1.3 was at least 6 months out as far as integration into receivers goes - possibly as late as 1st or 2nd quarter of 2007. That's got to be frustrating if you're in the market for a better AVR with the latest technology.

Nah. Just buy a Yammie RX-V2500 or Denon AVR3805 for 5 bills and sell it in a year and a half for 4. Cheap rent. Then when the 1.3 units arrive, use the old one as a second setup or bass fishing anchor or paper weight at tax time or plant stand or......

I'm still unconvinced that this immature technology won't take a year or more to iron bugs out....even after major manufacturer equipment releases. (You know those crazy software writers....lol. )

 

[krabapple]

But the 84 will upconvert with it's built in Faroudja upscaling

g

er...yes, and the 74 doesn't upconvert *at all*. That was my point. You implied that both models
do. The 74 transcodes, the 84 upconverts.

 

[Geoh]

er...yes, and the 74 doesn't upconvert *at all*. That was my point. You implied that both models
do. The 74 transcodes, the 84 upconverts.

oh yeah... sometimes i confuse the two

so does anybody have their mitts on the 84 yet?
i wonder how the new Oppo 970 will look feeding the 84 480i via hdmi and letting the Faroudja processing of the 84 do it's thing?

geoh

 

[B.A. Stereo]

Others problem

Other equipment makers are now going to be hard pressed.....the 84 offers alot more in it's price range than anyone else!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Smackrabbit]

oh yeah... sometimes i confuse the two

so does anybody have their mitts on the 84 yet?
i wonder how the new Oppo 970 will look feeding the 84 480i via hdmi and letting the Faroudja processing of the 84 do it's thing?

geoh

I want to know this as well. I'm picking up a 1080p Samsung DLP soon and want to know if I can use this with the Oppo 970 to upconvert to 1080p and not have macroblocking issues (what I mostly worry about).

Another question - Can you set certain inputs to scale, and certain inputs to pass thru? I might not want my video games to scale, due to lag, but will want them to just pass through. Of course, I might just have to hook them up directly to the DLP and set those ports to game mode.

 

[gstarr]

The highest the 84TXSi, or any other current receiver will upconvert is 1080i. You'd need to get a fancy Gennum, DVDO, or Lumagen scaler to do 1080p The new expensive Anthem D2 preamp/av surround controller has Gennum and does 1080p, but it costs north of $6K.

If you have one of the few models of HDTV's with a 1080p input, just wait until Blu Ray and/or HD comes out with a 1080p output and connect it directly to your HDTV (or thru an 84TXSi--it will pass unprocessed 1080p through HDMI).

It will be considerable time before HDMI 1.3 arrives in actual product. Heck, I have never seen HDMI 1.2 in any products--it will probably just be skipped.

The top 2 PE 80 series models do pass SACD, but through the firewire (i-link). Get a PE 59avi, 79avi, or a few different Denon dvd players with firewire and you can pass any digital signal in jitterfree performance. It is even better than HDMI for audio in my opinion.

I am upset that the first generation HD and Blu Ray dvd players don't seem to have firewire (i-link). Maybe they never will on the new HD players, as the music companies don't like firewires ability to take pure digital audio signals in non-encrypted form and relay it jitter-free to your firewire equipped receiver. I noticed on Pioneers own preliminary specs on their Blu Ray player--no firewire. And Pioneer Elite has had i-link/firewire on all their best equipment until now. I bet the music providers want Pioneer and others to pass the music signal with HDMI encrypted digital signals or degraded analogue. Fear of "as good as original" copying.


I'm going to wait until at least the second generation HD or Blu Ray players arrive. The first gen players won't have the new lossless audio codecs and HDMI 1.3. With the paucity of good software releases it pays to wait, unless one is a technophile and has to have the first--even though it certainly won't be the best. Heck, who knows what will shake out with the incompewtence behind both the HD and Blu Ray camps. At least the HD camp uses a Microsoft compression system for the video that is roughly the equal of MPEG-4, while it seems Sony's Blu Ray is releasing video on the old MPEG-2---guaranteed to have worse throughput and lower video quality until they put in MPEG-4 or comparable.

 

[Geoh]

The highest the 84TXSi, or any other current receiver will upconvert is 1080i. You'd need to get a fancy Gennum, DVDO, or Lumagen scaler to do 1080p The new expensive Anthem D2 preamp/av surround controller has Gennum and does 1080p, but it costs north of $6K.

If you have one of the few models of HDTV's with a 1080p input, just wait until Blu Ray and/or HD comes out with a 1080p output and connect it directly to your HDTV (or thru an 84TXSi--it will pass unprocessed 1080p through HDMI).

It will be considerable time before HDMI 1.3 arrives in actual product. Heck, I have never seen HDMI 1.2 in any products--it will probably just be skipped.

The top 2 PE 80 series models do pass SACD, but through the firewire (i-link). Get a PE 59avi, 79avi, or a few different Denon dvd players with firewire and you can pass any digital signal in jitterfree performance. It is even better than HDMI for audio in my opinion.

I am upset that the first generation HD and Blu Ray dvd players don't seem to have firewire (i-link). Maybe they never will on the new HD players, as the music companies don't like firewires ability to take pure digital audio signals in non-encrypted form and relay it jitter-free to your firewire equipped receiver. I noticed on Pioneers own preliminary specs on their Blu Ray player--no firewire. And Pioneer Elite has had i-link/firewire on all their best equipment until now. I bet the music providers want Pioneer and others to pass the music signal with HDMI encrypted digital signals or degraded analogue. Fear of "as good as original" copying.


I'm going to wait until at least the second generation HD or Blu Ray players arrive. The first gen players won't have the new lossless audio codecs and HDMI 1.3. With the paucity of good software releases it pays to wait, unless one is a technophile and has to have the first--even though it certainly won't be the best. Heck, who knows what will shake out with the incompewtence behind both the HD and Blu Ray camps. At least the HD camp uses a Microsoft compression system for the video that is roughly the equal of MPEG-4, while it seems Sony's Blu Ray is releasing video on the old MPEG-2---guaranteed to have worse throughput and lower video quality until they put in MPEG-4 or comparable.

Heck of a first post
Yes, I'm afraid iLink (or Firewire) will soon be history, at least in audio equipment. Even though it gave (does) the best audio.... I've ever heard

geoh

 

[ironlung]

It's good to wait!

I'm going to wait...

Yeah, me too.

 

[jr1414]

Delivery dates?

Any word on delivery dates yet?

 

[Geoh]

I wonder what happened to the review
Hopefully it's forthcoming.

geoh

 

[Geoh]

Well I've had my VSX-84TXSi for a little over a week now so I thought I'd post a few thoughts.
This unit is replacing a Denon 4306.
Why replace the 4306 you ask? Mainly because Audyssey wasn't doing it for me. And you just can't have enough HDMI inputs (4306 - 3HDMIs, 84 - 4HDMIs). Also THX certification, 84 has it, 4306 doesn't, not a big deal granted, but nice to have.
But probably the main reason.... I've always liked Pioneer's MCACC room EQ system. Combined with my Velodyne SMS-1 for subwoofer/LFE EQ'g, the combination gives me the best overall SQ that I've heard in my listening room, with my system configuration. Be it two channel music, HT, or high-rez multichannel music, the combination of the 84 via iLink from the DVV-79AVi dvd player, MCACC applied, is... well (remember the line from Sleepless in Seattle) MAGIC! Not really magic of course but it works for me.
My speaker system is the NHT Evolution M6's front and center, NHT L5's side and rear surrounds, with a SVS PB12-Ultra/2 subwoofer.
Anyway the 84's HDMI inputs work flawlessly with all my sources (DV79AVi, Directv HD Tivo, Toshiba HD-XA1 and the OPPO 970HD which is pretty cool with it's PCM transfer of SACD, etc... via HDMI, one cable carries everything and while it doesn't sound quite as good as iLink via the 79AVi, it's still very doable).
I was hoping to feed the 84's video processor 480i via HDMI from both the 79AVi and OPPO 970HD, have the 84 process to 720p or 1080i, but that's a no go. 84 just passes 480i via HDMI along to the display with no processing whatsoever.
To make a long story a little bit longer, while I've only had the 84 about a week, I'm very pleased thus far and it hasn't done anything to make me think, "this is a nice unit... but".
No buts at this time.........

geoh

 

[DaveOCP]

The 56 also seems to go for more on the street in an apples to apples comparison. I bought the 56 when I could have bought a 74 for the same amount. The 74 seemed to me to be a stopgap until the new established line came out. Not knocking them, they are excellent receivers IMHO. I just wanted a step up and was willing to go one generation back to get it. The new 80s seem to me to be the replacement for the lower end. I expect a few higher end models will come next. Given the naming we should see a VSX-86,89*** sometime later this year.

Same here. The 56 has the copper chassis, a proper remote, proper power supply, and its old school MOSFET amps have more muscle when driving multiple channels than the 74. I have no interest in a receiver with HDMI switching unless its 1.3. Also, I've got a Custom Power Cord Company Top Gun H.C.F hooked to my 56. The cord on the 74\84 is something that would be more at home on a clock radio.

 

[photoeye]

Hi,

has anyone purchased the VSX-84 since this posting?

Do Elite Receiver's really put the watts per the specs, all channels
driven? specs say 140watt but is it really 140watts when all channels are driven or much less?

 

[JES14]

Is it true the video up-conversion does not work throught HDMI? I am seriously considering this player for a HD-DVD player, and HD cable box switcher as my tv has only 1 HDMI input.

 

[cobrage401]

Hi Jes14 Look at Geoh last post

I was hoping to feed the 84's video processor 480i via HDMI from both the 79AVi and OPPO 970HD, have the 84 process to 720p or 1080i, but that's a no go. 84 just passes 480i via HDMI along to the display with no processing whatsoever

 

[JES14]

Hi cobrage401,

Yes I saw that as well, but I was hoping somebody would weigh in as to why this supposed upconverting player does not work. Or is it just a software update etc...
I am this close to buying this rec(fingers held close together here..lol) But this has definatly put things on hold.

 

[Fabrikator]

Hi Jes14 Look at Geoh last post

I was hoping to feed the 84's video processor 480i via HDMI from both the 79AVi and OPPO 970HD, have the 84 process to 720p or 1080i, but that's a no go. 84 just passes 480i via HDMI along to the display with no processing whatsoever

Im kind of confused, are you saying that your 84 unit was NOT able to process the signal and output it to 720p or 1080i ??. Could it possibly be defective?.. as all specs of this unit claim that this IS indeed possible, and If not not mistaken, is the purpose of the Faroudja Processing.

Excuse me if I may come across as a bit ignorant, and Ive slowly been getting back into the home theatre tech, after being away from it for so long.

 

[Fabrikator]

Hi,

has anyone purchased the VSX-84 since this posting?

Do Elite Receiver's really put the watts per the specs, all channels
driven? specs say 140watt but is it really 140watts when all channels are driven or much less?

I am also VERY curious about this as well. As it may be a deciding factor.