T

turnerg

Audiophyte
Can someone help a newbie out. I have a sony grand wega 1080i projection tv, hdmi cable box, toshiba a-3 and an xbox 360. Can someone help with deciding between the 663 and 863. The 863 would provide one more hdmi but is this necessary with a 1080i tv. Also, i'm not understanding the 863 upconversion over the 663. Would my setup benefit from the upconversion on the 863 or is this already handled by my dvd player/xbox/cable box?

Thanks for any advice in advance.
 
J

jamie2112

Banned
Welcome to Audioholics Turnerg. The the 663 is the same unit minus the extra hdmi and the 863 is more expensive. I would go with the 663. Look up the 663 in the forum section, it comes highly recommended here .:D
 
M

mudrummer99

Senior Audioholic
The difference between the 663 and 863 conversions are as this:

The 663 just passes through video signals through HDMI, it does not scale them into a different resolution, what goes in comes out

The 863 upscales the signal up to 1080p (or 720p/1080i in your case to match your tv)

Is there a benefit to this? Maybe, depends on how good the video scaler in your television is. Something has to scale video to your tv's native resolution. Other than that, I personally don't believe the $400 difference is worth the minimal increase in features. Hope this helps a bit.

Mike
 
F

FSUguy

Junior Audioholic
Can someone help a newbie out. I have a sony grand wega 1080i projection tv, hdmi cable box, toshiba a-3 and an xbox 360. Can someone help with deciding between the 663 and 863. The 863 would provide one more hdmi but is this necessary with a 1080i tv. Also, i'm not understanding the 863 upconversion over the 663. Would my setup benefit from the upconversion on the 863 or is this already handled by my dvd player/xbox/cable box?

Thanks for any advice in advance.
Unless your really need the extra HDMI input or plan on adding more equipment that needs HDMI, I would go with the 663. As far as upconversion, IMO, the A-3 will probably do a better job than the 863. You don't upconvert from the 360 if using HD output or the cable box for that matter. Plus, to my knowledge (I have a 1800) the Yamaha's only upconvert 480i/p to 720p/1080i/1080p through analog inputs (ie: composite video/ S-video), but definitely not over HDMI. The step up from the 463 to the 663 is huge considering price vs. features, but IMO this is not true going from the 663 to the 863; unless you need the slight extra powers, inputs, and few additional features.

Hope this helps
 
Pyrrho

Pyrrho

Audioholic Ninja
Can someone help a newbie out. I have a sony grand wega 1080i projection tv, hdmi cable box, toshiba a-3 and an xbox 360. Can someone help with deciding between the 663 and 863. The 863 would provide one more hdmi but is this necessary with a 1080i tv. Also, i'm not understanding the 863 upconversion over the 663. Would my setup benefit from the upconversion on the 863 or is this already handled by my dvd player/xbox/cable box?

Thanks for any advice in advance.

There are more differences between those receivers than others have said. For example, the RX-V863 has an HD tuner, and the RX-V663 does not.

I recommend looking at Yamaha's web site for more information on these receivers. If the RX-V663 has all the features one wants, then it is obviously a better deal (at normal prices). But if one wants something that the RX-V863 has that the RX-V663 lacks, then the situation is different. I would not, however, purchase the RX-V863 if all I wanted was an extra HDMI input, as a good automatic/manual HDMI switch box can be had for about $100:

http://www.oppodigital.com/hm31/

As far as upconversion is concerned, the ONLY reason to have it in a receiver is if it does a better job than your TV does. You see, TVs will convert any signal that they accept to their native resolution, and if the TV does this well, then there is no need for it in anything else. Of course, if the TV does not do this well, then it is good to have something else that upconverts the signal. It is also entirely possible that the TV is better with some sources, and the receiver may be better with others. Unfortunately, I have no idea whether the Yamaha RX-V863 receiver or your TV does a better job upconverting. For information on that, one should search for professional reviews of both and look at whatever tests that they performed. Most likely, however, one will not be able to find appropriate reviews to be able to do a proper evaluation of this matter.
 
T

turnerg

Audiophyte
Update

IF it adds to the discussion my TV is an older Sony Grand WEGA KDF-55WF655 55inch. I definately don't need HD tuner, the extra hdmi would be nice but not for pice. So for me it hinges on understanding the upconversion from the receiver. From the answers, it appears my best bet is with the 663 for my setup.
 
jcPanny

jcPanny

Audioholic Ninja
Receiver options

Your Sony TV was a high end model and it should have a good internal scaler. I suspect that you will have little or no benefit for the scaling feature on a mid-fi receiver. Also, the specs are vauge but I suspect you TV is 720p or 768p resolution.

I would get the less expensive Yamaha RX-V663 and invest in an Oppo upscalling DVD player or maybe a PS3 for BluRay.
 
T

turnerg

Audiophyte
One last question

First, I want to thank everyone for the responses. One last question though. I have decided ont the 663. So I will have the toshiba a-3 and cable box going into receiver with hdmi and out to tv with hdmi. This leaves my xbox 360. Whats the best way to hook it up? If I use the cable I have now, it would have composite video and Red/White analog audio. So I'm assuming it wouldn't transfer to TV via HDMI. If I use an optical cable/composit video, is this going to go to the TV through the HDMI? Just trying to determine cabling before I buy

Thanks
 
E

ECLIPSEONYA

Junior Audioholic
XBOX Hook-up

You should be able to run and optical cable into your receiver from the 360. This will allow for you to enjoy your gaming in surround.
 
R

Russtang

Audiophyte
Turnerg - Which cable to use to hook up your Xbox 360 depends on three main questions:
1) Where do you want the upconversion to take place?
-- The 360 only passes through native resolution over component video and will not upconvert via component. So if you want your std. def. DVD's upconverted before they hit the TV you would need to connect the 360 by component video into the 663 and let the 663 upconvert then send the 720P or 1080i signal to the TV via HDMI. If you prefer that the TV does the upconversion, then connect either the 360 directly to the TV or throught hte recevier and ensure that the upconversion is disabled in the receiver.
2) Do you have an HDMI port on your 360?
-- If your 360 is a slightly newer model that has an HDMI port, connect the 360 to the 663 by HDMI (better) so that the 360 is upconverting the signal then sending it via HDMI to your receiver, then again by HDMI to your TV.
3) Where do you want to listen to your 360...on the TV or on your receiver & surround speaker system?
-- If you want to listen on your TV, then connecting via HDMI will bring the audio to your TV. If connecting via component video, you will need to conenct the red/white RCA wires from your 360 into either your recevier (to pass to the TV via HDMI) or directly into the TV RCA audio inputs. If you plan to listen to the 360 via the receiver, then either connect via HDMI into your receiver (if possible) or if using component video, then connect the audio via optical cable from your 360 to the receiver.
 
T

turnerg

Audiophyte
Update

Just to update, I purchased the 663 this weekend. Best buy with a 12% off coupon, later found it at HHGregg employee sale for $428, so did the whole price match thing.

Anyways, here is my setup, working great.

Toshiba A-3 to receiver via HDMI
Explorer 8300hd cablebox to receiver via HDMI
receiver to tv via HDMI
xbox 360 to receiver via component cables and optical audio
wii to receiver via A/V cables

Best part, I didn't realize that the one HDMI calbe from receiver to tv would transfer all video and audio. Thought I would at least need a standard video out to tv for Wii. You would not believe how many cables are eliminated. Doesn't even look like a fire hazard behind my tv anymore.

Finally hooked up an old pair of B&W rear speakers and just need a sub and eventually update my speakers.

Thanks again.

PS... Also now able to set a max volume. No longer have to worry about my 2 year old blowing out speakers etc lol
 
jcPanny

jcPanny

Audioholic Ninja
Yamaha features

Turnerg - Which cable to use to hook up your Xbox 360 depends on three main questions:
1) Where do you want the upconversion to take place?
-- The 360 only passes through native resolution over component video and will not upconvert via component. So if you want your std. def. DVD's upconverted before they hit the TV you would need to connect the 360 by component video into the 663 and let the 663 upconvert then send the 720P or 1080i signal to the TV via HDMI. If you prefer that the TV does the upconversion, then connect either the 360 directly to the TV or throught hte recevier and ensure that the upconversion is disabled in the receiver.
FYI,
The OPs receiver does not do upscaling. It does, however, convert analog video inputs to HDMI.

It you have more than 2 HDMI sources, you can always connect 1 directly to the display. BluRay (and HD-DVD) are the only sources that need HDMI audio to take advantage of the new audio formats. Component video would work just as well for the cable box and X-box sources.
 

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