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.