HTiB with HDMI repeater? (1 Viewer)

[UniAce]

Hi all,
Does anyone know of decent HTiB (Home Theater in a Box) systems that do HDMI repeater (not just HDMI pass-through)? My budget is around $500.
thanks,
~jason


(Bonus Q to make sure I'm understanding things here: If a HTiB only had HDMI pass-through, would I still get the same sound quality as one that did have a repeater by running the audio separately from the source (e.g., Xbox360) via digital audio cable (e.g., coaxial, optical)?)

 

[Ed Moxley]

Here's the cheapest and best one I know of:
http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-HT-S6200-7-1-Channel-Entertainment-Receiver/dp/B002C73WS6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1265158670&sr=1-1
The price right now is $550.76 with free shipping.

While digital coax and optical sound good, there's no way to get the HD audio from blu ray movies with them. With the Onkyo 6200 above, you can get the HD audio over the HDMI connections, and the receiver decodes them. The Onkyo gives a lot of bang for the buck...............

 

[Seth=L]

Sony has one, can't recommend it though since the receiver isn't really a receiver.

Yamaha is another option, but be warry of which one you choose, the speakers that come with some of them are the worst I've seen. Some of the speaker packages are pretty good too. Listen to them if you can. Onkyo usually has the best overall performance in HTiB systems though.