looking for cheap 5.1 hdmi 1080i/p passthrough reciever (1 Viewer)

[munsterrr]

im one of those guys that thought it would be easier to buy a combo dvd/reciever and didnt plan ahead and now its biting me in the ass.

right now i have a sony combo that has nothing for connectivity. it has red and white for external audio source and that is it. nothing else.

i bought a new tv and have an hd STB coming today and a 360 etc etc that i have connected to the tv but there are all these problems with the tv not sending component audio back out and everything else.

what i want to do is have everything hooked up to my reciever and have just the HDMI go from the reciever to the tv.

i found the onkyo TXSR505 which seems like it would do the job but i just want to change the reciever and use the sony 5.1 speakers(they do good enough for me)

any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Bluzman]

Other possibilities:
Denon AVR 1508
Harman Kardon AVR 146 or AVR 147
Marantz SR4001
Sony STR-DG510

There is probably a Pioneer that is comparable to the 505 also.

 

[munsterrr]

so with any of these recievers would i be able to connect all my stuff to it and run the one HDMI cable to the TV? thats not life threatening but i would really like this option.

if it doesnt have this option i guess i would have to run one hdmi, one component, one dvi, one svideo to the tv and connect everything else to the receiver

 

[JamieS]

Maybe you could supply exactly what you want to hook up to the reciver so then people could narrow down how many and what kind of inputs you need?

For example: Xbox 360 HDMI out
DVD player Compnent video coaxil audio

That type of thing.

 

[munsterrr]

DEAL

as of right now its:
dvd player-component
360-component
sd cable box-composite
computer-dvi to HDMI


with in the near future it will be:
upconvert DVD-HDMI
HD STB-HDMI(maybe dvi to hdmi)
360-component
computer-dvi to hdmi

with the computer i usually just plug it into the front of tv though because i dont always use it until im watching a movie or playing a game off of it

 

[Bluzman]

A couple of thoughts come to mind.

1) With three HDMI devices you need to consider either an AVR with 3 HDMI inputs OR an AVR with 2 HDMI inputs AND an HDMI switch (see monoprice for example for a 3x1).

2) The other thing is that if you really want just a single HDMI cable from the AVR to the TV, you'll need an AVR that transcodes component video to HDMI to take care of your 360. That may take you out of what you consider the "cheap" price category.

 

[munsterrr]

yea as i have been looking around for the past few days i realize that if i want to stay on the cheaper side i will just have to make sacrifices. which isnt necessarly bad for me i will just have to 1 hdmi, 1 component, 1 svideo, and one composite. to cover my ass in the futre. which still isnt that bad i guess. because there is more connected to my tv than that i just dont care enough to list them.

get what you pay for right?

how would this do for me?
Accessories4less

 

[LanceJ]

The ultimate solution would be to use a receiver that converts all types of video input formats - composite, S-video and component - to HDMI. I know these exist but unfortunately they aren't cheap.

But there are a lot more receivers, even this Sherwood (and includes a couple HDMI inputs too) - that can convert composite and S-video inputs to component, so that may be another (partial) option. I am not sure if HD cable boxes allow HD content to be transmitted over component - if not, you'd have to run an HDMI cable from the box directly to the monitor.

 

[munsterrr]

Man i finally realized today that i have EVEN MORE wires than i thought i had. i just finished mounting my TV on the wall and didnt even run the wires through the wall. i just camoflauged them. theres so many i couldnt even grab them all with one hand.


SOOOOOOOOOOOO YEA i guess the more expensive one HDMI out option will be the best. now i just have to find one that upscales nicely

 

[Bluzman]

Not sure if you want one that scales or converts/transcodes but I recommend that you keep the following in mind. The scaler changes the resolution of the video signal after it transcodes the analog signal to digital - for example, 720p analog video IN >> 1080p digital OUT. The transcoder just does the A-to-D conversion - for example, 720p analog video IN >> 720p digital OUT. As you might guess, AVRs that scale tend to be more expensive than those that just transcode.

 

[munsterrr]

ohhh well i didnt know there was a difference.

so if it transcodes the TV takes care of the rest?

but a scaling one takes the work load off the TV?

 

[Bluzman]

If the AVR just transcodes, the TV will scale the signal to its native resolution if necessary. For example, if your AVR transcodes a 720p analog signal to 720p digital (HDMI) and your TV has a native resolution of 1080p, the TV will always scale that 720p HDMI input to 1080p, its native resolution. OTOH, if the transcoded input is the same resolution as the native resolution of the TV, the TV will do nothing but display it - no scaling.

Now, if the AVR transcodes and scales, the same process takes place in the TV. If the input is the same as the native resolution of the TV - no scaling. If the AVR has scaled the TV's input to a resolution that's different than the native resolution of the TV, the TV will always scale. The latter is something to be avoided since you want to avoid scaling the signal twice.

The bottom line is you want the device that does the best job of scaling (TV, DVD player, AVR - whatever) to be the one place where scaling occurs.

IMO, most AVRs don't do that great a job at scaling. YMMV

 

[munsterrr]

alright transcoding reciever with HDMI is what i need.

any suggestions guys? remember cheap might as well be the CHEAPEST!

 

[Bluzman]

Yamaha RX-V663 (J&R.com)
Sony STR-DG910 (or if you can wait a couple of months STR-DG820/920)

 

[munsterrr]

after looking at the upcoming str-dg"20" series im going to get either the 520 or 720.