Hooked up my 696 late last night, and do a quick (and quiet) run through. Aside from the difficulty of using a receiver that is smarter than I am :) it was straightforward. I still haven't figured out how to get the OSD to display on my TV, but the receiver display works well for setup.
The...
Thanks Matt C!
I just went down to the local CC with a printout of the web price, and got a 696. Contrary to Matt W's experience, the salesguy was very surprised by the price, and they've still got it priced at $800. Maybe a big sale is coming down the pipe. But just in case, I grabbed one...