oh damn it and the 605 downgrades 1080i to 720... WTF? i probably couldnt tell the difference anyway, but what the hell?

(I dont want something to hold me over, I want something that is solid that I dont have to upgrade in 6 months)

What do you mean? I cant find that.

If you want something that you wont have to upgrade go get a Yamaha for a couple of grand.

wow thanks for the insight! thats really what I came here for. Someone to point out a $2000 reciever. I have specific needs that I want to satisfy as cheap as possible.

HDMI audio/vido switching (no need for upconvert) but I dont want signal downgraded for no reason

And some form of surround, really dont care.

Ok so you dont need an upconvert, this thing has two inputs for your HDMI devices, it has two opticals for those devices as well. It has surround ouputs for your speakers.

What more do you need? This seems to be right up your alley.

If in the future if you plan to add a third HDMI device you will be up shits creek because it has no place for that so you will have to use a component and a coax.

Its a limited unit.

well thats really weird.

http://reviews.cnet.com/av-receivers...-32553616.html

This also falls into your price range.

http://reviews.cnet.com/av-receivers...3.html?tag=sub

funny this is the one i came up with, and I cant find a difference ?

i've been following the thread at avsforum.com on that unit... mixed results. and definitely a time mismatch between video and audio in a lot of cases for guitar hero players.

incidentally, my Denon is still at the !#$#% repair shop.

No clue, check out denons site. Its at the bottom of the list. Maybe it an older model.

Ye gads! $50 for a 2 meter "super hgh resolution" HDMI cable?

Honestly, I take issue with that sort of thing. When you're dealing with analog video (including VGA and DVI-A) then yes, good cables make a difference. All else being equal, a heavier-gauge coax with a better shield will produce a shaper, cleaner image than a cheap, poorly-shielded cable.

In the digital world however, this is mostly bunk. It's not entirely true that digital video reception is an all-or-nothing affair as is commonly believed- there is a narrow window of opportunity for corruption that results in a high bit-error rate and artifacts without completely dropping out. In practice however, even the cheapest of cables are adequate to provide a full-quality signal. Digital receivers, particularly those employing differential (balanced) signaling such as HDMI and DVI-I / DVI-D, are astoundingly robust in terms of their immunity to common-mode noise and their ability to recover data "out of the mud."

I run into this all the time with AES/EBU, the digital audio standard used in broadcast facilities. AES/EBU is basically a differential version of S/PDIF with a different framing of the "user" bitfields. I've seen situations where somebody ran an AES/EBU signal hundreds of feet across cheap non-certified cable with one leg of the pair lifted, and the signal was still perfectly recoverable on the far end.

All else being equal, for any given HDMI / DVI transmission mode, if a very cheap cable is adequate to carry a recoverable signal then there will be absolutely zero improvement in either video or audio quality by moving to a thicker, better-quality, more expensive cable.

I'm with Joe, get the cheapest shit you can find.

Hey Loki how about this one.
http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/produ...mid=#prodspecs

Should satisfy your Jewish pallet ;)

Its cheap and has 105W per channel, sony and quality do not belong in the same sentence when it comes to recievers, imho but it should do for you as well.

I get them cheaper :)
For everything 24ft and shorter, I use their less expensive, standard red cables. I always use their blue cables for the very long runs. The dvi gear blue cables were the only "reasonably priced" cables I've ever had 100% success with sending 1080p over 10+ meters.
I agree with you that for shorter runs, the cable you use becomes far less important. However, I primarily deal with longer runs, and the cables are placed inside walls during construction. I don't get a second chance.

Im very wary of SOny but i see nothing wrong with it. Hopefully Y8s or Ben will chime in with some deep information I dont undrestand. Something to do with flux capicators and such

6.1 ftl

Cmon bro, what does he need more then 6.1 for, really, and for 200 less.

OK, crap decoders and crap power supply ftl

what about the denon?

How is it I never realized you were a pro-audio installer? :bigtu:

Ok, I'll grant you that's a whole different story. If you're doing in-wall runs professionally, then the cost of the cable is chump change compared to the overall project budget. I guess I was speaking more to the casual home user, the sort who are preyed upon by the sales staff at Circuit City who realize that their profit margin isn't in selling a $130 DVD player, it's in selling the six foot HDMI cable for $130 to go with it.

So, for the casual home-theater buff, here you go.

"Cheap" 6' red cable from DVIGear, $35: http://www2.dvigear.com/cahdhr242me.html

"Cheap" 8' Belkin cable from CC, $35: http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Belki...oductDetail.do

Cheap 6' cable from Geeks, $7.50: http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...-06-DF&cpc=SCH

Cheap 6' cable from eHDMI, $4.79: http://ehdmi.com/products/product.as...ormat=2&style=

For what it's worth, I buy all of my analog video cables from eHDMI nowadays. Their 6' RG-6 based component video patch cable, for example, costs $12.54, which is about half of what it would cost me to build an equivalent cable using the spool of RG-6 that I have lying around along with the Canare RCAP-C ends that I used to get from work at 5% over wholesale.

When it comes to the S/PDIF audio however, I just grab one of the many el-cheepo RCA cables that I keep in a box in the garage, all of which came free with various pieces of gear over the years.

I've got the previous generation to that Circuit City Onkyo system. I love it, a bit much for the small space I have it in right now, but BFD.