are non-HDMI receivers now worthless?

The Yamaha RX-V1500 is a very good receiver, although the resale value is probably in the $200 range for a used unit, which would be a considerable loss compared to it's original cost.

I would personally keep it as a spare. I have a 26 year old Yamaha around the house. They last forever!

Not much of a market, but at least you have the fact that your Yamaha doesn't have major overheating issues like recent Onkyos. Stay far away IMO.

Very true. My old Yamaha runs incredibly cool.

Although, I think I'm one of the few people to have a non-overheating Onkyo 805.

However, it gets more than adequate ventilation (+ 9 inches above, sides completely open). Even with my near ref lvl movie playback, it just gets warm like the rest of the receivers I've owned.

Really not sure I'd say the Onkyo overheating issue is major... there are far more people with these units going strong, even if they run warm, compared to the few with true overheating problems.

+1

As to the original post, I'd say that yes, most people don't have use for them anymore. BOTOH it depends on what your system contains and how future proof you want it. If you have no interest in BD or upconverting DVDs than a good receiver that lacks HDMI is still useful. Depending on the make, it could actually sound better implementing tried and DD or DTS than a budget HDMI model playing DTS MA or TruHD.

I'd go a step further in regards to the OP's V1500. It can handle BD using the multichannel inputs along with a BD player that decodes the formats internally and has multichannel analog outputs. Also, an inexpensive remote-controlled HDMI switch is easy to integrate into your setup, ESPECIALLY if you're using a Harmony remote (controlling the HDMI switch just becomes part of your programmed activities).

Have you thought about going this route as opposed to replacing your V1500?

"I'd say that yes, most people don't have use for them anymore."

I think that is false. It may be true on AVS forums, but to say that most people have no use for non-HDMI receivers is ridiculous. Plenty of people still use old receivers, and plenty of folks have non-HDMI setups (maybe a 2nd/3rd room) and haven't yet upgraded to Blu Ray (or don't plan to).

The only disadvantage with a solid non-HDMI receiver is the step-down from lossless to lossy on Blu Rays, and fewer cables. That's it. And despite the "night and day!!" claims on this forum, the VAST majority of people would be perfectly happy with full bitrate DD/DTS and would never know what they were missing with respect to lossless codecs.

That being said, the market value will be poor. An RX-V1500 is probably worth $150-200ish.

You can still take advantage of lossless codecs and uncompressed PCM using a player that decodes those formats and transmits them over multichannel analog to any receiver with multichannel analog inputs (including the RX-V1500).

There are still people that claim the Xbox 360 isn't unreliable, too.

I really don't think you can compare Onkyo heat issues to RROD... it's not widespread enough that it's pushing Onkyo to extend warranties the way Microsoft has for RROD.

It's not 30%, but it's still higher than any other brand, enough that there were several threads here about it. That is enough to steer me away.

I wonder how many have had true overheating problems vs. how many have felt it a little warmer than what they think is normal and then assume they have a heat issue? Thing about the RROD was you knew you had it... I'd expect a good number of people are shying away just because it's warmer than what they're used to or have heard reports from others saying it's warmer than they're used to, and that the number of pure heat related failures is in line with the failure rates of most other consumer grade AVRs.