I did not have much time last night to run any real tests, but I did get the 5200ES all wired in.
By way of background, my current A/V components are: Qualia 006, HD TiVo Series 3, Toshiba HD DVD Player, JVC DVHS. I previously was using a Sony 444ES. My TV (and previous V444ES) was professionally ISF calibrated by umr.
The 5200 ES is slightly smaller (height-wise) and lighter than the 444ES. It was a breeze to hook up, since I'm utilizing so many less cables now. The DVHS is hooked up via component cables and optical to Video 1. The HD DVD and TiVo (currently) are connected via HDMI.
Upon installation, I received no video, only audio from the TiVo via HDMI input 1. I reset the 5200ES (two buttons held down while powering on) and changed the HDMI cable to input 7 instead of 6 on the Q006 and it worked. The GUI is nice, but not extraordinary. Pretty basic, with most of the really advanced settings buried deeper in options menus. I also found it a little flakey coming up and going off at times.
The automatic audio calibration is really cool. It automatically measures all speaker distances to the listening point, adds or subtracts decibel levels to each individual speaker, etc. There are also three memory points for different listening positions. One problem I have is that my 7.1 speaker set-up consists of the extra 2 speakers mounted high in the two corners behind my TV. The 5200ES does not allow you to change the configuration (from what I've seen) and places the extra two speakers in its diagram as side speakers. Therefore, when you automatically calibrate, you get an error at the end stating that (in my case the front L and R, Center and rear L speaker polarity is crossed. You can still save the settings though.
Once again, I haven't had an opportunity to really give it a good listen to, but 5.1 network shows, as well as an HD DVD title sequence sounded crisp.
Volume changes do show on screen, but only if you're in a GUI menu. There is no overlay of video! There is separate memory for each input on the 5200ES, so your audio preferences (A.F.D. v. Cinema 2, or EQ settings) are stored separately for each component. This will definitely take some tweaking. Also, on the 444ES I was able to rename each input to a custom name (HD TiVo), but it doesn't appear you can rename HDMI 1 to a custom name on the 5200ES.
I haven't really cracked open the manual, but it appears the video scaling is for analog video sources, so I don't think I'd see any benefit here. The Q006 displays 1080p, but only accepts 1080i input. The picture from the HD TiVo S3 looked a little oversaturated in color and murky in dark scenes. I may revert back to sending the HD TiVo video straight to the Q006 via HDMI into input 6 and send audio to the 5200ES via optical cable, as I did with the 444ES. The HD TiVo S3 passes native resolution video and the Q006 has a great scaler to get to 1080p.
The remote has glow in the dark buttons and some buttons light up. It does seem a little sluggish. Changing the volume seems especially slow, compared to the 444ES.
It looks like I'll keep the Toshiba HD DVD connected via HDMI, and also add via HDMI the Sony Blu-Ray player 12/7 and PS3 11/17.
I intend to try out my iPod through the USB input on the front of the 5200ES as well. No plans to utilize XM radio.
That's it for now. I will post more info and pictures when available.
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