Official Onkyo 605 Owners Thread - Page 4

Originally Posted by mothergoose45

I'm looking to buy this to run a Dish Network 622 and a sony dvd player, both input by HDMI and out by HDMI to a panny plasma (no 1080p). I will get a Blu-ray or HD-DVD later. What should make me buy this (605) instead of buying the 604 at a discounted price? Any other reasons that I dont know of?

Originally Posted by pusta

You should look at something with more HDMI inputs. By my count when you get the Blu-Ray/HD DVD player, you'll have three HDMI sources. The 705/805 has three HDMI inputs in. The 605 only has two.

Originally Posted by pusta

You should look at something with more HDMI inputs. By my count when you get the Blu-Ray/HD DVD player, you'll have three HDMI sources. The 705/805 has three HDMI inputs in. The 605 only has two.

Originally Posted by mothergoose45

True, but with a Blu-RAy or HD-DVD I would omit the regular DVD player and just have the HD one. I would only need two then also. Just wondering if there is a reason for me with my setup to go with the 605 or would the 604 be just as good, as it would be discounted a bunch.

Originally Posted by Traveler62

Has anyone had any issues loading the 605 into a Harmony Remote? They tell me that they do not have the files for the 604 or 605. When I try to add the 605, it reverts to 603 on my Harmony 520.

Originally Posted by powerknowledge

The prime reason in this case would be if you wanted the receiver to decode advanced/lossless 5.1-7.1, rather than the player. There's been a lot of (valid) hand-wringing here and in the anticipation thread over this, especially as the CURRENT crop of HDDVD/BR players can't pass the 7.1 hd bistream over HDMI. Models coming soon (the new Panasonic BR, for example) claim to be able to do this. If that's the case, it would be a major convenience to pass everything over HDMI for the AVR to handle (one cable, rather than multiple analog outs; the ability to apply sound mode processing to that bitstream signal, rather than being able to apply few if any as the PCM over the multichannel ins is usually "untouched"; etc.).

Again, decision, decisions. Whether this all (and bear in mind there are a lot of "ifs" involved in the whole "hd-bitstream-over-hdmi" issue) is worth the $200 or so difference between the 604 and 605 is your call alone.

Originally Posted by powerknowledge

The prime reason in this case would be if you wanted the receiver to decode advanced/lossless 5.1-7.1, rather than the player. There's been a lot of (valid) hand-wringing here and in the anticipation thread over this, especially as the CURRENT crop of HDDVD/BR players can't pass the 7.1 hd bistream over HDMI. Models coming soon (the new Panasonic BR, for example) claim to be able to do this. If that's the case, it would be a major convenience to pass everything over HDMI for the AVR to handle (one cable, rather than multiple analog outs; the ability to apply sound mode processing to that bitstream signal, rather than being able to apply few if any as the PCM over the multichannel ins is usually "untouched"; etc.).

Again, decision, decisions. Whether this all (and bear in mind there are a lot of "ifs" involved in the whole "hd-bitstream-over-hdmi" issue) is worth the $200 or so difference between the 604 and 605 is your call alone.

Originally Posted by arios39

I spent some more time with the 605 and the picture adjusts itself if I change the aspect to H-Fill or Just. In Full, I get the bars all around. My biggest complaint with the previous HDMI up-conversion receivers that I tried before, is that they would degrade the picture going from Component to HDMI. This receiver did the same at the begining. But once I popped the AVIA dvd and recalibrated my TV keeping all the TV settings intact, and changing the picture settings in the receiver ( which is possible to navigate using the remote once the secret menu is up and running), the outcome was great. I am getting now 720p (according to the display/recall on the Panny plasma), the right aspect (16:9) and a great picture. I will be probably getting my HD player for Christmas. Until then, this will satisfy the kid in me.

I switched between component to components pass though the receiver to the Panny (480p) and component to HDMI (720p). The difference in somewhat noticeable. I am so used to see my player in 480p (softer picture) that with the up-scaling to 720p is hard for me to get used to.

Played a couple of scenes from the Fellowship of the Ring (which I know by heart) and the sound was perfect. Hard to say if this is an improvement from the 604 and 674 that have also gone through my rigorous testing.

Please let me know if you have any questions, but nothing that has to do with HD-DVD, PS3 or BD, as I don't own any yet.

Originally Posted by arios39

Please let me know if you have any questions, but nothing that has to do with HD-DVD, PS3 or BD, as I don't own any yet.

Originally Posted by bcapsley

If I understand correctly, The 605 WILL UPSCALE an analog video input (component, composite, S-video) to 720p when output through HDMI to a display. Is this correct?

So, I can expect to be able to view the video from my Nintendo wii (which will be connected to the 605 via component video) at 720p?


And, I can expect to be able to view the video from a VCR (which will be connected to the 605 via S-Video) at 720p as well?

Originally Posted by arios39

Yes! I connected my Game Cube using both component and composite. They both show on my Panny as 720p. Component looks great, but the composite looks horrible, and very dark (due to the picture settings I have from the AVIA calibration I did last night.


I do not have an s-video cable in this house (which my wife can't believe either) so I can not test with my old VRC.

Please keep in mind that this receiver is not going to be able to provide you HD quality (or even anything remotely close) by taking a less that good resolution or picture and running it through some inexpensive circuitry. This receiver works for me in the sense that my current DVD player is not HD or HDMI up-conversion, and the signal coming from the component cables passing it through HDMI is the best I have seen in comparison to these other receiver I have tested in the last couple of months. I am assuming that the upscaling helps, as opposed to just upconverting from component to HDMI.

Originally Posted by Ken Ross

It is amazing that nobody is really pointing out how these things are sounding.

Originally Posted by Ken Ross

It is amazing that nobody is really pointing out how these things are sounding.

Originally Posted by powerknowledge

The prime reason in this case would be if you wanted the receiver to decode advanced/lossless 5.1-7.1, rather than the player. There's been a lot of (valid) hand-wringing here and in the anticipation thread over this, especially as the CURRENT crop of HDDVD/BR players can't pass the 7.1 hd bistream over HDMI. Models coming soon (the new Panasonic BR, for example) claim to be able to do this. If that's the case, it would be a major convenience to pass everything over HDMI for the AVR to handle (one cable, rather than multiple analog outs; the ability to apply sound mode processing to that bitstream signal, rather than being able to apply few if any as the PCM over the multichannel ins is usually "untouched"; etc.).

Originally Posted by Ken Ross

It is amazing that nobody is really pointing out how these things are sounding.

Originally Posted by jshigashi

I think that most us believe that there will not be an issue with the sound overall given the past performance of Onkyo products such as the 604.


What many of are interested in is how much these new technologies are changing things. In my situation, I am definitely interested in the upscaling capabilities as it and it alone is what is the deciding factor between me sticking with the 605 (which I have preordered) or jumping to the Yamaha 661 because of it's ability to matrix 5.1 PCM into 7.1. It is a very tough choice that it seems like a lot are facing.