Two questions:
Does it support multi-room chromecast audio?
Does it support casting video as well, or just audio?

I purchased the TX-NR656 last Sunday. Some initial impressions vs. the TX-NR646...

The Good:
- 4K Up-conversion works very well.
- No Handshake issues via Roku 4, Sony Blu-ray Player or xfinity One Cable Box.
- Improved OSD.
- FLAC and DSD Album Covers appear On Screen and on the Onkyo App. This is a first for any Receiver I have used previously (Denon, Marantz, Yamaha, Pioneer, etc.).
- Full resolution Album Covers on the Onkyo App (Nexus 7 2013).

The Bad:
- AccuEq is still a Dumpster Fire. Auto Setup still sets my Studio 60's (Full Range Towers) @ 200Hz.
- Less power than the TX-NR646. I am listening to Music (Stereo) and Movies (dts HD) @ 55 - 65 vs. 40 - 52 with the prior year Model. My perception is the TX-NR656 is much less dynamic than its predecessor.
- I have had to Reset the Receiver twice in the past Week. Both times it stopped recognizing my FAT 32 USB Drive. Both times the Reset solved my issue and it has had no issues since my last Reset.
- Onkyo Customer Service has yet to respond to my initial Email with regard to AccuEQ with the TX-NR646. When I called Customer Service, the Technician told me to "not worry about it" and set the Crossovers Manually. I am not the only one Reporting this issue. The Subwoofer Loudness issue manifested later and I did not bother to call. I simply returned the TX-NR646.

...overall, the TX-NR646 was the best $600 Receiver in my opinion with respect to Sound Quality. If not for the AccuEQ and Subwoofer Loudness issues, I would have kept it and would have happily ignored the poor OSD and lack of 4K Up-conversion. I was hoping the TX-NR656 would be the best of both worlds. Unfortunately, it's a big step backwards in sound quality with respect to its predecessor and peer group and still has the AccuEQ issues. I think I'm done playing the Onkyo Lottery so I will not be exchanging it for yet another unit. I most likely will look towards the new Denon's and Yamaha's. I would have been ecstatic if it simply would have retained the TX-NR646's sound quality and eliminated the AccuEQ/Sub issues. I still own it (for now) so if you have any questions feel free to ask. Thanks for reading.

As far as I can tell after setting it up the multi room audio is for digital coax / optical or analog sources only at this point. ie, it won't pull the audio off of an HDMI input and send to the 2nd or 3rd room which is annoying. Perhaps when the Fireconnect multi room is implemented that will be fixed but at this point you have to run extra cables to hear everything in another room.

In the app, if you go to "create new group", does it let you select the receiver as an option?

I don't actually own the receiver, was setting it up for a buddy so don't know. Sorry! Will report back when I know. That's interesting though as somehow that digital signal is getting converted to analog to go out to Zone 2/3. But there are DACs for those Zones but for Coax / SPDIF only, not off HDMI (not sure about net based, maybe that's how this will work).

Hi evena, don't believe the digital signal is getting converted to analog but the source itself when played through ZONE 2/3 is being downgrading to stereo PCM. HDMI may still work in Zone 2/3 if the HDMI source audio is set to 2 ch PCM.

Stumbled upon this thread while looking for answers, I have the 656 paired with my Samsung 65ks8500, I had everything set up and working perfectly, now suddenly my arc is not working. I'm not even sure how I set this up but my AVR would automatically switch to the TV input when I opened an app such as netflix, you tube, etc...now it wont do that and will not send audio back through the AVR...not sure what happened but I worked on it for 4 hours yesterday and never could get it to work. I'm thinking I need to exchange the 656 for a new 656? any suggestions would be great.

After updating to the latest FW, still had problems establishing ARC with my receiver and TV. I decided to test the ARC connection with a Vizio soundbar I had and it worked flawlessly. This led me to believe that there was some problem with my Onkyo (TX-NR 656) receiver, so I tested each connection to the onkyo and found out that the connection labeled BD-DVD (HDMI-2) was causing the problem. Once I took out that connection, ARC was working again, re-establishing that connection causes the issue. I need to call Onkyo support and see why that specific HDMI input is causing problems.

Interestingly, before I found out all this, I was relegated to using optical for audio but was still able to control the volume on the avr by selecting the receiver as the input on the TV but the moment I switched to over the air broadcasting, I would lose the ability to control the volume.

Can anyone tell me if this receiver is capable of scaling all video to 4K output, or is it just 1080p signals? i.e. If the unit receives a 1080i or 720p signal from a device such as a STB, will it upscale the video to 4K, or just pass-through? I understand that it is capable of upscaling 1080p to 4K, but haven't been able to get confirmation or denial on this topic.

The primary reason I ask is because my DirecTV Wireless Genie box refuses to park itself at a constant output resolution. No matter what I have tried, every time my Genie loses its handshake, upon turning it all on again, the Genie will reset to outputting both 720p and 1080i. This causes major delays between some channel switches to my TV if all I am doing is passthrough on the receiver, so I need to set a constant image resolution output for optimal performance.

My current TX-SR876 is capable of doing this, but I was somewhat shocked to find out that the TX-NR646 after purchasing it did not have this feature (I know there is a very large price difference in the original MSRP between the two, but it has been 7 years, so I was hopeful things like this would have migrated down to this price point by now). I returned the 646 after only a few days because of this issue (and also due to handshake issues it had with my PS3 slim).

Thanks for any clarifications anyone can provide.

After updating to the latest FW, still had problems establishing ARC with my receiver and TV. I decided to test the ARC connection with a Vizio soundbar I had and it worked flawlessly. This led me to believe that there was some problem with my Onkyo (TX-NR 656) receiver, so I tested each connection to the onkyo and found out that the connection labeled BD-DVD (HDMI-2) was causing the problem. Once I took out that connection, ARC was working again, re-establishing that connection causes the issue. I need to call Onkyo support and see why that specific HDMI input is causing problems.

Interestingly, before I found out all this, I was relegated to using optical for audio but was still able to control the volume on the avr by selecting the receiver as the input on the TV but the moment I switched to over the air broadcasting, I would lose the ability to control the volume.

I don't think any AVR that is 7 years old could upscale to 4k as HDMI 2.0 wasn't even an idea back then, that is why I had to retire my onkyo TXSR 705 (loved that AVR) and went with the 656, I do believe it will upscale but I don't use that function. I'm sure you can look it up on amazon and look at the specs for a positive clarification.

That is certainly correctly, but not what I was trying to imply. The TX-SR876 has only 1080p upscale (HDMI ports are only 1.3 spec, so even if it had a notion of 4K, there would be no content compatible or even the bandwidth necessary). I am swapping some components around however, and need a new AVR that can upscale content, for the reasons I mentioned previously. The installation of this new AVR will only be to a 1080p-capable TV, so this is why I am curious if the 656 can upscale 720p and 1080i content to 1080p and 4K (for future installation scenarios). There is no mention anywhere that I could find after extensive searching regarding this. Thanks.

There is your answer . I would imagine if it can upscale 1080p to 4 k that it can scale 720 to 1080p..hope that helps.

Thanks for your response, but unfortunately, it is not.

While your thinking makes perfect sense to you and me, I have been burned a few times in the past with making such an assumption (for instance, my SR876 had the infamous HDMI issue, but thankfully I was able to get it repaired under warranty – or so I thought at least... I didn't check to see if the 2nd HDMI out port was fixed as well until a few months after the repair, and when I found out it wasn't, Onkyo said I was no longer under warranty and wouldn't do the repair gratis), which is why I was hoping that at least one person out there had run a similar setup previously and could let me know.

Onkyo (and every review I read of the unit) seems to go a bit out of their way to specifically call out only 1080p to 4K upconversion, hence my trepidation. I wouldn't think that at least some sort of upscaling on at least one source is too atypical of a setup for most 656 owners (is no one direct-outputting 1080i or 720p from their cable/satellite STB into this AVR?), but I guess it is. Anyway, thanks again.

I use mine for directv and while most of that content is 720 and 1080 I do not use the upscaling, I could try it and see what happens but I dont want a scenario where it is trying to upscale everything and causing artifacts on the picture.

Thanks! I'm mostly just curious if there are multiple upscaling options (i.e. you can choose to scale 720p and 1080i to 1080p and/or UHD), only to 4K upscaling (it is just a blanket setting and only UHD is allowed), or no upscaling at all for non-1080p content.

I agree that obviously you wouldn't want to introduce artifacts with your setup, and that is precisely why I am inquiring about the capabilities of this AVR. My 876 has a very good HQV Reon-VX video processing engine included. It does a great job for processing video on the sources I require it on, as well as leaving the video untouched on sources that are already conformed. I briefly had the 646, but had three major issues with it:

1. HDMI Handshake with my Slim PS3 was iffy at best (this could have been HDMI cable-related, but I have no issues with the same cable and my 876)
2. No video upscaling to conform to a single resolution output to the TV
3. My non-native 1080p sources (such as from DTV) looked very soft compared to the 876, even compared to just pass-through mode

Hoping the scaling capabilities of the 656 can fix these. And obviously, if it were to introduce new artifacts, then that would be a major knock against this AVR. Thanks.

Why do you want the AVR to upscale. Simply pass the signal through the AVR and let the TV or projector upscale. Most TV's or projectors can do a better job of upscaling.

I just got this receiver yesterday off Amazon for $399. Hooked it up last night and I was blown away.

I am coming from a Pioneer VSX 53 which doesn't handle 4K so I had to switch. For whatever reason, this Onkyo seems to sound a million times better. I am getting great surround sound from the rear speakers which I wasn't getting much with the Pioneer. I was watching Mad Max last night and it literally felt like I was in one of those trucks.

With my existing system I had the VSX 53 and then Best Buy sold me these great Energy speakers. The front ones have the 2 sets of cable connections. The guy at BB told me that you can set it up so that you can get 7.1 with only the 5 speakers by connecting 2 of the connectors on the front speakers to the surround terminals on the receiver and then configure the receiver as 7.1. Is that called bi-amping? I tried setting it up that way but the wizard thing kept failing and telling me it wasn't detecting some of the speakers. SO, I eventually connected the main connectors (which I think are the high end?) to the surround back terminals and the secondary connectors (low end?) to the front terminals. Then in the Onkyo setup I set it as 5.1 and turned on bi-amping. It still failed on the rear left speaker so I moved the microphone a little to the right and it worked.

As I have it now, I guess I am getting 5.1 and it does sound incredible. However, was the Best Buy guy wrong about being able to somehow configure 7.1 with these big front speakers acting as part of the surround speakers?

Also, a minor thing but with my VSX53 the front display would show what kind of audio I am getting (DD, DTS, True HD, Stereo, etc.). Doesn't the Onkyo allow you to see anything like that so you know what kind of audio you are getting? Or do these new receivers just use the best possible quality on HDMI and just not tell you anything?

As stated earlier in this thread, I'd like to only send a single resolution to my display, because the change in input signal from 720p to 1080i, depending on the channel, causes a delay in channel change. Unfortunately, my DirecTV wireless Genie Mini box will not stay stuck on a single output resolution. If I manually set the box to only output a single resolution, upon turning off the TV or AVR, it resets itself to outputting the native video format for the channel the next time I turn on the TV. My current AVR's ability to scale all inputs to a single resolution mitigates this problem for me, and thus why I am hopeful the 656 can do something similar.

This is how it works on the regular Genie. Don't have a wireless Genie to compare.

If you get an answer from onkyo please quote this post and let me know, as of now all of my devices are working properly. The only problems I have had seems to come from unwanted firmware updates from Samsung.

Can anyone help me with this receiver? I have my front speakers set to bi amp by using the front speaker and rear surround speaker terminals. Sound seems great but it seems a bit too loud in the rear. When I get a loud enough sound in the back, it is cutting them off and I have to turn them back on. I did do the auto setup so I thought the levels would be OK.