[scottymo15]

Hi guys....I'm new to the home theater thing, but am trying to build my own rather than getting an HTIB.


The main reason for this is because I have read of a bunch of people getting their recievers with hdmi ports and it only lets the audio play through the tv...not the surround sound.


anyways, I have a pretty small room.....14ft by 20 ft, so I don't need a ton of power. I'm only going to have 5 speakers plus a sub.


I will be hooking up an Xbox 360 with the component cables......I have a 1080p tv, an hd dvr and an upscale dvd player.


question 1: What is a good reciever under 300 bucks (if this exists) that has hdmi ports that work the way they are supposed to.....supporting 1080p video and audio through surround sound not tv. I have looked and looked and can't find many. I just don't want to regret my purchase.


question 2: Can you get a reciever that supports 7.1 sound or 6.1 sound and only hook up 5 speakers?


question 3: I would love suggestions for a reciever and if you have time, I wouldn't mind speaker suggestions either. I'm trying not to spend too much money, and I'm not a huge audio freak. I'm hoping to get teh reciever for under 300 and the rest of my speakers for under 300.


Thank you so much for the help. I do apprecieate it!


Mo

 

[MichaelJHuman]

Answering question (2), yes you can.


I defer to other people on your choices. I do know Sony and Onkyo make some affordable models. Do your homework with HDMI, it can be confusing determining exactly what HDMI features receivers support.

 

[sayc0002]

I was in the same boat you're in a few months back. I ended up going with the Marantz SR4001. Do a search on "budget hdmi receivers".

 

[Apollo5]



Quote:
Originally Posted by scottymo15 /forum/post/12859098


question 1: What is a good reciever under 300 bucks (if this exists) that has hdmi ports that work the way they are supposed to.....supporting 1080p video and audio through surround sound not tv.

I just bought a Sony STR-DG810 that does that. I have my BD player and HD PVR each connected through HDMI and get full DD5.1 surround. It's a 6.1 system, but I only have 5.1 speakers right now and I think the price has dropped even further on it.

 

[scottymo15]

Yeah, I was looking at that model....but the 6.1 scared me away from that. According to you and another replyer, that does not matter..... I believe that will be the model I will go with. It has 3 hdmi ins I believe....and the fact that they support audio and video is great!


I think I'm going to go with that....I found it for 250 on a site. So you are happy with yours?

 

[Apollo5]

I'm very happy with the 810. My open room doesn't lend itself easily for 6.1 or 7.1 sound so I deliberately avoided 7.1 systems. I'm a lot like you choosing to get separate components and speakers instead of going with a HTIB. I bought the Polk RM10 5.1 HT speakers to go with it.


To me 5.1 sounds great and I always have the option of adding an extra rear speaker if I want. I'm not at the stage right now where it's absolutely critical that I get lossless TrueHD 7.1 surround sound. I spend most of my time watching HDTV and that's DD5.1 at most anyway.


This is my first system so I didn't want to spend a lot of money. Plus, it gives me a chance to upgrade in the future, if and when I become a true audiophile

. Besides, a few years down the road, 7.1 systems will be a lot cheaper and more movies will actually take advantage of it.


Keep in mind that the 810 will only do HDMI-In to HDMI-Out. It will not convert Component-In to HDMI-Out. You'd have to go with a more expensive receiver to convert video signals to HDMI.