[Plasmastic]

I was just about to buy an Onkyo 806 until i read this review Secrets review

This is the main excerpt that troubles me:

"The 806 is NOT capable of unaltered HDMI repeating! At the very least it drops below black (even if the source is component analogue video).


Ultimately you are better running source straight to display, but that is going to be a problem for Blu-Ray since you MUST run it through the Onkyo in order for it to strip the HD audio from the HDMI stream. This could very well be a deal breaker for many users and we hope that Onkyo can repair this flaw via firmware in the future (although without knowing the root cause we cannot say whether that is even a possibility). "


This is a deal breaker for me. For me, video is more important than audio and cannot be compromised. I also do not want to run separate digital connections to my receiver as a big purpose of upgrading is so I can clean up all the wires and just have one wire (HDMI) running from each device.


Anybody know of any receivers that have been tested to do pure unaltered HDMI repeating?


The rest of my needs are summarized below:


My budget is under $1,000 for the receiver.


I'm not looking for video processing as my Panasonic 800U does a good job for video processing. The most important items to me currently are:


1. Has more than 3 HDMI (ver 1.3) inputs and at least one HDMI (ver. 1.3) output that are HDCP compliant

2. Will accept audio through the HDMI inputs

3. Will accept video from the HDMI input and this pass this video out from the HDMI output without processing it

4. Has a pre-amp output jack

5. Supports 7.1 Surround Sound


I will primarily use the receiver for HD Cable, Bluray movies, & HD gaming.


Devices that will be connected include:

1. Panasonic Plasma 800U

2. Playstation 3 via HDMI

3. Xbox 360 via HDMI

4. HD Cable Box via HDMI

5. Nintendo Wii via component cables

 

[MichaelJHuman]

I personally would not be too concerned about BTB clipping.


Avoid the Fall '07 and Spring '08 Yamaha receivers if this concerns you. That would be models ending in '63' and '800'. The Yamaha RX-V1900/RX-V3900 don't clip BTB.


I have never heard of any Denon model, or Pioneer model clipping BTB either. It's probably related to a specific HDMI chip.


There's a whole thread devoted to this topic.

 

[hdtv00]

Yeah I know I can't believe how much people cry about BTB. I mean seriously, adjust the F'ing picture for the new level. Who cares that a test pattern is harder to set levels. No high quality source has BTB unless it's a test pattern. As for using pc, in the settings every vid card how has a normal video level setting. It is totally blown out of perportion lately. Cracks me up.

 

[Plasmastic]



Quote:
Originally Posted by hdtv00 /forum/post/15492934


Yeah I know I can't believe how much people cry about BTB. I mean seriously, adjust the F'ing picture for the new level. Who cares that a test pattern is harder to set levels. No high quality source has BTB unless it's a test pattern. As for using pc, in the settings every vid card how has a normal video level setting. It is totally blown out of perportion lately. Cracks me up.

I care about any distortion or degredation video passthrough. If I'm going to pay over $500 on a receiver it should at least be able to this. You can debate all you want if someone can live with it, I choose not to find out.

 

[JOHNnDENVER]

unaltered? I'm not sure it's truly possible in the pure sense with HDMI switching devices.


BTB is an odd beast, it rares it's head randomly. I would not swear any product you buy is going to be able to do it with any given source. HDMI is the real issue here.

 

[DonoMan]



Quote:
Originally Posted by hdtv00 /forum/post/15492934


Yeah I know I can't believe how much people cry about BTB. I mean seriously, adjust the F'ing picture for the new level. Who cares that a test pattern is harder to set levels. No high quality source has BTB unless it's a test pattern. As for using pc, in the settings every vid card how has a normal video level setting. It is totally blown out of perportion lately. Cracks me up.

My PC shouldn't have to adjust levels of anything. It's a loss of color resolution.


The whole 16-235 range thing is an antique holdover that should have been dropped ages ago, or at the very least with HDTV.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

If you can find one, the SR805 meets your requirements as well has having better amp section, beefier power supply, and better version of Audyssey (XT) than the newer SR806.

 

[hdtv00]

Well my onkyo 876 passes it no problem. But that still doesn't change the fact that it isn't affecting video quality when used with hdtv or blu ray as the range IS 16-235 no matter how much you want it not to be.


To see people acting like it's the end of the world if you can't pass BTB is just silly, at this point anyway. Same thing when people cried about dvd players that couldn't do it. Oh no your player can't pass something OUTSIDE of the spec of what you're doing with it. Big deal.

 

[JOHNnDENVER]

I think many of the issues listed or sited as BTB issues are general levels issues for whatever reason from one device to another. Think PC -vs- home theater here.

 

[Plasmastic]



Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelJHuman /forum/post/15492675


I personally would not be too concerned about BTB clipping.


Avoid the Fall '07 and Spring '08 Yamaha receivers if this concerns you. That would be models ending in '63' and '800'. The Yamaha RX-V1900/RX-V3900 don't clip BTB.


I have never heard of any Denon model, or Pioneer model clipping BTB either. It's probably related to a specific HDMI chip.


There's a whole thread devoted to this topic.

Thanks appreciate the reponse.

 

[Muskeg]

I just hooked up my new Sony STR-DA2400ES and it's fantastic. I can't see any change in the hdmi video after running it through the receiver, but after playing with some blu-rays (Dolby TrueHD and DTS-Master Audio), wow, this unit sounds great! GUI OSD interface is quite nice as well. The remote could be better. Music sounds fantastic even through my little ol' Polk satellites.


I always recommend Sony's ES line--I've had great experience with them.