Hello everyone, I'm reading this thread and I'm thinking that these receivers are unjustly getting a bad name. I'm going to quote a few posts and offer my input to hopefully get these off of the junk list. I am the owner of an STR-DG600.
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The unit will upconvert composit video to s-video. That's a worthless feature as our GW TV does at least as good a job. Bet they use the same chip. Nevertheless, I will try it with the VCR as soon as I free up some cables.
Hardly a useless feature. When using a older Nintendo 64, it's nice to not need to switch inputs on my television. The upconversions to S VID is automatic and works very very well.
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Video switching works althoug I wish it was a little faster.
I cannot comment on component switching, but svideo switching was instantaneous with the switching of the source.
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I've had no luck getting a signal from the pre-outs. I'd like to use my TV speakers for the center channel. Does anyone know if that is possible?
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I have had no luck getting a signal out of the pre-out jacks. The manual doesn't say anything about how to use the jacks. They may not be enabled.
If you look carefully on the rear panel, the only Pre-outs are for the subwoofer and the surround speakers. There is no pre-out for the center channel. Directly adjacent to the pre-outs on the rear panel is the multi-channel input. This has an input for each individual channel, including the center. It's close proximity to the pre-out may have lead you to mistakenly believe that the connection for center was a pre-out.
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I have not been able to program the remote to control our 1 year old Sony TV.
The remote should operate any Sony television out of the box without programming. My 5 year old Sony set was no exception. Of course it is possible that you had a bad remote.
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Even if you a Software Engineer with a degree in Electrical Engineering like me expect to have trouble learning to use this reciever.The menu system is difficult to use. Simple things like setting the balance or tone controls require paging through the terrible manual.
I'll admit the menu system is somewhat cryptic. 80% of which I was able to decipher, but checking in the manual is helpful.
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However , I when I try to connect my Satellite to the Video 1 in and use Video 1 out back to my VCR for recording, it does not seem to work, it seem all my Video 1 Outputs ( S-Video , Composite Video , Audio ) is being out put. I moved my cable from the monitor out to the Video 1 out and got no signal. I was expecting the Receiver will take the Video 1 in and also send the same signal back via Video 1 out so I can connect it to a DVD recorder or VCR ?
This is by design. It is assumed, and rightfully so, that the output from video 1 and the input to video 1 will be connected to the same device. When video 1 is selected as the source, the output to video 1 is disabled to prevent an audio/video feedback loop. To work around this problem, connect your recording unit (be it VCR, PVR, DVD-R) to video 1 and whatever sources you may want to record to any other input. I would have liked to see sony include outputs on video 2.
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Thx packbacker, will try that trick with temp poorboy cable, OK so I should still be able to get analog Dolby 5.1 via old style cables, still don;t know why receiver doesn't acknowledge . . . .
Regular RCA cables WILL carry digital signal, just NOT through the analog inputs. Simply connect one side to the coax input on the receiver and the other side to the coax output on the device. This will solve your problem. In the event that you're using a Red/White pair, use white on both sides and leave the red disconnected. This is not the ideal solution, but other than aesthetics (will you really see it?) it will work perfectly fine over short distances.
I've had the STR-DG600 for 4 days now. I am very happy with it , particularly in comparison to my old STR-D550Z that served me for many many years. With decent speakers and quality source devices, there is no reason that this receiver will not make anyone in the market for a budget dolby digital setup very happy.
Digital input from my HTPC, DVD Player, and Xbox are flawless and svideo switching is a major plus. This isn't designed for the person with entirely HD components as there are only 2 HD capable video inputs. But for me still enjoying my 32in standard def TV, it works just fine.
