STR-DH810
4.4
5
12
12
Great receiver!!
This is the first separate receiver I've bought, and I'm glad I did. It was the obvious choice for me because I have this thing where I need to keep electronics the same brand.. Well, base electronics anyway. I have 3 Von Schweikert speakers for the front and 4 dinky Pioneer speakers for the surrounds, as well as the $100 Sony sub, and it all makes for a very nice system. If this receiver makes those dinky Pioneer surrounds sound as good as THEY do, I can't wait to add in the bookshelf speakers Sony has to offer. This thing sounds great!! The only thing I don't really like so far is that I can't figure out how to get the remote to work the blu-ray or the TV.. The bravia Sync isn't really working in my favor with that one. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Even so, this is still the second best purchase I've made next to the TV itself ;). Well played sony, well played.
October 10, 2011
No aux out!
I love this reciever except one GREAT BIG oops! There is no line level out when you are using HDMI inputs. That means wireless headphones cannot be used via RCA output jacks if you use the hdmi features that got me to buy this thing in the first place. I find this an amazing omission given Sony's long record of innovation and features. I am now debating taking this thing back. I never bothered to ask if the outputs were there as they are pretty much what I consider a standard feature.
March 19, 2011
Great value
The only complaint I have so far is the BD does not have a choice for HDMI. So you have to use the HDMI1 button as your BD. You would think that since Sony makes a BD with HDMI that they would have an HDMI input for the BD.
Sound is great. The price is good for what you get. I like how it constant detects the audio settings for the broadcast and switches mode to match (e.g. commercials may be in 2.0 and the movie/show in 5.1 and it will switch to match as the commercial or movie/show starts).
Overall, an good buy.
January 25, 2011
Beware of the so called upscaling feature!
THIS RECEIVER DOES NOT ACTUALLY UPSCALE VIDEO. It will only convert video to HDMI format. This was confirmed through Sony's tech support. If your components are all HDMI, this receiver is great OTHERWISE, you will be very disappointed as 480i sources (like a Wii or older DVD player) will look bad as opposed to directly connecting those sources to a upscaling HD TV. If your like me and have a Sony Bravia ex series, you will also see that you cannot really use the TV as the connection point for all your sources as the Bravia tvs do not have an optical or coaxial input for audio sources. You will instead have a funky setup in which you will have your video connected directly to the tv and then your audio to the receiver. While this may seem ok, in practice, it becomes difficult (and impossible if you use hdmi control) to set the right inputs on the tv and the reciever in order to view a source components output. I was hoping this receiver would have made everything simple while upscaling the video like my HD TV does. Unfortunately, it did not and now I have to pay to return it! Oh one last thing, If you use a separate amp to power a subwoofer speaker, there is no switched outlet on this unit as older sony units have and the supplied remote can't be programed to turn on/off another receiver. I miss my old sony (non HDMI) receiver which would of integrated seemlessly with my HD TV.
January 25, 2011
