Looking for a receiver

nileriver23

I was wondering which receiver you guys think would be best for me. I have a Polk CS2 for my center speaker, Polk R50's for all of my surround speakers (I have a 5.1 setup), and a PSW10 for my sub. I am looking for a receiver that has 5.1. 7.1 is ok, but I am not planning on using it. The main thing that I want is Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD decoding. I am on a budget so I am looking for lower end receivers that can do this.

Thanks for the help.

vc69

The Onkyo TX-SR 606 can be had for less than 400. I like mine for HT a lot. I think it is an excellent budget reciever. No pre-outs to grow into is the only drawback. May work just fine for you though.

nileriver23

xcapri79 wrote: »

Welcome to Club Polk. The Pioneer VSX-819H-K is probably one of your best bets as a low price (under $300) good quality receiver with the latest decoding.

http://www.jr.com/pioneer/pe/PIO_VSX819HK/#productTabSimilar

http://cnettv.cnet.com/pioneer-vsx-819h-av-receiver/9742-1_53-50004975.html

Thanks for the suggestion. That one does look good. My only question is that I was reading something about when using a PS3 as your BD player that it is pointless to have a receiver that decodes in DD TrueHD and DTS HD. I forget the reasoning (something to do with the way that the PS3 decodes the audio as well as something about PCM), but I was wondering if anyone knew anything about that, and if I could still get the HD audio with this receiver when I am playing a BD through a PS3. Also, I am not saying that what I read was correct, so if you told me that it was BS, that would be good news.

nileriver23

xcapri79 wrote: »

The following thread provides an answer.
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=1327273

"Now, if you use a PS3 to watch BR or use a player that can decode the HD Audio, you can get by with a player [sic] (should read "receiver") that accepts Audio over HDMI in the form of LPCM, as the player itself will do the decoding and your receiver will just be outputting the HD audio."

Thanks for the help again. So, the receiver you suggested is capable of that correct? Also, I currently have a Sony STRDG720 which can decode uncompressed LPCM via HDMI so if I use a PS3 as my player I wouldn't need to upgrade my receiver in order to get the effect of the HD audio codecs?

wutadumsn23

The PS3 outputs DD True HD and DTS HDMA via Linear PCM, not Bitsream. Make sure your settings are correct on your PS3 in the audio settings, and it should send the signal just fine. It won't show up on your AVR as DD True HD or DTS HDMA because it it being sent Linear PCM. If you hit select on your controller during a movie it will show you on the top right what format it is playing in. I use a PS3 as my Blu-Ray player and it works like a champ. Welcome to Club Polk.

-Jeff

nileriver23

wutadumsn23 wrote: »

The PS3 outputs DD True HD and DTS HDMA via Linear PCM, not Bitsream. Make sure your settings are correct on your PS3 in the audio settings, and it should send the signal just fine. It won't show up on your AVR as DD True HD or DTS HDMA because it it being sent Linear PCM. If you hit select on your controller during a movie it will show you on the top right what format it is playing in. I use a PS3 as my Blu-Ray player and it works like a champ. Welcome to Club Polk.

-Jeff

Ok. Thanks a lot.

wutadumsn23

If that post was confusing, I can tell you exactly how to make sure your settings are correct or not for making sure that your PS3 is set up to send the audio in HD format to your AVR.

-Jeff

kawizx9r

wutadumsn23 wrote: »

The PS3 outputs DD True HD and DTS HDMA via Linear PCM, not Bitsream. Make sure your settings are correct on your PS3 in the audio settings, and it should send the signal just fine. It won't show up on your AVR as DD True HD or DTS HDMA because it it being sent Linear PCM. If you hit select on your controller during a movie it will show you on the top right what format it is playing in. I use a PS3 as my Blu-Ray player and it works like a champ. Welcome to Club Polk.

-Jeff

I'm not saying this is at all wrong, Jeff has very informative posts but I wasn't sure of it myself if a PS3 actually does output True HD and Master DTS over optical. I read somewhere that over optical, you only get 2 channel output when it comes to the new formats, and only hdmi supports full 5.1/6.1/7.1? I could be wrong, just haven't tried it since I long sold my PS3.

As far as getting a receiver to play new formats (and does not have hdmi), theres a huge amount of avr's that alot of people can recommend you to get. I'd like to add though that if you really want to save some cash and still utilize the new codecs you hear from bluray movies, I'd opt for a receiver with multi-channel analog inputs and a bluray player that DECODES master dts/true dolby over LCPM and has multi-channel analog outputs. A receiver does NOT have to decode the new formats if you use this method because the bluray player will decode the audio and send it in such form to your receiver to play it on. I can't imagine people dumping their high-end powerful non-new codec decoding receivers just for something that can decode them. Look into a good bluray player with what I said it should have and a nice receiver and youre well on your way to a good system

One last thing, make sure the receiver has preamp outputs that way you can always upgrade when the bug bites