Pioneer VSX-819H-K 5-Channel A/V Receiver (Black)

well, I blew $250 on this receiver as an open box deal. well,its going back tommorow. however, it was a great lesson. It was going to replace an older 5.1 pioneer,but as it turns out. this one has less watts per ch than the old one.Dont get me worng its a nice receiver, incredibly difficult to setup though in comparison.I mean horribly complex though I did own a $900 onkyo which was 11.1 which was even more difficult to setup than this). Even after setting the speaker settings via the online menu and having the calibrated mic and then bypassing it and doing it manually I was getting more out of the left than right ch. Also, what they dont tell you is this: no matter what, there is a built in crossover and its default at 100k and the lowest is 50khz you cant bypass it. so that means that if you have full range large speakers for the front left and right ,they get very little bass and it all gets routed to the sub. thats fine for sub and little cube deals but not for 6ft towers with 12"woofers and three drivers. So unless I was going direct bypassing all the surround stuff it soundeed quite lame compared to my old 5.1.And this is where I heard what it really sounds like and its crap. So after about an hour of different setups and trying things, I still never got as full a sound from my old receiver which was nothing really special,but maybe I took it for granted after trying this receiver.Basicly, this receiver can get the same quality of sound as my old one but it would take hours of setup and perfect alignment of the surround sound speakers and a hell of powerful sub. Perhaps I am old fashioned ,but to get a good sound should not be this hard.I mean you hook up pmy old one and immedieately you get a great sound and then you can tweak it. but with this thing, you start out with no sound until you setup the inputs via the on screen display 9provided yo have component plugged in and not hdmi).Then you have to set up the hdmi. but even then you get a crap sound and it really does take lots of tweaking to beging to get a basic decent sound. I am not tryng to scare anyone away but geez I just couldnt beleive what they are asking as far as setup goes. Now I did notice some really great things about this receiver: 1)if you have little tiny speakers and a sub then this would be a good match 2)it does have lots of power but that is mostly hidden by all the setup which limits the power it seems 3)hdmi causes more problems a than it solves and even with audio its a fad ,the analog outputs into my old recevier sound the same if not better 4)you can really tweak this thing for hours on end. Everything is hidden in menus, even the lowly oudness has nop button and it has to be gotten from a menu.lame.5) I was stunned by the surround sound possibilities and it really was like working with a dedicated surround processor with tons of modes!! if one could master the setup it could be great movies only.I found the surround overbearing for audio.

Anyway, overall, this is a prefect amp for someone who has a thx cinema setup in their home who does not mind tweaking for hours or someone who has tiny speakers and huge sub and doesnt listen to the front speakers for music.I feel sory for the average consumer who is not a dedicated audiophile who buys this unit as it is terribly complicated to hook up and to get it to sound good would be a feat to be proud of haha.Working with the unit trying to set it up felt like i was in a diagnostic mode only technicians normally have accesss too. kind of like the old tv's where you could never get a good picture becasue of all the diffferent settings and had to be accessed via the "diagnostic" mode.

So it goees back tommorow and instead I am getting 2 more of these old receviers I have as they sound great with little thought and sounded better than this unit no joke and the old ones have more watts, no hdmi at all, no onscreen menus and has buttons for almost all functions and are about 1/4th the price and still do 5.1 but without a bunch of bells and wistles and no need to setup the amount of delay between speakers and stuff yuk!!!. Also, I dont give a rats butt about the ipod and usb and most of the other features if the sound quality just isnt there or in this case its there but how do you find it.

I just wonder if people wont returns receivers like this becasue of the complexity/hassle of the setup opting for simpler receivers of old? Anyway I will sleep well now knowing that my recevier search is at an end.stear clear if you just want to hook it up and have it sound amazing and even after an evening of tweaking I approached the sound i was getting with the old one but it was timid in comparison becasue of the bass crossover

This is one of those products which is cheap but now skimpy on features.
Its got most of the bells and whistles of high end product, like TrueHD, DTSHD and other sound formats. It onscreen display and most of all yes it will process the audio through your HDMI. Yes PS3 owners this is a great receiver which will process 7.1 channel through HDMI, just remember to set the PS3 to Bitsream audio format.

Now its all not perfect receiver.

Couple of inconveniences: it upconvert analog signals to 480p thru component output only, so your setup and ipod control all of its only possible if you connect the component output to your TV. I do not find this as a big deal. The documentation is not great.

Remote control is very versatile and you can set any brand tv, suprisingly my syntax oleiva TV had the code entry.

Overall its a great investment for the multitude of features it possesses...

I've had this receiver for more than 4 months and I am very pleased with the performance. I havent hooked it up to all my surround speakers, just using the front 3 speakers and subwoofer and its still good.
The setup is pretty simple, i have it hooked up to my DVD player using HDMI as well as my set top box and CD player.
The only problem is that I havent been able to connect my ipod Mini. It doesnt seem to support this particular version of ipod. I guess I have to upgrade my ipod.

I purchased this product after comparing reviews of it and similar products. This is my third Pioneer A/V Receiver over several years. I am generally pleased with the product but there are a couple of things that could be improved. First, my Time Warner Cable box (Scientific Atlanta 8240HDC) does not play well with this receiver's HDMI "repeater". When going through the Pioneer, even though I program the cable box to output 1080i ONLY, it reverts back to the 480/720/1080 default output resolution mode every time I cycle power. This results in output to my HDTV being 480 or 720 lines depending on the source programming resolution. If I DON'T go through the Pioneer (i.e., I go directly to the HDTV), the cable box output resolution remains locked at 1080i (480/720 source is upconverted) as I had programmed it to, even after cycling power. Obviously, something in the Pioneer confuses the cable box. Of course, the underlying problem is with the cable box software but it's a major task to communicate this to Time Warner Cable via their customer service staff. Second, the receiver's onscreen iPod menu (OSD) is the worst I have ever seen, and I have been using PC's since the Commodore-Vic days. Onscreen resolution is unbelievably low and response is terrible. Connection to the HDTV is via composite video cable. Big disappointment. The iPod's own display and controls are disabled while the OSD is active. You can toggle between receiver OSD control and iPod control by pressing an obscure button on the remote.

After spending a couple of hours setting up my new system, I am disappointed and frustrated. After getting everything connected, with HDMI in from my Samsung Blu-Ray DVD and Pace Cable Box, and HDMI out from the Pioneer receiver to my Toshiba Regza LCD TV, I found that the DVD worked fine (validating connection from receiver to TV), but no signal from the cable. Checked all connections, swapped out HDMI cables, turned everything off and back on . . . but no luck. Bypassed the receiver, connecting the cable box directly to the TV, and it worked fine. Switched back to HDMI through the receiver, but again no signal. Unplugged the cable box to reset it, and when it came back up, everything seemed to be working . . . until I switched channels to an HD channel. Then the signal starting cutting out and I again completely lost the video signal. Seems the receiver isn't able to pass on the HD output (a significant issue in a home theater system!)

Anyone have a suggestion, before I return the receiver?

Pioneer VSX-819H-K 5-Channel A/V Receiver #Black)