Sony STR-DG910 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver

In recent months my device collection has grown to include a Man-Mini (as a HTPC), a PS3, and an HDDVD. With three 3 HDMI sources and one HDMI input on my TV, I need a solution that didn't involve sticking my head behind the TV with a flashlight becuase Disney is Blu Ray, Universal is HD DVD and the MacMini is HDMI + Optical audio. (I have since come to the conclusion that I could get a LG Combo HDDVD/BluRay drive to work with the MacMini and trim down to one device, but that is another story for another time).

My trusty Kenwood receiver has one optical, two coaxials, and not a single video input above the composite video level. It has served me fine over the years, but it was time for something new.

I happened up the DG910 with much excitement; a receiver with 3 HDMI inputs and an impressive list of other features for under $400.

The Box: Looked great, brown, red writing, cardboard interior supports rather than styrofoam. Nice.

The Unit: Looked great, sleek, black, not too tall.

The Sound: The DAC's in this thing must be the cheapest sony could buy. My CD player sounded much better from it's own analog outputs than it did having the DG910 do the conversion.

The home theater audio setup never worked quite right, the levels seemed all out of whack. The instructions say to turn the crossover on your sub all the way up (for mine that's 160hz, way too high for my taste). The sound on the unit I had was biased so much to the right that the balance had to go +3 left front to move voices to "middle" of the sound field.

The Video: Sometimes when switching between inputs, the screen would go pink. The solution was to switch back to a different input and then back to the one you want.

The Menus & Setup: Horribly confusing. I consider myself to be technically pretty savvy. This receiver baffled me. The main menu list made pretty good sense, but go one submenu down and holy cow.

Conclusion: Nice Box. Probably could do better for the money with a different receiver and an external, auto sensing HDMI switcher.

I previously owned a 1000 watt 6.1 system with no HDMI inputs and ony one optical. This one has three of each. And the sound quality is far better than my older system and it was 1000 watts. You get clear, crisp sound and heavy hitting lows. For the price, you can not beat it. I've compared it to higher priced Dennon and Harmon Kardon systems and it out performs most all of them and for several hundred dollars less. You will not be disapointed in this system

This was a perfect fit for my application which was outputting video to a projector using HDMI and audio to 7 speakers from a DirecTV HD receiver via HDMI and for now a DVD player using component video and audio. Converting of the DVD seems to work well, and you really do get 3 HDMI inputs although the specs say only 2. So when I go to high def on the DVD, I'll still have another HDMI input. Automatic decoding of the audio format is very cool. I am also running a CD player into it using digital coax to get the raw PCM feed. Nice. I would say the only thing that surprised me a bit is that there are no S-Video inputs or outputs. But this was not a show-stopper by any means.

Overall this unit has everything that I have come to expect from a Sony receiver. Good sound, easy setup, and solid performance.

I am still debating if the upconversion to HDMI was worth the extra money (vs. the DG710 or DG810). The upconvert function in the receiver works from both the component and composite inputs to HDMI output. I have a large LCD TV and what I have found is that the picture looks better if I run the composite video directly into the television vs. going through the receiver. It appears that the conversion algorithms in the TV are better than the receiver conversion. I can't say for certain exactly what aspects look better but overall, the picture is smoother when the TV does the conversion. I suppose that this makes sense as the TV mfg. is able to optimized for their unit. I have not noticed this difference when using component video inputs.

The only other downside to this receiver is the lack of S-Video inputs. It appears that Sony has dropped S-Video from the rest of this line as well.

i have 2 hdmi devices and will soon get a 3rd (when blu-ray prices come down). this receiver is the lowest price 3 hdmi input receiver on the market. i was in best buy last week and they wanted me to spend $1,599 on the cheapest 3 hdmi input receiver they had, or spend $200 and get a powered hdmi switcher!!

also, the PQ and SQ on this device is great. Really nice sound from all channels. setup was flawless (although the OSD is a joke, Sony screwed that up royally).

GREAT VALUE!!!!!!!!