Yamaha RX-V1800BL 7.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black)

Basically, this receiver does everything you need for a mid-priced A/V system. It sounds great, has plenty of HDMI inputs, plenty of reserve power, and best of all, does a great job of upconverting non-digital sources, such as my PlayStation 2 and Nintendo WII up to the HDMI output.

The DSP modes are actually useful, especially for TV sports that are mostly 2-channel. Finally, the auto-setup system did a superb job of configuring and tweaking the 1800 to my living room.

I've always considered Yamaha and Denon to be at the top of the "Consumer Level" electronics category. The 1800 continues that trend nicely!

So I buy this receiver after upgrading my TV 1080P Plasma(Samsung FPT-5084) and getting a 7.1 system installed into my ceiling. I originally had the Onkyo SRX-674 but was disappointed that its upconversion was really just a de-interlacer. Converting 480i to 480p. Also it ddnt have dolby true-hd decoding nor did it have dts-hd decoding. but I digress. So I looked at my options. I was looking to upgrade this 2 week old receiver FAST... I looked at the Onkyo TX-SR875 as an option but the $1399 price tag was a bit much. Lo and behold I look to the left and I see this receiver RX-V1800. I examined the options and almost everything was very comparable. 2 things to note this Receiver upscales to 1080P is it great - no, good - no, decent - yes. It also doesnt have the fancy THX certification But for a retail of $200 less I could deal with it. Also I was able to negotiate the deal down on this to $880 + tax (SOLD) - No brainer at that point. 4 HDMI 1.3a inputs 1 output... unprecedented at this price range and this is a repeater not pass through). I paired this with my Xbox (w/hd-dvd add-on) and my PS 3 (Bluray) and all I can say is WOW. Attach the microphone and have it auto calibrate your speakers and you are good to go! This receiver rocks! Halo 3 wouldnt have been the same without it!

So the bad... The receiver is somewhat complicated to work. The OSD (On screen display) and manual are not intuitive or really helpful. It took me a couple hours to get the receiver to recognize the proper audio output from my PS3... Probably Sony's fault!

Summary:
If you understand what I am talking about- you know what you are gonna get and you want these specs for the next gen in home entertainment. If you just need a receiver this would be a waste of your money (an extreme waste of your money).