Yamaha RX-V363BL 500 Watt 5.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver

My husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer last summer. We didn't have a lot of money to play with after his illness; but he did have a "Bucket List" of things he wanted to have or do before his time comes. One of the the things on his list was a High Def TV. We got a Sony Bravia 42."

The problem was that once you get HDTV, you need accessories. For instance, my 18 year old Kenwood receiver no longer picked up the HD sound, which meant my 18 year old Bose towers no longer worked with the TV or new Panasonic Blu-Ray player.

The boy that helped me at local "geek" store tried to sell me a new home theater system, the cheapest good one being $1000.00. And then he said with a sigh "It still won't sound as good as your old Bose towers." At least he was honest and told me that all I needed was a new receiver!

I looked high and low for a decent receiver that would fit my empty wallet, and husbands desires. I purchased this one after researching reviews and crossed my fingers.

I could not be more happy. It was easy to set up, easy to work, and I have my old Bose towers back in full force pumping out the finest sound that I can imagine. I also got the dock for our I-Touch and I am happier than I can say, in that I have been able to make my husbands last wishes come true. I do believe that this receiver was cheaper than what I paid for my old Kenwood almost 20 years ago.

My son would tell you that his only problem with this receiver was that it stopped him from getting my Bose towers (he got the old system... minus the Bose).

Thank you Amazon reviewers for helping me make this wonderful purchase.

Pretty good receiver for the money. Great sound compared to my last receiver, which was an Onkyo that did a good job, but didn't compare to this one for depth and clarity. I bought an iPod dock, and it works nicely with it.
Only drawbacks: As others have stated, the manual is a nightmare, even if you are electronically inclined. I studied it for a couple of days before I started getting the hang of setting the unit up. The remote could have been a little easier to use as well. And lastly, I have a dish network DVR receiver, and the remote will neither code it in or search-find it, so I am stuck using 2 remotes to watch dish tv.

All in all, I would highly recommend the unit to others for the deep, rich sound. Movies sound amazing.

Suitable for use with similarly priced speakers and other components. Sounds good. We use it in my son's room with Bic Venturi speakers and JBL subwoofer and it rocks the house. Access to secondary features is kind of obscure, don't loose that remote. Looks good. Seems well made.

After reading the countless reviews about this Yamaha Receiver, i had my doubts about purchasing it. I heard the horrible stories about the HDMI video only. I have a 50 inch plasma, and wanted a good but inexpensive receiver for sound. Well, I purchased it anyway, and i'm glad I did! I was able to get the receiver $121 shipped, and was well worth the purchasing!

I'll get the cons out of the way:
1) No HDMI for sound, only video! So the HDMI is pretty useless folks! Don't bother buying it for this reason alone, unless you would like to use HDMI for video ONLY!
2) Only DTS!
3) Configuring up can be a pain for the novice!
4)Terrible manuel!

Pro's:
1) Cheap price!
2) Great sound for inexpensive receiver!
3) Was able to get it to work properly after using the optical digital connection!

Instructions: Hook up your dvd/blu-ray player directly to your television for HDMI video. For sound, I used an optical digital connection from the DVD player, to the "CD" optical digital connection on the back of the receiver.

For sound watching the television. I connected the optical digital connection from the receiver labeled "Sat/TV" to the opticial digital connection of the HD cable box.

After that, it worked like a charm. Had this receiver for a week now, and have no issues whatsoever. I currently have a HD Player, but will soon be in the market for a blu ray player. Once I get the PS3, or standalone player, i'll get the sound using the optical digital connection.Enjoy!

I bought this Yamaha receiver to replace an old Aiwa system and have been very pleased with it.

I'm using it mostly for the audio portion of regular television watching since my new Panasonic big screen television has such poor audio speakers.

I also listen to alot of music that comes over the digital cable.

I planned on hooking it to some in-wall speakers but couldn't find an area above the fireplace to cut two 12 by 8 inch holes so I bought some Bose Acostimas 3 speakers and they sound great!