Receiver Help

[cs050499]

I'm in the market for a new receiver. My old receiver (Yamaha HTR 5460), is starting to give me a bit of trouble. Regardless, someone was telling me that I needed more of a high end receiver to handle HDTV format (bought a Mitsubishi DLP HDTV last year). I've mainly looked at Yamaha and Marantz so far, but I am open to any manufacturer.

What I am confused about is what I should be looking for in a receiver to determine if it can convert HD signals (hopefully I'm explaining this correctly....not up with all of the technology and terminology)? I've seen "video up/down conversion", "simple video conversion", "HDCD decoder". I don't have a clue as to what this all means or what I need to get the most out of a HDTV. Bottom line, I want a solid receiver to watch movies, HDTV and listen to music. The catch, I really can't afford to spend more than $500 at this time.

The Marantz SR4600 is in my price range, but I'm not sure if it has what I need. The Yamaha HTR 5860 is also in my price range, but again I'm not sure if it has what I need. Finally, the Yamaha HTR 5890 is out of my range, but could save for it, but not sure if I would be buying more than what I need. I guess my question is what specs should I be looking for when shopping considering my HDTV? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[GMichael]

Hi Welcome to AR.

Here is Yamaha's website. Take a look at a few receivers and see what has what you are looking for. Most of the newer models have the 720p upconverting. But not all have the HDMI port(s).

http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/receivers/receiver_main.htm

Marantz makes good receivers also, but I don't know one model from the other.

Happy hunting.

[L.J.]

AVR's that support HDMI start at about the $1100 mark and go up from there. I personally would wait until I saved enough to get exactly what I wanted out of a receiver, rather than drop $500 on one and wish you hadn't a year later. Denon, Yamaha, Pioneer and Onkyo have AVR's that support HDMI. If you have or plan on getting any gear(TV,DVD Player, PS3,) that support HDMI, than I think that's the way to go.

I don't know how long it would take for you to get up to about that $1100 mark, but you could use that extra time to research some products and check em out.

Have fun shopping.