I just bought this receiver if you want to check it out Bill...

http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/product...04&CTID=5000300

Its not a Denon, but its a pretty nice receiver Not all receivers, but all good ones will allow you to reassign physical inputs to a particular labeled input, and most will allow you to relabel the input to whatever you want.

If you were looking around Thanksgiving, Live.com was offering 30% cashback for any eBay purchases. I got a great deal on my Yamaha (around $600).

6th Ave is an excellent place to look for receivers though, all of my speakers are from there.

There are a number of coupons available for 6th Ave too, like 5% off.

The RX-V1900 is supposed to have a better Upscaler than the Faroudja and it does analog upscaling to 1080p, it does not do HDMI -> HDMI upscaling (it just passes the resolution through) but the RX-V3900 does do it.

It also offers a sound setup program thats supposed to be better than Audyssey, I don't really know if it is better but it was relatively painless to do, and supports up to 8 different seating positions and it will optimize the sound based on however many seating positions you want.

Lots of options on the thing, I still don't really know what they all do, but the receiver sounds better than my older JVC receiver for sure, and the JVC got pretty good reviews and wasn't exactly a "cheap" receiver when it was released (around $800 MSRP I think).

 

Ryan, I have the RX-V1800. Very nice choice.

Comparison

 

[QUOTE=bighead,Dec 10 2008, 04:52 PM]oh, if I were to get a BR drive for the HTPC I would also need to pick up a HDMI card since VGA doesn't do HDCP...

 

I've been looking at tv's. A self-professed plasma guy, I've been entertaining the notion of an LCD. The LCD a couple of you have is pretty cheap right now. 6th Ave had it for about $1950 shipped. Now Amazon has it for $1844 shipped.

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-LN52A650-52-...28958799&sr=1-2

Add to cart to see price.

I called Brian last Saturday asking questions about it. I didn't know Bill had one, too. I really think I need to look at the set before pulling the trigger, not that I have any real money right now. I'd bring my PS3 as a source.

 

That TV seems to be "the one to get" right now. Bobbie and I were looking at it, too...

We don't have the money either but I will say that if the price comes down any more around the Super Bowl, one of them might just end up in my Living Room.

 

Skip, have you looked at these?
http://www.mitsubishi-tv.com/product/L65A90

 

I don't know if it's "the" one to get, but I plan to not immediately rule it out for future consideration. Again, I have the luxury of having a dark room to view content, so my needs may vary compared to others. I used to be all about bright and stunning, but now enjoy more of a cinematic look(darker, but with no less detail) versus a traditional(bright) viewing calibration.

Also, I just realized that the set on Amazon shown at a lower price is actually being sold by 6th Ave.

 

I haven't. I used to have a Mitsu long ago. Can't say I ever gave them any serious consideration afterwards. 3D-ready looks cool as heck! Also, the power consumption is ridiculously low. I thought DLP technology was dead.


At $7k, I'll have to admire that one from afar. I didn't pay much less for my current set, but those days are gone.

 

dont have it yet but I'll probably pick it up right after the new year... around the Super Bowl

 

FWIW it's the top rated LCD in Consumer Reports as well as rated top mid-priced LCD by some other review place (I remember linking to it in HAW last week)