ONKYO TX SR605 SETUP FULL

At the time of this review, there are no HD DVD or Blu-ray players that are capable of sending Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks in bitstream format. Unfortunately, that's not currently possible. What's so special about the Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD decoding? Theoretically, the benefit of having onboard decoding is that HD DVD and Blu-ray players could send these soundtracks to the receiver to be decoded, instead of the players needing onboard decoders themselves.

ONKYO TX SR605 SETUP FULL

Like essentially every other receiver available, it offers a full selection of Dolby and DTS surround processing modes however, the TX-SR605 is the first receiver also to support the newest high-resolution formats, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. The TX-SR605 is a 7.1-channel AV receiver, and Onkyo rates its output at 90 watts per channel. The changes are definitely minor, but we felt it was a welcome upgrade. The bulk of the display is still essentially white text on a black background, but Onkyo has some blue lines and simple graphics to spice it up a bit. The onscreen display is a slight step up from the usual blocky, white text on a completely black background, but not much, and certainly nothing like the snazzy menu on Sony's STR-DA5200ES or Denon's rumored new menu system.

With the money you saved by getting the TX-SR605, it may be wise to invest in a quality universal remote.

Of course, we'd prefer true backlighting for the entire remote, but none of the competitors offer that. The source buttons light up when you hit a command, which is a nice reminder of which component you're controlling at the moment. The main navigation pad is centrally located, and the main volume button is set off by its relatively light color. It will intimidate the less tech-savvy, but it gets the job done. In other words, except for some new compatibility icons along the bottom of the left-hand corner, the TX-SR605 is a pretty standard-looking AV receiver. Across the middle of the receiver is the display a variety of input selectors and other buttons litter the bottom half of the front panel, with two knobs-a small tuner and a larger volume knob-off to the upper right-hand corner. The Onkyo TX-SR605 fills out 6.75x17.125x14.81 inches of space, and it's available in black or silver. Dollar for dollar, it's the best buy in the AV receiver market we've seen so far in 2007. It's just $500, and it's widely available for less. But for the vast majority of users, there's not a better buy than the TX-SR605 in this price range.

And there are certainly quirks that home theater enthusiasts should be aware of the video-scaling performance will irk videophiles, for instance. So what's not to like? Well, those long-awaited features-lossless audio decoding, xvYCC color-don't really have any real-world applications with current high-def video players. It also supports analog-to-digital video conversion (so you'll need just a single HDMI cable to your TV) as well as XM and Sirius satellite radio (with the appropriate add-on accessories and subscriptions). Moreover, the receiver has the potential to pass along the other egghead niceties associated with the HDMI version 1.3, such as xvYCC color. The Onkyo TX-SR605 is the first AV receiver that offers onboard decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, the lossless digital-audio formats found on HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. Well, we have good news, patient audiophiles: tomorrow is finally here. A variety of 'must-have' upgrades have long been promised as being just around the corner, prompting cautious home theater fans to put off purchases until the next-generation features have become available. As they do with TVs, people like to invest in AV receivers for the long term, but for the past couple of years (at least), that's been a hard prospect.

Onkyo tx sr605 setup