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9kids
Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 138
Location: Manassas, VA
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 Link Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 5:20 pm Post subject: Onkyo HT-SP908 Home Theater In A Box |
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I know that Home Theater systems In A Box are not as good as sperates. But as a beginner I thought this system might be a good choice. Anyone have any experience with it?
Ordered it for Amazon for $748 list $999 (special deal right now you get a pair of Onkyo Speaker Stand AS240B for free list $179 retail $139)
package
TX-SR605 7.1-Channel A/V Surround Home Theater Receiver
DV-SP405 HD Conversion DVD/CD/MP3 Player
HTP-750 7.1-Channel Home Theater Speaker System
http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=HT-SP908&class=Systems&p=i
Any thoughts
Thanks
John (9kids)
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perisoft
Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 2920
Location: Ithaca, NY
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| Link Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 6:20 pm Post subject: |
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Depends how much time you're willing to put in. I have a frankensystem I put together for under $200 that my friend, who spent a couple of grand on a Marantz receiver + five speakers as a kit, says is "an experience" and "no comparison". It can't possibly match what you can do with time and ingenuity on your own, but it'll be a hell of a lot cleaner and easier to set up. Depends what your priorities are.
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JustGreg
Joined: 07 Mar 2006
Posts: 3098
Location: Kenosha, WI
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| Link Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 2:54 am Post subject: |
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I checked it out a bit and other than the speakers, I wouldn't mind having it as the anchor in my system. I'd probably keep the 250w sub for a rear effect but other than that the receiver itself seems solid and priced fair. I think the speakers are just an inclusion and don't account for much of the list price with most of the cost being sunk into the receiver.
I'd like to see it with 2 more HDMI inputs but good HDMI switchers with an average of 2x the required bandwidth have gotten reasonable lately as the format becomes more mainstream. However, listed features and In-Da-House performance can be worlds apart. With Onkyo fighting the good fight with Yamaha and Sony I don't 'think' that will be a concern.
I'm looking to bring my receiver into the 21st century too so I look forward to your input. It doesn't hurt I'm bias'd...I really like Onkyo's steady performance (with very few falters) over the last 20 years.
Greg
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Greg
"Is it ignorance or apathy? Hey, I don't know and I don't care!" --Jimmy Buffett
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9kids
Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 138
Location: Manassas, VA
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| Link Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 5:57 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the replies.
From what I have read, the Onkyo TX-SR605 has gotten pretty good reviews and runs about $450 retail. So the bundled deal leaves another $300 for the speakers and the DVD player. I was not that interested in the DVD player since I already have a PS3 and will be using it mostly. So putting together the 7.1 speakers for less than $300 that would be better than the ones included, I am sure is possible, I just wasn't willing to invest the research time right now. I had already spent many hours reading about the 605. Should be here in a few days, I have got to run a lot of speaker wire through the walls so it may be another week or two before I can even give my impressions.
Thanks
John (9kids)
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JustGreg
Joined: 07 Mar 2006
Posts: 3098
Location: Kenosha, WI
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| Link Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 6:16 pm Post subject: |
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| 9kids wrote: | Thanks for the replies.
From what I have read, the Onkyo TX-SR605 has gotten pretty good reviews and runs about $450 retail. So the bundled deal leaves another $300 for the speakers and the DVD player. I was not that interested in the DVD player since I already have a PS3 and will be using it mostly. So putting together the 7.1 speakers for less than $300 that would be better than the ones included, I am sure is possible, I just wasn't willing to invest the research time right now. I had already spent many hours reading about the 605. Should be here in a few days, I have got to run a lot of speaker wire through the walls so it may be another week or two before I can even give my impressions.
Thanks
John (9kids) |
$450 for receiver only is what I'm looking for. NOT that my speakers are any great shakes but I think they're being held back by my aging Onkyo. Now if I could find the TX-SR605 at BB Open Box and get it for $100 less...... 
Good luck with the wall wiring. <shiver> Are you going to do a baseboard hidden run and then fish from the bottom up at each location?
Anywho...good luck and Happy Thanksgiving.
Greg
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Greg
"Is it ignorance or apathy? Hey, I don't know and I don't care!" --Jimmy Buffett
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9kids
Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 138
Location: Manassas, VA
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| Link Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 8:41 pm Post subject: |
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An unfinished basement below the den should make it a little easier. So I will be able to fish from the basement.
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JustGreg
Joined: 07 Mar 2006
Posts: 3098
Location: Kenosha, WI
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| Link Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 7:31 pm Post subject: |
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Here's a cnet review of the 605. It appears to be as future proofed as one can get. It seems to be a bit TOO ahead of it's time in that; "Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding cannot be used with current crop of high-definition video players." Another downside is the 605 downconverts 1080i to 720p over HDMI. I personally prefer 720p to 1080i and don't currently plan to use the receiver to handle any conversion.
Other than those things that are only a problem for a true videophile I think I've found a replacement for my aging Onkyo 5.1 receiver. (Merry Christmas to ME, Merry Christmas to MEEEE.............) 
BTW...good deal on the unused space under the den. You caught a big break on that one.
Greg
http://reviews.cnet.com/av-receivers/onkyo-tx-sr605-black/4505-6466_7-32430579.html?tag=pdtl-list
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Greg
"Is it ignorance or apathy? Hey, I don't know and I don't care!" --Jimmy Buffett
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9kids
Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 138
Location: Manassas, VA
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| Link Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 7:48 pm Post subject: |
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The downconvert from 1080i to 720p is only on the component input to HDMI output conversion. Basically the 605 will convert composite, s-video, and component inputs to HDMI output and it can only do those conversion to 720P. But component in = component out and HDMI in = HDMI out.
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tri_joel
Joined: 03 Jul 2007
Posts: 646
Location: Northern Virginia
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| Link Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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9kids-
Do you have your PS3 connected to this yet? Does it pass 1080p on HDMI?
Thanks,
Joel
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9kids
Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 138
Location: Manassas, VA
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| Link Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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| tri_joel wrote: | 9kids-
Do you have your PS3 connected to this yet? Does it pass 1080p on HDMI?
Thanks,
Joel |
Yes it works great. HDMI input always equals HDMI output. The issue people are having with it, is, it will transcode composite, s-video, and component inputs to HDMI, but only to 720p. So if you feed a 1080i component signal from say your Cable Box it comes out 720p on the HDMI. It has 2 HDMI inputs, so I have my cable box and PS3 going in on HDMI and the HDMI out goes to an HDfury to a RT2200. I have definitely tested and I get 1080i from the Cable Box all the way to the PJ and I can get 1080p from the PS3 (I set it down to 1080i for now because the 8111 did not look that good at 1080p).
PS3/SA 8300 Cable Box -> 3' HDMI cables - > Onkyo SR605 -> HKmod supplied HDMI to DVI cable -> HDfury (w/power) -> RT2200 -> 10' male VGA to male BNC RGBHV -> BNC Female/Female Adapter -> 58' RG6-Quad -> Marquee 8111+
You might want to see this thread it surprised me
Surprised - HDfury drove 58' of RG6-Quad
So far I am very happy with everything
Thank
John
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emdawgz1
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
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| Link Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:08 pm Post subject: |
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If it was my dough i'd do this...
Rotel RSX 1057.
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emdawgz1
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
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zaphod
Joined: 16 Jun 2006
Posts: 2002
Location: Cloverdale
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| Link Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:31 pm Post subject: |
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| JustGreg wrote: | BTW...good deal on the unused space under the den. You caught a big break on that one.
Greg |
yeah, and from the screen shot pictures in another thread, the den also has an attic above it for ease of cabling to the ceiling mount.
dead space above and below the den. HT perfection 
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9kids
Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 138
Location: Manassas, VA
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| Link Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:52 pm Post subject: |
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yeah the attic made running the cables and mounting the projector a lot cleaner, but working up there was a nightmare. Since the den ceiling is sloped too, I could only work laying on my stomach, head down, feet up, blood rushing to my head. I could only work about an 1/2 hour at a time before I would start to feel sick. At least this was a good time of year to do it, not to hot up there.
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GEBrown
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 729
Location: Denver
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| Link Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 11:07 pm Post subject: |
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Like 9kids I bought myself a 605 for Xmas and it is great!
As for the comment: | JustGreg wrote: | | Here's a cnet review of the 605. It appears to be as future proofed as one can get. It seems to be a bit TOO ahead of it's time in that; "Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding cannot be used with current crop of high-definition video players." |
you actually have a choice - at least on the Toshiba A35 - of decoding TrueHD on the Toshiba or passing it through to the Onkyo. It depends on the "HDMI Audio Out" setting. My understanding is that there is very little encoded with DTS-HD Master at this time.
I prefer the 720P component output from my cable box, so I simply use the component switching in the 605 - I have Moome's Component/HDMI card for my Marquee, so that makes it easy.
So now I'm in the quandry of "new speakers" or not. I have a Yamaha HTIB set that sounds OK, but I think I'd get better soundstage and presence with some Polks or other speaker set. The best deals are supposedly with the online direct vendors, but it's a crap shoot. Even if they offer a 30-day in home trial, there's shipping to deal with.
But, a happy new year is in store for my HT!!
P.S. You should be watching Amazon.com for better pricing on the Onkyo 605 - I got mine for $386 with 3 day free shipping the week before Xmas. I just checked and it's $390 for the black and $380 for the silver today, but no free shipping. YMMV
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9kids
Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 138
Location: Manassas, VA
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| Link Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:34 am Post subject: |
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| GEBrown wrote: | Like 9kids I bought myself a 605 for Xmas and it is great!
As for the comment: | JustGreg wrote: | | Here's a cnet review of the 605. It appears to be as future proofed as one can get. It seems to be a bit TOO ahead of it's time in that; "Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding cannot be used with current crop of high-definition video players." |
you actually have a choice - at least on the Toshiba A35 - of decoding TrueHD on the Toshiba or passing it through to the Onkyo. It depends on the "HDMI Audio Out" setting. My understanding is that there is very little encoded with DTS-HD Master at this time.
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I don't know for sure, but from what I read (very long thread at the A site on the 605) the disks encoded with TrueHD and DTS-HD have a bit set that tells the player if it has to do the decoding or if it can bit-stream out the encoded data. All of the disks have the bit set so the player has to do the decoding. The PS3 also has a setting to set bit-stream the audio, but even with it set, the PS3 will decode and send 7.1 channels of uncompressed audio. I have no reason to think that the Onkyo can do a better job of decoding than the player, and since the players can send 7.1 channels of uncompressed audio over HDMI to the Onkyo I see no reason to complain. Some say why have the features if it can't be used, well maybe in the future the movie studios will start allowing the encoded data to be streamed. I have no idea if this is all true, but it sounded like something the Movie Studios would do.
I am very happy with the 605.
John
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GEBrown
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 729
Location: Denver
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| Link Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:01 pm Post subject: |
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| 9kids wrote: |
I don't know for sure, but from what I read (very long thread at the A site on the 605) the disks encoded with TrueHD and DTS-HD have a bit set that tells the player if it has to do the decoding or if it can bit-stream out the encoded data. All of the disks have the bit set so the player has to do the decoding. . . . . . .
I am very happy with the 605.
John |
Do you remember which thread that was in? I've been following both the A35 threads and the "Official Onkyo 605 Owners Thread" and don't remember seeing that.
Thanks
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