Onkyo was supposed to call me back (after the 30 minute wait on the phone), but that promise was never kept. My wife wants to kill me because we spent a bunch of money on our home theater and it is not fun to watch with the popping noise. I have never left a review in my life, but this seems to be the only way to voice my disappointment that Onkyo refuses to even accept that there is a problem, despite the 15 pages of complains.

It should be noted that it was on a table with absolutely nothing above it, so the ventallaiton was as good as it can get w/o adding fans. I started worrying about the trouble I'd have returning a defective unit, and whether I'd be able to go through Amazon, or if I'd be forced to go through Onkyo Warranty service. Fortunately, a I ordered directly through Amazon, I filled out a short online form yesterday morning, and later yesterday I got an email stating that they're shipping a new unit to me next-business-day (ETA-Dec 31), and UPS will pick up the defective unit at my door in the next few days.

I got this product twice and both the times the shipped product was defective and ONKYO support team confimed that. What a waste of time and money to get these everytime, install only to figue that the audio or the video does not get fed through! Very dissappointing

My receiver pops after about 20 minutes of HDMI viewing, and the popping noise is very annoying and begins to increase. I had to buy an expensive fan to help reduce the popping, but this has not stopped the problem. Onkyo told me to reset the unit- and this did not work.

Of course, this isn't ideal sub placement to begin with, as I can sometimes tell which direction the sound is coming from with it being that close and to one side, but I was hoping the delay for the sub would be able to accomidate it being at the rear of the room. Except for this, the only other (slight) drawback is that you can't actually see or tweak the EQ settings that the automatic Audessy setup chooses. You can switch to Manual EQ and set it however you'd like, but it'd be nice to see what was chosen for my speakers and be able to fine-tune to my liking.

The receiver would pass the video signal to the tv, but not the audio. After 2 phone calls to tech support and hours on the phone, it was determined the receiver was bad, so I exchanged it. The 2nd receiver had the same problem.

The last problem I have encountered, which could be related to us removing the buffer time that caused problems with games, is that every time there is a chapter change when playing a DVD, there is a clicking sound through all the speakers like they are being turned off, then on again very quickly. This is only a minor nuisance but it is there. None of these faults are make or break issues for me, I still love it, but I thought it only fair to make sure people are aware of the issues that they may face with this unit, if for no other reason than to help them avoid hours of troubleshooting during setup.

Repeated calls and emails to Denon went unanswered over the course of a week and a half. The Denon also doesn't pass audio through the HDMI hookups, you must run a separate coax or audio cable for audio (or buy a more expensive unit). The Denon was a nightmare and if you are considering moderately priced home theater receivers I say stay away from Denon and look to Onkyo, Yamaha or maybe Sony.

I bought this along with a Yamaha VR-661. I thought this would be better as it has HDMI 1.3 and the Yamaha didn't. I'm returning it back as the sound quality is just not that great.

First is something that could very well be true of all recievers and that is that by default it puts a delay on the signal, this only causes a problem with video games where timing is important, but we spent a long time blaming ourselves before realizing that the unit was causing the problem. We found the option and changed it and that problem went away. Not major but somewhat irritating.

It has many more video inputs than that, but you only have settings for 5 of them. Beyond that you are allowed 3 more audio only inputs. The fact that you cannot hook up devices to all inputs and make use of them is very annoying and short sighted.

Small gripe, the on screen disply doesn't work with HDMI fed material, only with component fed material. For example, if you change the volume or audio mode, it won't disply that on screen if you are watching an HDMI source, but it will with a component source signal. The automatic setup feature is nifty and seems to do an ok job, but I ended up changing many of the settings it made to tune it in better.

I called tech support again, and actually talked to someone that had a clue. I was told that digital audio inputs could only be output via external speakers, they would not be passed on to the tv.

I am being critical here, but I did prefer the Harmon Kardon that I replaced this with -as far as quality of sound goes, and it makes me wish I returned this unit to Amazon.

The speaker connections accept banana plugs, or you can use bare wire. From what I remember, the spade type connectors for speakers may not work well due to the way the connectors on the 605 are constructed. The rest of the audio and video connections are well laid out, but, since there are a ton of them, things are a bit cramped in back.

One minor niggle on the radio receiver is that it does not seem to be possible to get it to remember a mono setting for a particular station setting. That would have been useful for a couple of marginal radio stations that are best listened to in mono to reduce hiss.

It was sitting on the floor out in the open and it couldn't keep up. I wasn't trying to rattle the windows and it would repeatedly shut down. I sent it back and stepped up to a Marantz and haven't looked back.

I however got a lemon, and have found out that 30% of the units are bad for HDMI operation. Google "Onkyo popping".

This is not a product for someone looking for a fancy looking but easy to use out-of-the-box receiver. Style wise, it looks like most receivers for the last 20 years. Usability wise, it has tons of features and customization, but takes some time and patience to set up for maximum impact.

The power output seams a little bit on the weaker side compared to the Onkyo 702 that it replaced. The on screen menu could use some improvement but it's fully functional. Could have more digital inputs (at least 1 or 2 more).

My receiver pops after about 20 minutes of hdmi viewing, and the popping noise is very annoying and begins to increase. I had to buy an expensive fan to help reduce the popping, but this has not stopped the problem. Onkyo told me to reset the unit- and this did not work.

Repeated calls and emails to Denon went unanswered over the course of a week and a half. The Denon also doesn't pass audio through the hdmi hookups, you must run a separate coax or audio cable for audio (or buy a more expensive unit). The Denon was a nightmare and if you are considering moderately priced home theater receivers I say stay away from Denon and look to Onkyo, Yamaha or maybe Sony.

I bought this along with a Yamaha VR-661. I thought this would be better as it has hdmi 1.3 and the Yamaha didn't. I'm returning it back as the sound quality is just not that great.

Small gripe, the on screen disply doesn't work with hdmi fed material, only with component fed material. For example, if you change the volume or audio mode, it won't disply that on screen if you are watching an hdmi source, but it will with a component source signal. The automatic setup feature is nifty and seems to do an ok job, but I ended up changing many of the settings it made to tune it in better.

I however got a lemon, and have found out that 30% of the units are bad for hdmi operation. Google "Onkyo popping".

As long as hdmi devices arte plugged in hum is present on ALL inputs, not just hdmi ones. If you wander over to AVS forums you will see that this is common across the 605/705/805 line. Another unit had the same behaviour.

Only downside is it only has 2 hdmi inputs. That's alright for most people right now, however as hdmi becomes more standard it would be nice to have more.

3) Mac Mini - hdmi in (DVI to hdmi cable) to hdmi out -- still using RCA for audio here, but will upgrade to a mini toslink to sp/dif cable soon. I wish there was some way to get the audio on the hdmi cable, but if it's possible, I haven't figured out how to do it yet.

Third, setting it up for hdmi is a pain in the posterior. First you have to set it up for component or Svideo in, then you have to change the setting in the menuing system, then you can hook it up to hdmi on the TV. If you, like me, hooked it up to hdmi first thing, you, once again like me, could spend hours trying to figure out why the menuing system is not appearing on the screen the way the manual says it should.

- doesn't pass through 1080i from component to hdmi, it will downconvert to 720p - annoying "hum" when any hdmi devices are attached, audible at volume level over 70-75.

I got this product twice and both the times the shipped product was defective and ONKYO support team confimed that. What a waste of time and money to get these everytime, install only to figue that the audio or the video does not get fed through! Very dissappointing

The receiver would pass the video signal to the tv, but not the audio. After 2 phone calls to tech support and hours on the phone, it was determined the receiver was bad, so I exchanged it. The 2nd receiver had the same problem.

Repeated calls and emails to Denon went unanswered over the course of a week and a half. The Denon also doesn't pass audio through the HDMI hookups, you must run a separate coax or audio cable for audio (or buy a more expensive unit). The Denon was a nightmare and if you are considering moderately priced home theater receivers I say stay away from Denon and look to Onkyo, Yamaha or maybe Sony.

It has many more video inputs than that, but you only have settings for 5 of them. Beyond that you are allowed 3 more audio only inputs. The fact that you cannot hook up devices to all inputs and make use of them is very annoying and short sighted.

Small gripe, the on screen disply doesn't work with HDMI fed material, only with component fed material. For example, if you change the volume or audio mode, it won't disply that on screen if you are watching an HDMI source, but it will with a component source signal. The automatic setup feature is nifty and seems to do an ok job, but I ended up changing many of the settings it made to tune it in better.

I called tech support again, and actually talked to someone that had a clue. I was told that digital audio inputs could only be output via external speakers, they would not be passed on to the tv.

The speaker connections accept banana plugs, or you can use bare wire. From what I remember, the spade type connectors for speakers may not work well due to the way the connectors on the 605 are constructed. The rest of the audio and video connections are well laid out, but, since there are a ton of them, things are a bit cramped in back.

3) Mac Mini - HDMI in (DVI to HDMI cable) to HDMI out -- still using RCA for audio here, but will upgrade to a mini toslink to sp/dif cable soon. I wish there was some way to get the audio on the HDMI cable, but if it's possible, I haven't figured out how to do it yet.

There are both optical digital and coaxial digital connections for audio(for gear that can't do HDMI), and the usual component, S-video and two channel stereo inputs and outputs. 3) The receiver can process the newer, higher level audio formats (TrueHD, DD+ etc) via HDMI. Right now most hi-def dvd players decode these before transmitting to a receiver, but in the future if players send an encoded signal in the newer formats, the 605 will be able to handle them.

There is definately some lag when switching audio formats (e.g. different programs using different audio formats all going over the same SPDIF optical connection), but that's to be expected.

Of course, this isn't ideal sub placement to begin with, as I can sometimes tell which direction the sound is coming from with it being that close and to one side, but I was hoping the delay for the sub would be able to accomidate it being at the rear of the room. Except for this, the only other (slight) drawback is that you can't actually see or tweak the EQ settings that the automatic Audessy setup chooses. You can switch to Manual EQ and set it however you'd like, but it'd be nice to see what was chosen for my speakers and be able to fine-tune to my liking.

The last problem I have encountered, which could be related to us removing the buffer time that caused problems with games, is that every time there is a chapter change when playing a DVD, there is a clicking sound through all the speakers like they are being turned off, then on again very quickly. This is only a minor nuisance but it is there. None of these faults are make or break issues for me, I still love it, but I thought it only fair to make sure people are aware of the issues that they may face with this unit, if for no other reason than to help them avoid hours of troubleshooting during setup.

I bought this along with a Yamaha VR-661. I thought this would be better as it has HDMI 1.3 and the Yamaha didn't. I'm returning it back as the sound quality is just not that great.

I am being critical here, but I did prefer the Harmon Kardon that I replaced this with -as far as quality of sound goes, and it makes me wish I returned this unit to Amazon.

I have several occasions forgot to turn on the fan, and it is only mild warm to the touch on the top. I have this unit for 2 months, and no popping sound at all. The Odyssey calibration is easy to use, and also fairly easy to manually change the settings.

I'm only using 5.1 sound right now, but don't see any problems pushing it to 7.1. The only downside is that it has 2 HDMI inputs so I had to buy another hub, but it still was a better investment than the next model or another comparable receiver.

Still the imaging and blending of the sound is not as good as my Yamaha. That is a surprise to me and perhaps I don't yet have it tweeked in, but the Yamaha made me forget where the speakers were; with the Onkyo it seems like I can hear each speaker and exactly where it is in the room.

I have only one complaint and that is that I have to crank up the volume (to about 45 or 50) in order to get decent sound. This may have something to do with my set up but I also cannot always get voices to be loud without having background music loud.

I feel this would improve 90% of my friend's systems, who invariably screw it up. The way CD's sound on most stereos would make a music guy cringe.

Small gripe, the on screen disply doesn't work with HDMI fed material, only with component fed material. For example, if you change the volume or audio mode, it won't disply that on screen if you are watching an HDMI source, but it will with a component source signal. The automatic setup feature is nifty and seems to do an ok job, but I ended up changing many of the settings it made to tune it in better.

Third, setting it up for HDMI is a pain in the posterior. First you have to set it up for component or Svideo in, then you have to change the setting in the menuing system, then you can hook it up to HDMI on the TV. If you, like me, hooked it up to HDMI first thing, you, once again like me, could spend hours trying to figure out why the menuing system is not appearing on the screen the way the manual says it should.

- doesn't pass through 1080i from component to HDMI, it will downconvert to 720p - annoying "hum" when any HDMI devices are attached, audible at volume level over 70-75.

There are both optical digital and coaxial digital connections for audio(for gear that can't do HDMI), and the usual component, S-video and two channel stereo inputs and outputs. 3) The receiver can process the newer, higher level audio formats (TrueHD, DD+ etc) via HDMI. Right now most hi-def dvd players decode these before transmitting to a receiver, but in the future if players send an encoded signal in the newer formats, the 605 will be able to handle them.

I'm using the HDMI switching and it has no problems with S-Video, component or HDMI and it is so nice to have the number of cables cut-down. The only problem I've had is the automated setup of the speaker kept failing despite multiple attempts and the living room being absolutely quiet.

Of course, this isn't ideal sub placement to begin with, as I can sometimes tell which direction the sound is coming from with it being that close and to one side, but I was hoping the delay for the sub would be able to accomidate it being at the rear of the room. Except for this, the only other (slight) drawback is that you can't actually see or tweak the EQ settings that the automatic Audessy setup chooses. You can switch to Manual EQ and set it however you'd like, but it'd be nice to see what was chosen for my speakers and be able to fine-tune to my liking.

The last problem I have encountered, which could be related to us removing the buffer time that caused problems with games, is that every time there is a chapter change when playing a DVD, there is a clicking sound through all the speakers like they are being turned off, then on again very quickly. This is only a minor nuisance but it is there. None of these faults are make or break issues for me, I still love it, but I thought it only fair to make sure people are aware of the issues that they may face with this unit, if for no other reason than to help them avoid hours of troubleshooting during setup.

I called tech support again, and actually talked to someone that had a clue. I was told that digital audio inputs could only be output via external speakers, they would not be passed on to the tv.

The speaker connections accept banana plugs, or you can use bare wire. From what I remember, the spade type connectors for speakers may not work well due to the way the connectors on the 605 are constructed. The rest of the audio and video connections are well laid out, but, since there are a ton of them, things are a bit cramped in back.

but yes, So i ended up hookin the xbox directly to the HDTV instead. It's not a huge problem since i have the optical cable hooked up from the xbox to the receiver soo i can still hear it thru the speakers .. but again my only complaint is that it takes away from the clarity of the xbox video...

The included stickers you attach to the positive side of your speaker cable makes it impossible to hook them up w/ the wrong polarity.. unless you're color-blind. I really liked the auto calibration routine they suggest you run the first time you turn on the receiver and test the speakers.

I asked about the bigger models, the 705 and 805 but they said that the extra money for those would be much better spent on speakers for what I wanted. I was worried about only having two HDMI inputs but since I can connect other items into non-HDMI contacts and it up-converts the signal so everything is sent out to my TV via one HDMI cable ... well, it just works for me, that's all.

Still the imaging and blending of the sound is not as good as my Yamaha. That is a surprise to me and perhaps I don't yet have it tweeked in, but the Yamaha made me forget where the speakers were; with the Onkyo it seems like I can hear each speaker and exactly where it is in the room.

I got this product twice and both the times the shipped product was defective and ONKYO support team confimed that. What a waste of time and money to get these everytime, install only to figue that the audio or the video does not get fed through! Very dissappointing

The receiver would pass the video signal to the tv, but not the audio. After 2 phone calls to tech support and hours on the phone, it was determined the receiver was bad, so I exchanged it. The 2nd receiver had the same problem.

First is something that could very well be true of all recievers and that is that by default it puts a delay on the signal, this only causes a problem with video games where timing is important, but we spent a long time blaming ourselves before realizing that the unit was causing the problem. We found the option and changed it and that problem went away. Not major but somewhat irritating.

It has many more video inputs than that, but you only have settings for 5 of them. Beyond that you are allowed 3 more audio only inputs. The fact that you cannot hook up devices to all inputs and make use of them is very annoying and short sighted.

The speaker connections accept banana plugs, or you can use bare wire. From what I remember, the spade type connectors for speakers may not work well due to the way the connectors on the 605 are constructed. The rest of the audio and video connections are well laid out, but, since there are a ton of them, things are a bit cramped in back.

but yes, So i ended up hookin the xbox directly to the HDTV instead. It's not a huge problem since i have the optical cable hooked up from the xbox to the receiver soo i can still hear it thru the speakers .. but again my only complaint is that it takes away from the clarity of the xbox video...

There are both optical digital and coaxial digital connections for audio(for gear that can't do HDMI), and the usual component, S-video and two channel stereo inputs and outputs. 3) The receiver can process the newer, higher level audio formats (TrueHD, DD+ etc) via HDMI. Right now most hi-def dvd players decode these before transmitting to a receiver, but in the future if players send an encoded signal in the newer formats, the 605 will be able to handle them.

I'm using the HDMI switching and it has no problems with S-video, Component or HDMI and it is so nice to have the number of cables cut-down. The only problem I've had is the automated setup of the speaker kept failing despite multiple attempts and the living room being absolutely quiet.

The last problem I have encountered, which could be related to us removing the buffer time that caused problems with games, is that every time there is a chapter change when playing a dvd, there is a clicking sound through all the speakers like they are being turned off, then on again very quickly. This is only a minor nuisance but it is there. None of these faults are make or break issues for me, I still love it, but I thought it only fair to make sure people are aware of the issues that they may face with this unit, if for no other reason than to help them avoid hours of troubleshooting during setup.

There are both optical digital and coaxial digital connections for audio(for gear that can't do HDMI), and the usual component, S-video and two channel stereo inputs and outputs. 3) The receiver can process the newer, higher level audio formats (TrueHD, DD+ etc) via HDMI. Right now most hi-def dvd players decode these before transmitting to a receiver, but in the future if players send an encoded signal in the newer formats, the 605 will be able to handle them.

90 watts may not be loud enough for some people. Deconverts 1080i to 720p. This is not a problem if you have a 1080p dvd or blu-ray and 1080p tv.

Of course, this isn't ideal sub placement to begin with, as I can sometimes tell which direction the sound is coming from with it being that close and to one side, but I was hoping the delay for the sub would be able to accomidate it being at the rear of the room. Except for this, the only other (slight) drawback is that you can't actually see or tweak the EQ settings that the automatic Audessy setup chooses. You can switch to Manual EQ and set it however you'd like, but it'd be nice to see what was chosen for my speakers and be able to fine-tune to my liking.

The last problem I have encountered, which could be related to us removing the buffer time that caused problems with games, is that every time there is a chapter change when playing a DVD, there is a clicking sound through all the speakers like they are being turned off, then on again very quickly. This is only a minor nuisance but it is there. None of these faults are make or break issues for me, I still love it, but I thought it only fair to make sure people are aware of the issues that they may face with this unit, if for no other reason than to help them avoid hours of troubleshooting during setup.

Small gripe, the on screen disply doesn't work with HDMI fed material, only with component fed material. For example, if you change the volume or audio mode, it won't disply that on screen if you are watching an HDMI source, but it will with a component source signal. The automatic setup feature is nifty and seems to do an ok job, but I ended up changing many of the settings it made to tune it in better.

The Audessy setup is one of the reasons I chose this receiver, as I have a less-than ideal setup for speaker placement, but was hoping it could help make up for it with good technology.

I'm using the HDMI switching and it has no problems with S-Video, Component or HDMI and it is so nice to have the number of cables cut-down. The only problem I've had is the automated setup of the speaker kept failing despite multiple attempts and the living room being absolutely quiet.

The receiver would pass the video signal to the tv, but not the audio. After 2 phone calls to tech support and hours on the phone, it was determined the receiver was bad, so I exchanged it. The 2nd receiver had the same problem.

First is something that could very well be true of all recievers and that is that by default it puts a delay on the signal, this only causes a problem with video games where timing is important, but we spent a long time blaming ourselves before realizing that the unit was causing the problem. We found the option and changed it and that problem went away. Not major but somewhat irritating.

Small gripe, the on screen disply doesn't work with HDMI fed material, only with component fed material. For example, if you change the volume or audio mode, it won't disply that on screen if you are watching an HDMI source, but it will with a component source signal. The automatic setup feature is nifty and seems to do an ok job, but I ended up changing many of the settings it made to tune it in better.

There are both optical digital and coaxial digital connections for audio(for gear that can't do HDMI), and the usual component, S-video and two channel stereo inputs and outputs. 3) The receiver can process the newer, higher level audio formats (TrueHD, DD+ etc) via HDMI. Right now most hi-def dvd players decode these before transmitting to a receiver, but in the future if players send an encoded signal in the newer formats, the 605 will be able to handle them.

I asked about the bigger models, the 705 and 805 but they said that the extra money for those would be much better spent on speakers for what I wanted. I was worried about only having two HDMI inputs but since I can connect other items into non-HDMI contacts and it up-converts the signal so everything is sent out to my TV via one HDMI cable ... well, it just works for me, that's all.