Sony STR-DN840 7.2 Channel 1050-Watt A/V Receiver (Black)

I set this up on a home theatre with a 3D BlueRay, XBOX360, Wii and my FiOS Settop Box (cable tv).The HDMI works really well. Power up the source, receiver and then TV and all the signals seem to work well.CEC worked fine between my Vizio M series TV and this receiver. With that said, I suggest getting an aftermarket Harmony One or similar remote and setting up macros. The remote that comes with the receiver isn't great for running externals unless all your components support CEC, which only my TV did.It seemed like any input through RCA would only output through RCA outs on the receiver.A real drawback for video/audio going out to my TC. This was the only disappointing feature as coordinating input to TV and output by connection type is just a hokey thing to have to deal with. I bought RCA to HDMI converters for my XBOX360 and Wii and use only HDMI inputs to the receiver. I can imagine any other configuration. It was $60 for two so I would add that to the price when thinking about this purchase. I don't know how other receivers in this price class handle video output over HDMI from non-HDMI input connectors.The on-screen interface is archaic (pre-atari graphics) but it is well laid out and usable. I got setup on Slacker and it sounds great, no problems there. I have apple products and had no problems with the AirPlay. I use it all the time. There is a feature on these receivers to setup multi-receiver party streaming, I haven't used it but it looks interesting if you have a large entertaining area with multiple audio.Oh yeah, plenty of power for the cost. Hooked it up to some old Yamaha floorstanders and sounded strong. I use it to drive a Focal Chorus setup and have not complaints about the sound quality for home theatre.The 3D pass through works w/o any problems. I have a 3D BluRay hooked through the receiver and out to the TV and no problems or configuration required.Overall I really like the features and have had a good experience.

This receiver is awesome. I use it in conjunction with a Bravia 55" TV, five Polk Audio speakers, a Polk audio subwoofer and a Samsung bluray player. It's remote is able to control all parameters of the tv, but not the bluray player. This receiver and the tv operate as one set, with a single button to turn-on, off, adjust volume and so on.The airplay feature works for audio only, which is a pity. I wish I could play YouTube videos, iPhone photos and iPod videos throughout it. Nonetheless, it works great for audio, and I s very intuitive, like you don't need to think to make it work. Just launch YouTube or the music app on your iOS device, select the STR on the airplay dialog, and the unit turns itself and the tv on, changes to airplay mode, plays the audio, and even shuts down the tv after a couple minutes. The tv in this case functions as an expensive display.Audio for movies is awesome, specially with the Polk speakers.its decodes the DTS audio off all blurays I've thrown at it. Watching a music bluray on it is delightful. Netflix decoding works very well as well. the netflix app runs on the Bravia TV and the audio flows via the HDMI cables from the tv back to the receiver.Overall it's very easy to use and ten times less cumbersome than the 15 year old Harman Kardon set that it replaced. My wife being non technical, could never understand how to fire up the HK receiver. With this one she turns the tv on and doesn't realize that the Sony receiver is on, as it operates seamlessly with the tv as one set.

We love the sound quality, it allows excellent manual control of all speakers, and the networking and bluetooth features are cool.I have five annoyances that justify the three stars.1) 'Pass through' doesn't work for us. Plugging the HDMI Directv and Playstation into the receiver and only using one HDMI out to the TV with 'pass through' (you don't have to turn on the receiver to watch TV) was an enticing feature but it has proven to be an epic fail. We regularly switch between the TV and Playstation and 'pass through' is set to the last input selected before turning off the DN840. My son will turn off the receiver with Playstation selected and then later, when my wife turns on the TV/Directv she gets a blank screen. To watch TV she has to turn on the receiver and select SAT/CATV. Instead of 'pass through' reducing the number of button pushes it increases them and adds an annoying amount of time to turn on the TV since the receiver actually takes a few seconds to power up. If only one input device is powered, why couldn't Sony make it so 'pass through' worked for the powered device regardless of which one was last selected?2) Settings don't save. Setting the receiver to output sound to the TV+AMP doesn't save when you shutdown the receiver. We like to watch TV and movies with the TV providing a noticeable contribution to the audio (better dialogue breakout when dramatic music is playing). DN840 allows this with TV+AMP feature on the HDMI menu. However, this feature must be switched on EVERY TIME you turn on the DN840.3) The on screen menu is a pain. The on screen menu is essential for easy control of the receiver which means the receiver must have one HDMI cable connected to the TV (a gotcha if you don't like the 'pass through' feature). The on screen Menu is solid black and covers the majority of the middle of the screen so forget about watching TV while using the menu. The menu text is plain white and has the feel of a console from the 80's.4) The remote only controls the receiver and can't be programmed to control any other devices. They want you to buy a Sony Bravia enabled TV.5) It has overly complex sound enhancement options. The DN840 has three separate ways of reducing the loud sounds and increasing the quiet ones for low volume listening. They all have fancy names and are accessed from different locations in the menu. I don't like the sound from any of them. Sony also incorporates lots of fancy names for their sound enhancement 'technologies' you can select to improve sound quality. This of course requires time, nose in the books and online, to learn their language and determine what the feature actually does. The improvement in sound with any of their features enabled seems pretty minor.My best guess why the DN840 functions this way is Sony has developed time travel and is consulting user interface designers from the 80's. There's no other way they could create something so backward in this era of intuitive design and a focus on customer experience.