Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony STR-DG810 6.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver

I've had this system for one week now and I can say with confidence that it is one excellent unit. The set-up was easy and the speaker setup was quick and efficient. The system sounds great. I had visitors over and every one of them notice the quality surround sound. The instructions were also easy to read and it clarified a lot of my questions and concerns. I had an old Kenwood receiver, I can definitely state, the performance and sound is overwhelmingly superior.

very easy to set up. works well with my Toshiba hd-dvd, hd scientific atlanta dvr and my hd panasonic projector (110" screen). 3 in 1 out HDMI is very easy to set up. highly recommend to those who don't want to spend serious bucks (>1000) on a receiver.

This does what it does very well, actually better than very well if one considers the relatively low price. However, what Amazon and Sony don't tell you (except burried in tons of tiny statements) is that IF you use the amplifier's HDMI output to feed signals to your TV, the amplifier will ONLY transmit video signals (from your cable/sat box and DVD) if they come in via the HDMI input. In other words, if your DVD does not have 'HDMI out', and you connect it with the component or yellow video cable, the Sony amplifier will NOT NOT transmit (the tech tern is "up convert") the signal to your TV. For such a connection to work, you will have to connect the amplifier to the TV via normal cable instead of or in addition to HDMI.

I did a lot of research and decided on this receiver. I wanted a receiver with 3 HDMI inputs. I noticed that a lot of the cheaper 'HDMI' enabled receivers don't decode the audio signal through the HDMI cable and require a separate digital audio cable. With this receiver I can connect components with just an HDMI cable. I also didn't see the need to have video up-conversion. I connected the receiver to my TV with one HDMI cable and one set of component video cables. The auto calibration system worked well, accurately determining the speaker distances to the listener. The receiver sounds great.

I had some trouble when I tried to set it up to use the Bravia sync to control my Sony Blu-ray player. Something happened and the receiver wouldn't decode audio signals correctly. I had to do a factory settings reset to get it to work properly again. It could have been my fault, but if that is the case, then the process for this should be easier to do. The instructions had no troubleshooting that related to the problem I created.

Overall - I don't think you can find a better receiver for the price.

i have a playstation3, an HD DVR cablebox, and an HD-DVD player. all have HDMI outputs and this Sony's 3 HDMI inputs fit exactly what i was looking for. the other functions are pretty standard affair. i'm happy with the purchase.