Home > Consumer Reviews > Yamaha RX-V363BL 500 Watt 5.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver

I bought this unit to replace an old Sony receiver I've owned for over 10 years. I wanted the HDMI capability and am so happy that I made the move. The Yamaha was not the easiest to hookup but I'm no tech-head and find it difficult to figure out proper connection. I would recommend reading the manual to minimize frustration. I have DirectTV so connecting that source to the unit was completely easy. Just sat box to HDMI in and from Yamaha HDMI out to TV. You must go through the instructions in the manual as to how to set up the speakers. I have 5 speakers and a sub so in order for all of them to work you must go through this procedure. Another critical aspect that I didn't discover until a few days after setting up the system was that you must go into the satellite box setup menu and enable the digital audio (that was turned off when DirectTV setup my initial installation). When I discovered this little item, wow, everything just sounded terrific. I find that having HDMI for the audio not a problem and would certainly not dismiss this unit because of that option. After getting everything hooked up properly and bearing a few days of scratching my head and wondering if I had done the right thing buying a new unit, I just could not be happier. The price is incredible and what a sweet system. I have not encountered any audio to video sync problems that others have discussed in other reviews. Everything is working just fine. I have found that in setting up the DirectTV remote for controlling the Yamaha that it is not possible to turn the unit on and off but you can control the volume with the DirectTV unit. That is not the best but not a deal breaker.

This works fine with the digital audio from Sony DVP-NS700H DVD player. With the low-frills comes a great price and Yamaha quality. Upgraded from my ancient 200W Kenmore; a unit so old it lacked digital audio as an input.

I wanted a simple-to-setup, easy to use receiver, and this was the perfect fit. I don't use many of the capabilities of the Yamaha, so forgive the simplicity of the review, but it certainly gave new life to my Bose speakers and worked flawlessly with my Samsung DVR, Sony DVD-VCR combo, Sharp television, and DirecTV satellite.

One minor flaw - the remote wasn't as easy to use as I would have liked. Still, for $199, this is a great receiver.

I wanted to set up a 3.1 surround for watching movies and to take advantage of the surround encoding used in most of the broadcasts now but didn't want to spend too much money. This AV receiver fits the bill. I did a bunch of research and decided that this receiver should give me enough inputs and switching, relatively easy setup and nice features. I am not disappointed.
Some have complained about the HDMI not switching audio but this is clearly spelled out and very common in entry level receivers. You won't get all the features but hey, it only cost $200.

Pretty good receiver for the money. Great sound compared to my last receiver, which was an Onkyo that did a good job, but didn't compare to this one for depth and clarity. I bought an iPod dock, and it works nicely with it.
Only drawbacks: As others have stated, the manual is a nightmare, even if you are electronically inclined. I studied it for a couple of days before I started getting the hang of setting the unit up. The remote could have been a little easier to use as well. And lastly, I have a dish network DVR receiver, and the remote will neither code it in or search-find it, so I am stuck using 2 remotes to watch dish tv.

All in all, I would highly recommend the unit to others for the deep, rich sound. Movies sound amazing.