Yamaha RX-V2700 - AV network receiver - 7.1 channel Review

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(More customer reviews)The RX-V2700 has more features than any receiver I know of in any category. The main features that distinguish it are:
* Play MP3s (off PC running the proper software)/Internet Radio
* High Power (140x7 - One channel driven into 8ohm from 20hz-20khz)
* Handles 7.1 multi-channel PCM over HDMI, helpful for Blu-ray and HDMI
* YPAO (Automatically adjusts levels, and bass management features; I believe it also has some basic equalization features)
* Three HDMI inputs (not a common feature of AVRs)
* Can pass 1080P
Cons:
* Remote control longer than usual; controlling network features a pain
* Clunky GUI for network capaibilities
I connected a number of component video sources and audio sources and ran a single HDMI cable to my display. I have no video issues with this setup. I used YPAO to do the initial setup. When that was done I set all speakers to small and the LFE/Bass crossover to 80hz. There's no good reason to let your speakers handle bass if your subwoofer can do it. 80hz is what THX has reccommended. Everything worked fine. The diagrams in the manual of the back panel were hard for me to read. This made it harder for me to try to wire it up with less than two feet between it, and the back wall. There are some photos online of the back panel that might be easier to use.Sound quality is good. If you already had a good receiver, don't expect amazing improvements. Amps tend to sound very much alike. Processing modes are typical. Select straight mode, and it should do the right thing most of the time. I prefer 7-channel stereo for normal music listening, though.
As for video, because I have a plasma, and I feel it does a good job deinterlacing (480i -> 480p) and scaling (to it's native 1024x780,) I only use HDMI conversion. I did play around with the 2700's deinterlacer and scaler options. I saw no improvement. I also see no degradation, which is what I expect. I use the 2700 to convert component to HDMI for a DVD player/Tivo box and my XBox 360.
The network features work ok. I see usual problems with disconnects, etc. To stream MP3's from your computer to the RX, you will need Microsoft Media Connect, or Windows Media Player 11 (which comes with Media Connect.) You don't need to run Win Media, Media Connect will run as a background process, which is nice. Setting it up was easy enough, but I have spent my life working with computers. You will need to go into Win Media Player or Media Connect and add the 2700 so you can share music to it. The ability to play internet radio is one I quite like. You can't add stations, and are limited to MP3 (I think.) The 2700 uses the vTuner database, which is extensive, and you can suggest stations to it. The GUI for the network capaibilities is painful. It's slow for one thing. It will stop displaying with no keypress in 5 seconds or so. However long it is, it's not always long enough forcing you to hit the display button on the remote again. Very dissapointing for a product with a suggested retail of $1700.
As mentioned above sound quality is good. It's powerful enough that I can turn it up as loud as I want without audible distress, and I can't say that about other receivers I have owned. Like most receivers, it's only rated with one channel driven, but don't let that concern you. If it's not loud enough for you, you either have a big room, inefficient speakers or a need to damage your hearing. As for it's sound quality being better than other receivers, I can't say that it is. Most receivers sound pretty close (in tests, even trained listeners have trouble picking out one amp vs. another.)
A brief note about Blu-ray and HD DVD. This receiver will handle 7.1 multi-channel PCM at 96khz/24bits. That allows you to take advantage of the lossless audio formats available on the new high def media formats, such as TrueHD. You will need to set your player to output multi-channel PCM over HDMI. Some people have reported diminished LFE (low frequency channel) when PCM was used rather than bitstream. I don't have room for a full discussion of this alleged issue. It is unconfirmed by any formal review, and some people have reported that LFE over HDMI/PCM works fine. This is only a potential issue if you want to hear the best quality from uncompressed audio on Blu-ray or HD DVD. You always have the option to let the player convert to DTS or Dolby Digital and send that via bitstream over HDMI (or S/PDIF.)
As for video quality, all I asked of it that was it converted component to HDMI, which it does with no obvious degradation.
Why would you spend over $1000 on a receiver? Probably for the feature set, and high power. Yamaha also has a reputation for quality. It's my fifth Yamaha receiver, so I am obviously a fan.

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Offers the highest levels of sound and video quality and convenience for total home theater enjoyment. Features 1080p compatible HDMI, up-scaling, iPod compatibility, XM Satellite Radio Ready, upgraded CINEMA DSP programs, and zone control and Network Receiver functions.

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Color Pronto Remote Control - TSU9600 Review

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(More customer reviews)The Pronto TSU9600 is a powerful control panel that should easily replace all of your remotes, allowing you to consolidate your home theater control in one stylish, easy to use unit. However, programming this unit is not for amateurs. I have the Pronto Pro and had become fairly adept at programming it, but it took many hours to master. The 9600 is far and away more complex, and not user-friendly by anyone's definition. On the plus side, it is a beatiful piece of work, and works great once you have it programmed. If you're technology friendly, I highly recommend it.

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pThe sensational looking Philips Pronto gives you complete control of your AV entertainment, lighting and music throughout your entire home. So why not complement it with the comfort, convenience and control that Philips Pronto brings./p

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Logitech Harmony 900 Rechargeable Remote with Color Touch Screen Review

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(More customer reviews)The Harmony 900 is VERY similar to the Harmony One, which is a terrific remote. If you don't need the RF capability, I would stick with the Harmony One - It is a much better value.
My Harmony experience: I started with the 880 and upgraded to the One, and now to the 900.
All of these remotes pass the babysitter test - that is, can a babysitter pick up the remote and watch tv. The RF capability (using radio frequency "RF" instead of line of sight infrared "IR") helps the 900 pass the babysitter test with flying colors.
PROS of the 900
1) The remote has a great screen and there are tons of icons available online to take advantage of it.
2) The ability to use RF means that you can set up your system so that the remote does not need to pointed anywhere near the components for them to work. This is especially useful where your "Watch TV" command includes several steps such as turning on a receiver, cable box and tv - miss one of those and you can become very frustrated. The RF prevents this. Three provided blasters (one large and two small) convert the RF signal to IR in your av cabinet. The 900 also can send IR and you can select which devices have signals sent over RF or IR. I have a plasma set on the wall and can't easily put an IR blaster nearby, so I have the plasma set to IR and all of my other components - in a nearby AV rack - set to RF. It works great.
3) All of the other pros you get from the 880 and One are also present in the 900 (except macros - see below).
4) The other obvious difference between the One and the 900 is that the 900 adds a row of four colored hard buttons to correspond to the A B C and D commands on some cable boxes and blue-ray players. To make room, the mute and previous channel buttons are a bit smaller.
5) The IR blasters are great and do NOT need to ever be removed from the cabinet to do updates (as you have to do with some other models). All updates are done on the remote over USB, and the remote then updates the blasters wirelessly.
CONS of the 900
1) By far, the largest con is the inability to simply upgrade from previous models. Upgrading from the 880 to the One took five minutes. You just have to remap a couple of buttons and everything else carries over. Upgrading from the One to the 900 requires you to start from scratch. It forces you to create an entirely new Harmony account. You have to reconfigure all of your devices, all of your activities, and all of your favorite channels. You have to re-teach any custom IR commands. This is fairly inexcusable. I have five devices and four activities. I've been using Harmony remotes for years and have really fine-tuned my set-up. It took me over three hours to get it all back in shape - and I'm probably still not there. So, this is a major flaw I would hope they can fix.
2) The remote can still do customized macros when starting or ending an activity, but you cannot do macros within an activity anymore. That means you cannot have the pause command also mute the sound and bring up the lights. This is not a big deal for me, since I never used macros on my older Harmony remotes, but some people seem to be quite bent out of shape over the removal of this feature. To be clear, you can still do whatever you want when starting or ending an activity.
3) The "slideshow" on the older remotes has been replaced with a sleep timer.
4) The stickers provided to affix the blaster and mini-blasters to your AV cabinet shelves are terrible. You will need to use better double-sided tape.
5) The 900 takes longer to switch between screens than the One or the 880 did. It is as if it is "thinking" about things for a second or two before they happen.
6) The left and right soft keys used to switch between screens are less sensitive than they were on the One, and you cannot adjust the screen touch sensitivity.
7) The 900 gives you the ability to add icons to the soft keys, but - unlike the favorite channels - you cannot use custom icons from the internet. This is a silly limitation and the number of available icons is very limited. In any event, this is still a step up from the One.
8) Favorite channels are still limited to four screens per activity. If you want to have more than that (and many people do) you need to add another watch TV activity. Each activity gets independent favorite channels. I wish this could be expanded. My remote is only using 31 MB of 62 MB of onboard memory, and I would love to have the ability to add many more channels to my favorites.
9) You no longer have the ability to adjust the brightness of the light on the charging cradle, but it isn't very bright and doesn't bother me. The One has a switch on the bottom of the cradle to adjust the brightness.
CONCLUSION
All in all, once configured, I really like the 900. However, I would never upgrade from the One to the 900 unless I really needed the RF functions. If you were to remove the RF function from the 900, I would think the One is a better remote and only costs half as much. That said, the RF function is a great addition and really makes it much easier for others to use. It easily passes the babysitter test. I'm giving it three stars because I think the One gives much better value, and the inability to easily upgrade really irked me. If the One did not exist, or if I had never owned a previous Harmony remote, I would give it 4 1/2 stars.


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Logitech Harmony 900 lets you put your home-entertainment equipment behind walls or cabinet doors using RF (radio frequency) technology. Just place the simple-to-install IR blaster and mini blasters near the equipment you want to control to turn RF signals into IR commands your devices understand. Once you\'re set up, the full-color touch screen lets you see only the controls you need and start your entertainment with just one touch. You can replace up to 15 other remotes. And our software finds the control codes for your equipment from our online database of more than 5,000 brands and 225,000 devices. So chances are, if you own it, your Harmony 900 can control it.

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Logitech Harmony 1100 Universal Remote with Color Touch Screen Review

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(More customer reviews)Since I have no previous experience with the Harmony 1000 from Logitech, I won't be able to make any comparisons for those that are considering an upgrade.
Price: Prepare yourself for some sticker shock. At nearly $500, this remote carries a hefty price tag, and it's a bit hard to justify that much money for such a small device. On the other hand, this device may be the only one that you'll ever need while using your home electronics, and if you're unhappy with a bunch of remotes (or just want the cool factor), then maybe it's worth it.
Look and Feel: It's very light in terms of weight and easy to hold. In general, it has a very slim form factor and is not bulky by any means. On the downside, the finish is easily susceptible to fingerprints, as well as the actual touch screen, so you'll find yourself cleaning it every now and then.
Setup: The setup is pretty straightforward and you don't have to be a genius to get it going. It's as easy as installing the software, connecting the remote via the supplied USB cable to your PC, and then walking through a wizard which configures the remote. The remote revolves around "Activities" which might be things like "Watch TV" or "Watch a DVD" or "Play a Video Game". All of these are designed such that your various devices are all turned on and configured with a single button push. How well this actually works will depend on the device that you're using. I have a Samsung LCD TV, a Sony DA5000ES receiver, a Motorola cable box (with DVR), a Panasonic DVD/VCR combo, and an Xbox 360. Getting everything working with the exception of the receiver was a snap. Unfortunately, my receiver has a weird way of switching the inputs, and the Harmony wanted me to "teach" it how to change the inputs. While I worked through this for a while, I eventually gave up only because I was short on time. Aside from that, I think I lost one of the remotes to my Sony, and that made the teaching process that much harder.
Daily use: While I have not been using it for very long, I'm pretty pleased so far. My wife who is not technical savvy by any stretch loves it and has already started getting used to it and is anxious to get rid of our other remote controls. One minor annoyance is the need to "page" through a number of screens for some of the devices to get to their device-specific controls. For example, if you want to get to your DVR on your cable box, I have to hit the "page down" button five times, but once I'm there, I have full control using the tactile buttons on the right side of the remote. Perhaps there is a way to create a shortcut for this, although I haven't found it yet.
Customization: The included software allows a great deal of customization, so if you're into spending a bunch of time on the computer using their software, you'll love this remote. If you don't want to spend a bunch of time, the setup wizard should get you through the initial process in about 10 - 15 minutes and for the most part, further customization is not necessary, although it depends on your device.
Device Coverage: It's hard to say how much is covered, but the list that comes in from the software is pretty extensive, although it does not drill down to the specific model numbers, so it's hard to tell. In general, I think they have good coverage, especially from their existing remotes, and they're probably performing updates on their web site all the time. Worst case scenario - you can use your old remote to teach the Harmony the commands, but this isn't much fun.
Overall: If you want complete control over your entertainment system and are willing to pay for it, this remote is for you. If you're tired of having a number of remotes and want to consolidate with ease, this remote is for you.

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The Logitech Harmony 1100 gives you powerful home-entertainment control through a customizable, 3.5-inch full-color touch screen. Controls are easy to access and are backlit, so you can easily find them in the dark. One-touch, activity-based controls turn on the right devices in the right order with a single command. RF wireless capability lets you control devices without direct line-of-sight, so you can keep components in a closed cabinet or even another room (requires Logitech Harmony RF Extender, sold separately). The on-screen commands are customizable, so you get the commands you want, when you want them. The Harmony 1100 supports more than 5000 brands and over 225,000 devices.

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