Social Feed

I recieved my 805 Saturday by going to the local FedEx Home Delivery Hub and picking it up. Boy, I was glad the guy there offered to put it in my truck as it was very heavy. I had to carry it upstairs and it almost took me out.

Fortunately it has the same horizontal footplace as my Denon AVR-982. It is 2 inches longer front to back and about an inch higher so it fit into the space well. This baby does run hotter then the Denon so I keep one door open for air movement.

I purchased Phillips HDMI cables from Walmart, 2 3' cables and on 12' HDMI to DVI PXT cable (their highest product. Cost $120. I could have saved $45 dollars by going the cheapest route available (BJ's and Walmart) but that HDMI to DVI cable was not cheap anywhere.

Setup was easy once I figured out the remote which other then being big 2 7/8 x 9 3/8 square has backlight which is nice except for the number pad where the numbers light up but their secondary functions (selecting which imput device to use) is not. But since I only have the PS3 and the Dish DVR622 to hook up it is easy to remember who and where. I have a Denon 3910 DVD player to hook up but I have to find its HDMI cable I bought for it a while ago.

Once into the setup you select whether or not you monitor is hooked up with the HDMI output. On the 805 componet is automatically upconverted to HDMI and is passed thu. 480i is converted to 480p and that is it folks. If you want all your imputs to be upconverted to 720p or 1080i or 1080p then you will have to buy the 875 which will allow you to set the hdmi output for your monitor.

Side note: The manuel for the 805 is the same as the 875 -- the only differance between the two is the HQV upconversion chip and one HDMI input more (4) (the 805 has 3). My decision on the 805 was based on that I own a Pioneer Elite 630HD DVI set and it will be a few more years before the wife will let me upgrade. By that time I believe that most sets will upconvert to 1080p as well or better the the HQV chip in the 875. (Some companies like Phillips has already announced using the HQV chip for upconversion in their sets). The HDMI 1.3a input/output of the Onkyos will allow for 1080p 24fps bit for bit transfer to a 1080p capable monitor. It also will allow for the new extended color standard that the newer LCDs and Plasmas are beginning to support this year and the 100mhz LCDs just now hitting Europe (don't know if we will see those here in the US)

Once I hooked up the three HDMI cables (THREE! I removed 2 S-VHS cables, 4 componet cables, 3 optical cables and 6 analog cables from the Denon3910 for direct audio transfer for a total of 15 cables!) I then turned on the Onkyo.

Setting up the video was unbelivably easy. You just go into the setup, scroll down to input then select input (CAble/Sat) and select HDMI input. That is it the rest is automatic! No fuss no muss everything works!

Before I go into the speaker setup my speakers -- I have a Yamaha 5.1 speaker setup with a 250 watt Yamaha powered subwoofer and I replaced the two Yamaha bookcase rear speakers with two Polk Audio dual push surround speakers. I am going to reposistion those to the side of my setup and reinstall the bookcases for rear (7.1) support.

Now on to the speaker setup. Now here is where I oops. I did not read the manuel carefully as I did not set the ohms ratings for my speakers nor the cutoff for my power subwoofer before doing the Auddessey setup. You must do this before running the speaker setup. I will have to do this over again as soon as everyone gets up.

The Auddessey setup for those who have no experiance is very simple. You plug in a speaker (supplied with a long cord) and place it everywhere where someone can sit while watching. This receiver is capable of 8 settings and after you take all these settings it caluculates all the information and sets up the speakers accordingly. Even without setting the ohms and power subwoofer beforehand the setup was execellant.

Setup is now done. For those of you who wonder the 805 is capable of using multiple inputs (S-VHS, Componet Optical and Analog) for inputs for one product -- like the Denon 3910. And the unit will automatically detect those inputs and then supply you with the approriate menus. However if you only hook up the HDMI like I did those menus are the only ones you will see. I like that -- it is less confusing.

Observations:

Now I do not know if the DVI cable with the converter plug that I was using before had anything to do with the picture or if the Faroujda chip is doing anthing thing here for the HDMI output (I tend to believe that it was getting ride of another conector - the converter plug - and not the chip) but the picture on my Pioneer is definately brighter and sharper then before.

I played with the Pioneers Pure setting by turning it on and off. With it on you have selection over type Black , White and format setting (Std, Movie, Game, Sport etc). Once I set the Black and White I tried the Off setting and while I can have more adjustments other the pumping up the colour output and adjusting the tint I could see no real differance in Picture Quality.

Using DishNetwork the picture has never been so sharp. In addition I watched a recording of an SD show on FX and the first thing I noticed was it was not dark! Usually when I watch SD on Dishnetwork and the 622 the PQ is usually dark -- apparently the Onkyo and or the new HDMI/DVI cable is doing something here.

I saved the my evaluation of the sound reproduction for last. There is a reason -- my wife. She is not easily impressed and when I want to buy something or upgrade any of my electronics she is very skeptical. But since I make good money (and she makes better money) she usually allows me but more often then not to make my purchase. Only reason I got into the HDTV as an early adopter was because I was hit by a service truck at a red light and the settlement allowed me to buy an HDTV. She actually barter another cat out of that deal. She got the cat and I got the HDTV.

Well, I have been waiting for a new reciever to play all the new Audio codecs and have HDMI 1.3 and the ONKYOs showed up. I was trying to decide between the 805 and the 875 (my decision and reasons stated above) and how to talk my wife into allowing me to drop a few dollars on a new toy. Well, my birthday is in July, Circuit City had the 805 and a decent sale - $150 off and three months same as cash. I pitched it as my present and she bit -- but not until she gave me grief over selling her digital camera without her permision (I purchased a Sony 7.2 Cybershot that does HD pictures selling her Canon SureShot 2.1). After making me sweat for about 15 minutes she smiled and said go ahead.

Now when the CD came out she busted my chops for 3 years before I was able to get on and after I set it up and played it for her she said she should of allowed me to do it sooner. I knew she was going to do the same with this reciever as during the discussion she stated that I had not had the Denon AVR that long and she could not see why I wanted the Onkyo but she relented.

I had the new setup on Voom's Equator when she walked in and she set down and started watching (it was playing 'Over California') I switched it to HDNET which was playing 'Top Gun'. She likes that movie and she started smiling. I asked if she could tell the differance in the new receiver and she said yes and then she said noticably. My wife is not an expert but if she says there is a marked differance then there is.

The sound reproduction by the Onkyo smacks my old Denon right out the door. Sounds are crisp and the sound field is excellent. I guess I will not have to use my sound meter anymore. At first I thought that there was no bass but then I noticed that when needed the bass was not only there but so were ambient sounds that I had not even noticed -- we are still on HDNET and TopGun here!

I put in The Queen on BluRay for my wife and once again I was amazed at the sound reproduction. Of course now I was listening to the uncompressed PCM soundtrack and it is very impressive. This is not an action film but little things like the differant sounds of tires on roads, shoes on floors or differant textures (rocks, asphalt, ect) were very vibrant and really made the sound come alive. I moved around my setting area and was amazed how well the Onkyo handled the setup. I have never heard my speakers this clearly or as well defined on the Denon.

All in all, this is a great receiver. It does so many things with the sound like the THX Ultra 2 and other THX settings that it will take some time to experiance all the differant settings. It is very easy to setup and I am amazed by how well the Audessey setup worked. It has been reported that some have experienced pops occasionally with the HDMI setup but I have not experiance it once. As a matter of fact, I have noted in the past sometimes delay in lypsync using the Dish 622DVR. After watching last night for about 4 hours and many differant channels I did not notice the problem once. The Onkyo TX-SR805 performs above my expectations and is very easy to use and if you are leaning towards one I feel you would be very pleased with this receiver.

One thing about getting the 805 is that the $700 I saved between the 805 and 875 I can stowe away towards a new HDTV -- maybe next year.