Denon AVR-4308CI

Summary: Well i finally got my true next generation receiver.I have to admit that cnet definitley help make up my mind when it came to chooseing the right one.I originaly had the yamaha rxv-2600 and i was very happy with it's sound performance but its hdmi features were a little off. the # 1 problem was the hdmi spec was 1.1 only.I was still able listen to PCM sound tracks but it had syncing problems with my hdmi xbox elite via hdmi .An irritateing noise would be produced from the yamaha when trying to listen to sound through hdmi.Problem solved! The denon avr-4308 works flawless with the xbox elite and the ps3.My guess is because the hdmi 1.3 on it is the just more up to date.Anyway set up on the receiver was fairly simple.After i hooked up all my speakers and components i was curious to see the new GUI display denon was raveing about.I will just say that with out a display like this it would be very difficult to set this up.The menu is very slick.When you activate the GUI you can still see and listen to the program on the TV . The menu is categorized very well and should make things alot easier for home theater newbies.performance wise the machine is brilliant. i had the luxery of being able to compare it to a great reiver in the yamaha rx-v2600 and i have to say that in terms of sound i would say there neck and neck.Now in tearms of video features the denon takes the lead and never looks back.It has four HDMI 1.3 inputs More then enough four anyones hi def epuipment. I love the two hdmi outs also .This would be good if you had an lcd and a hi def projector in the same room. I listen to some hi definition radio and thought it sounded great when i actually got a good singnal.I would recommend getting a very good antena so you can enjoy the radio feature.Another feature that i thought was great was being able to listen to internet radio all over the globe through denons own radio website.Its pretty cool to listen to radio in area that you did not know existed. Now in tearms of movie playback performance,The Denon rocked the house.I realy enjoyed watching the film 300 on blueray in 1080i via my PS3. but the best part was the reason why you would want to buy a peice of equipment like this.DOLBY TRUE HD 5.1 or PCM 5.1 movie sound tracks! I would compare them to the difference between stadard def television and hi def television.They just sound fantastic.The down side is,(depending on how you look at it) is that no player sends the hd sound formats via bitsream at the moment so the display on the denon reads muti channel in.thats because all player right now convert the signals to pcm before being sent to the receiver. Just dont dont expect it to say dolby true hd on your shiny new receiver just yet. There should be new players that send the hd sound stracks via bit stream by the end of the year but keep in mind that by doing so you loose the option of enjoying all of the interactive features that blue ray and hd dvd offer.If you want to see them you must let the player do the decodeing. It realy makes no difference which device does the decodeing. IT sounds great either way. Denon once again put out a fantastic receiver and a i can truly recommend it to any one who loves and is serious about his or her home theater center.