Product Description

Sure, we call it an "entry-level" A/V receiver. But when you witness  the full potential of the TX-SR608, you'll know the level you're  entering is far beyond the ordinary. For a start, you get six of the  latest HDMI 1.4 inputs for simple hook-up of all your high-def sources.  HDMI 1.4 also brings compatibility with the new 3D video format, as well  as an Audio Return Channel from your display back to the receiver.  Complementing HDMI on the input front, you have an analog RGB video  input for connecting your PC, and a Universal Port for Onkyo  peripherals. All video sources, regardless of resolution, can be  upscaled to big and beautiful 1080p via HDMI and Faroudja DCDi Cinema.  Audio processing incorporates quality Burr-Brown DACs, lossless Dolby  and DTS codecs, and the expanded surround formats of Audyssey DSX and  Dolby Pro Logic IIz. Three-stage inverted Darlington circuitry and  jitter cleaning technology work to ensure extremely precise and faithful  amplification. In recognition of the TX-SR608's outstanding A/V  prowess, it has been awarded THX Select2 Plus Certification.          

Onkyo TX-SR608

Boss BV9560B 7-Inch Double DIN Motorized Widescreen Touchscreen In-Dash TFT Monitor/DVD/MP3/CD Combo Receiver With Built-in Bluetooth

Great deal from Amazon. (270 USD) with Amazon prime shipping. A lot cheaper compared with the other expensive ones in this tough economy.

Pros:
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This one is a new version, March 2009 release.

1. In-Built Bluetooth works fine and plays music directly from Iphone without having to connect any wires to it. No hissing nor static noise in the back ground. Audio from Bluetooth is crystal clear.
2. Rear view camera(bought a 40 USD camera from Amazon and hooked it up by myself), DVD player, FM(16 presets), all works as advertised.
3. Cheaper (270 USD) when compared to Pioneer AVH-P3100DVD with Blue tooth which comes to atleast 420 USD.(with the steering wheel interface)
4. I got Pioneer AVH-P3100DVD (just for comparison) and this unit and tried both of them in my Honda Pilot to check how it works and did not see any difference in quality.
5. Bought a soldering Iron(15 USD) and soldered all the wires by myself. (saved 60 USD in installation charges).Instruction manual provided is more than sufficient to do it.
6. Prompt customer support via email when you register in their website.

I hope the quality of this product lasts for a long time.

Minor tweaks
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1. Connected the Dimmer to the parking brake to make the DVD play in the front panel as well.
2. Had to connect the rear view camera trigger wire to the back up light system.
3. Need to connect the rear view camera video output to the CAM input.

Cons:
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1. 4 star rating because it does not have a steering wheel control Interface but to compensate for it they provide a wireless remote control.
2. Does not support SDHC or USB memory stick more than 2 GB. Boss BV9560B Best Price Lowest Price, Order Now! [Click Here!]

JVC KD-AVX77 El Kameleon DVD/CD/USB Receiver With 5.4-Inch Monitor, Proximity Sensor, Touchscreen Controls, Built-in Bluetooth, IPod/iPhone USB 2.0

Like everyone else, I too love the receiver for all the reasons people described. I DID NOT read the lack of support with the IPHONE 3GS before I bought and installed it. I didn't even really realize the lack of support when I used them together until I read the reviews here. I installed mine yesterday with a powered sub and factory speakers for now. The installation was a breeze and everything works well, except for one thing. Here is a description of the features I setup and the success of their function.

- Bluetooth setup: I have an iPhone 3Gs and it paired just fine the first time. I was not able to get the "phone book", as JVC calls it, loaded to the receiver. It didn't recognize the iPhone as a device with a phone book. Not that big of a deal to me as I will always use my contacts in the phone for that. It DOES however, activate the voice feature in the iPhone which I didn't expect, and works perfectly on voice dialing for hands free use. (so why would you need the phone book downloaded to the receiver if the reason you wanted it there was so you could make hands-free voice calling) It also connects via Bluetooth audio to my iPhone for wireless iPod listening and sounds perfect, as if it were plugged in. To summarize, everything actually works the way it was designed except the phone book can not be downloaded in to this receiver.

- Wired features with the iPhone 3Gs: Everything works as it was described in the list of features from the JVC spec sheet. When plugged in to the USB port of the receiver using the standard interface cable that came with your iPhone, it will charge the iPhone, control the iPod via the "head unit" mode so you can listen to music through the receiver (kind of an attached hard drive idea) as well as use the phone to place calls. All of this also works the same when you have the receiver in "iPod" mode.(you can hold the iPhone and use it as you would normally but have the sound come through the receiver)

I do not use any of the options connected to the receiver, i.e. HD radio, Sirius Radio, so I can not comment on those but I will tell you that this is a pretty kick ass receiver and you will enjoy all the rich features it has to offer. Including what I am calling, support for the iPhone 3Gs.

Believe it or not I don't work for Apple or JVC. Just a guy that wants it right.JVC KD AVX77 Best Price Lowest Price, Order Now! [Click Here!]

Acer Aspire AS7740-6656 17.3-Inch HD Display Laptop (Blue)

Superb Choice

I usually buy my electronics through [...]. Newegg didn't have this model so Amazon got my business on this one and I'm glad that I happened to stumble across it.

I wanted 2 things in my PC. One was a large screen and the other was speed. The 17.3" screen is perfect. Not as bulky as an 18.4" but larger than a 15.6", so it's a good compromise. The new i5 chip is great. I didn't see the point in buying a PC with the old INTEL chips or AMD. I buy a new PC maybe every 6 years or so and considering I could have spent a lot more on a model by another manufacturer with the older chipsets it just makes more sense to buy this....which is really what makes this PC such an excellent purchase.

Usually when you find something that's a good buy you're making numerous compromises. That's not the case with this Acer. From the new chip to the 500 gb hard drive to the 4 USB's, card reader, VGA, HDMI, and dual-layer drive it's top-notch and is of an excellent quality build. Nothing feels cheap.

I have always despised notebook PC keyboards and anticipated using an external keyboard. Well, surprise surprise surprise....with the touchpad turned off, I find this keyboard works great. The keys are a good size for my stubby fingers, I don't mistype on it and find that the straight down touch you use, instead of the slightly angular touch I like on the external keyboards, works perfectly fine. The keyboard has a great feel to it as well. Rest your palms on the lower portion and go to work. I won't need an external keyboard with this PC. I definitely give it an A.

The screen is excellent. It's very sharp, equally bright and does justice to all my pics. Video is excellent and although it does not do 1080p HD, it does do lower resolution HD perfectly fine and on the 17 inch screen it looks fantastic. In fact, watching YouTube or other videos in full-screen mode looks good, but will look better when these on-line videos start sending out higher resolution streams than they do now. DVDs are excellent.

When I made my purchase decision I had looked at 6 or 7 other brands and found that the ACER beat them all on price when you compared the options it came with. The biggest dilemma for me was to get a model with a blu-ray drive and an i3 chip, or to go with the much faster i5 and not have blu-ray. For me, the best decision was to take the faster chip. I believe it would likely provide for smoother video and graphics overall and I could always add an external blu-ray drive later, if I really wanted to.

The only other factor about this PC which concerned me was that this model uses the integrated INTEL video card. I have used PCs with that in the past and found that I preferred having a separate graphics card. But my research indicated that INTEL is using a different methodology on the motherboards that have the new i series chips so I decided to go with it. So far I am pleased, but since I have not used one with a separate graphics card, I cannot say whether or not the separate graphics card offers any advantage in terms of performance. My guess is that a separate graphics card with 2 meg of dedicated RAM in addition to the 4 meg the system comes with might perform better under certain situations, however the software for this PC automatically dedicates 1,756k to video memory of the main 4mb and it's all DDR3 so I wonder if the difference would really be that noticeable. The additional price would be though, so I think this might well be the better purchase.

One disappointment...the sound on the speakers is very low, and since it's Dolby Home Theater with Virtual Surround Sound I expected more volume from the PC itself. Internet radio is hard to hear, but if I watch a video and use Windows Media Player or Winamp, that software boosts the sound a bit more. I use external speakers whenever I can and will continue to do so with this, but these internal speakers really are low volume.

If you're in the market for a new notebook this is a great PC. It's a great buy too. To borrow a phrase from a mortgage broker who advertises locally here...."It's the biggest no-brainer in the history of earth."

Read More About Acer Aspire AS7740-6656 17.3-Inch HD Display Laptop (Blue)

Discount Pioneer FH-P8000BT Double Din In-Dash CD/Mp3/Wma/iTunes AAC/Wav Receiver

I purchased this receiver almost six months ago and it has been nearly perfect during that time. This was my first installation of a receiver, yet the installation was quite simple and the Double DIN nature makes a perfect fit for my 2004 Chevy Silverado pickup.

There are only a couple of flaws that I have encountered, so let's get them out of the way first:
-- This stereo has a little difficulty in cold temperatures. In North Dakota, winter temperatures get to the -20 degree range, causing the receiver to instantaneously turn on and off. Electronics aren't meant to work well in extreme temps, but thought this was worth mentioning.
-- The blue lights on the receiver do not match any of the blue on the dashboard (not even the air conditioning blue). The light is not too bright, but it does not match up.
-- Pairing the set up with a Motorola Adventure phone was a bit of a hassle the first go-around, but with persistence it can be done and it works great.
-- When playing the iPod, there is no option to have the time displayed while having the artist's name and song displayed on the screen.

Now, on to the list of positives:
-- Looks sleek and sexy
-- Makes factory speakers sound rich, clear, and full.
-- Almost infinite amount of audio tweaking. There are so many levels of audio to adjust, you can spend an hour getting the sound just right. However, the sound with the pre-made audio settings sound great right out of the box.
-- Sound Retriever is a great feature for use with an iPod.
-- Navigation with the center wheel is intuitive beyond belief, especially iPod navigation. I bought this stereo for this function and it does not disappoint. You can scroll by letter, making it easy to find bands in the M and N category.
-- Hands-free quality is wonderful and people on the other end tell me it sounds clear.

Additional Comments:
-- I see many are frustrated by the lack of a "Pause" button on the face of the unit, but there is a remedy: If you want to pause a song, simply hit the telephone button, which will pause your track. Hit it again and it will resume, doubling as a pause feature.

This unit looks sleek, has great features, tons of options, navigates an iPod seamlessly, handles Bluetooth calling without effort, and is a great value. I recommend this head unit for anyone in the market for a Double DIN receiver. The negatives are pretty nit-picky and the positives of this unit far outweigh any minor flaws. Buy Buy Power Acoustik PTID 6500 Best Price Lowest Price, Order Now! [Click Here!]

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Product Description

With Panasonic, you can choose from 3 different types of Home Theaters that match your preference and room. Panasonic SC-PT770 Overview; High Quality Sound: The SC-PT770 uses front and center Bamboo Cone Speakers and a Kelton Subwoofer for crisp, clear mid- and high-frequency ranges and powerful, deep bass. A rigid, low-density bamboo material used in the fron and center speaker's cones helps achieve a clean, responseive sound. Vocals are pure and clear and dialog is crisp and easy to understand. The Kelton Type Subwoofer has an internal structure that is divided into two completely sealed spaces. The drive unit that is mounted to the space in the back causes the air in the front space to vibrate. This causes and Acoustic Filter effect in the front space to absorb unwanted noise while also vibrating the Passive Radiators. This achieves highly robust, reverberating bass sounds. Built-in Dolby Digital and DTS Decoder renders movie-theater-like sound while Home Theater Mode produces a total ouput power of 1000W of High Clarity Sound. Easy to Use: The built-in Universal Dock for iPod gives you a great new way to enjoy music and video3. Just slip your iPod into the cradle and enjoy. The dock charges your iPod , allows you to use the home theater remote to control the iPod , has on-screen audio menus, and also plays back iPod video. The SC-PT770 includes the front to rear wireless speakers, and a High Speed 5-DVD/CD changer with Multi-format Plaback: DVD-Video, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD-R, +R, +RW, CD, CD-R/RW, Video CD, SVCD, WMA, MP3, and JPEG. Environmentally Friendly: Add to this feature set a Smart Setup mode with Auto Speaker Setup and and Energy Star compliance, Low Power consumption for Stand-by (0.1W), and you have an ideal Home Theater solution.

>Click to Reviews.

Product Description

The HT-SF2300 combines all the goodness of the HT-SS2300 but adds tall-boy speakers for front and rear. A slim receiver design offers great styling for your home theater while giving you the performance you’d expect from a Sony System. This system includes a 5.1 A/V receiver with 1000 watts (RMS) and HDMI Active Intelligence complemented with DIGITAL MEDIA PORT interface, so regardless of where you store your music, it offers an access point and provides control for one of Sony’s DIGITAL MEDIA PORT accessories (except TDM-BT1; accessories sold separately). In addition, the Portable Audio Enhancer integrates portable music into a traditional home theater system while providing enhanced audio quality. The A/V receiver’s HDMI interface transmits both audio and video while offering 1080p and full bandwidth sound tracks (LPCM) support through a single cable. Finally, The HT-SF2300 can also control a select number of BRAVIA televisions with BRAVIA Sync via HDMI.With “One Touch Play,” operations that took several steps have been reduced to one.

>Click to Reviews.

Product Description

HDMI Output with 1080i upscaling of DVD Media --- Reads the data on a standard DVD at 480P and upscales the video resolution to 1080i resolution on your compatible TV. This allows for you to enjoy the best in video performance while delivering digital video and audio over one simple cable. BRAVIA¿ Theater Sync --- As a leader in products with HDMI connectivity, Sony has created BRAVIA¿ Theater Sync to go beyond simple audio and video transmission. When combined with a select number of BRAVIA¿ Televisions and other Sony audio and video products, in addition to audio and video transmission, control functions will be transmitted via the HDMI cable. With One Touch Play, operations that took several steps have been reduced to one. Press the PLAY button on the remote, watch the audio and/or the video component(s) turn on then the BRAVIA¿ television turn on and switch to the correct video input Simple Easy BRAVIA¿ Theater Sync.

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Product Description

HDTV is easy. Home-Theater sound systems used to be hard but Panasonic has made it easier than pie (ready-made pie). Blu-ray extends beyond HDTV in sound. HDTV has 5.1 channel ability but Blu-Ray offers 7.1 channels. The SC-BT303 with an HDMI cableboasts seven speakers to envelop viewers in a remarkably true-to-life surround sound experience. The front and center channel speakers are made with a bamboo diaphragm which provides a tightly intertwined fiber to deliver greater rigidity and accuracy, resulting in clear reproduction of sounds over a wide frequency range, from massive explosions to metallic clangs. The subwoofer features a Kelton system with a dual diameter structure to deliver a deep powerful bass. The Smart Set-up guide uses the help of GUI navigation to allow users to set up their SC-BT303 home-theater system for optimum performance. The result is being able to stay at home while enjoying a thrilling, incredibly lifelike audio performance that rivals a movie theater. The appeal of Panasonic Blu-ray products goes beyond the breathtaking pictures and sound; the networking functions open the door to new kinds of entertainment fun. The SC-BT303 can connect to the Internet for downloading bonus content available with Blu-ray Discs and for playing Internet games via BD-Live. This connectivity is further enhanced with the addition of VIERA-Cast. VIERA-Cast integrates the Amazon Video-on-Demand (VOD) online movie rental service. The Amazon VOD service joins other content options already available on VIERA-Cast, including videos from You Tube, access to online photos via Picasa Web Albums, financial information from Bloomberg News, as well as local weather updates. The possibilities are virtually endless. It comes with a Universal Dock for iPod, making it easy for iPod users to play their favorite music or video downloads. This system is also Green-friendly.

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Product Description

Harman Kardon AVR-354 7x75 watt 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver is your all-in-one receiver for your home theater system. This 7.1-Channel A/V receiver includes HDMI switching and audio/video processing. With 525 watts (75 watts x 7 channels) at your fingertips, movies will put you into the heart of the action. Picture this! The AVR-354 not only includes a host of powerful features such as DCDi® by Faroudja video processing, Simplay HD™-verified HDMI™ 1.1 connectivity with full audio processing as well as EzSet/EQ™ and XM Ready technology – it uses a colorful user interface to make system setup and operation easier than ever. Add full multi-room capability with A-BUS® connectivity and you have pure Harman Kardon sound everywhere in the house.