Maybe someone has some insight into where I should look in my continuing search for a replacement for my old Pioneer audio receiver.
I run the analog audio out of my Sony HDTV set into the "TV/SAT" component analog (R/L RCA cables) input. So, for analog surround audio, I tune the receiver to "TV/SAT". But if we are watching a channel with digital audio, such as any HDTV programming, we want the 5.1 digital audio that feeds out of the TV set via an optical OUT. I run this to an assignable optical IN on the Pioneer which I then assign to the "CD" selection. The receiver has to be tuned to "CD" to get the 5.1 digital audio. So watching TV, changing channels, requires a great deal of changing receiver settings as well.
What I want in a new receiver is a component input channel to which I can assign optical 5.1 digital but will also default to an analog signal if no digital signal is present. That way, the receiver can just be left, all the time, on the same -- presumably "TV/SAT" -- setting when watching TV.
I thought I had found this in the Sony SRT-DE897-S, which I ordered from Amazon, tried and sent back. It had assignable optical digital inputs and you could supposedly, according to the manual, set the various component channels on it to "2 CH" so that they would default to analog input if no digital signal was present.
But, in fact, I found that if there was no digital signal, the DE897 receiver would not actually default to analog. If I started with analog, it would detect a new digital signal, but not the other way around. In other words, this feature -- the reason I bought the receiver -- just didn't work.
I had other problems with it as well. The optical IN's were not assignable to any component, the DVD channel could only take COAX digital (so my DVD player, with only an optical OUT, had to go to VIDEO ONE), and I could not get it set up so that it would run the center channel, along with front R & L, with analog surround audio from analog TV channels. It insisted on playing TV audio as though it were music, i.e. L & R. Possibly I was just unsuccessful at finding the correct settings for this.
Another question: Who uses all those video connections? What is their purpose? I have a digital HDTV set with digital and analog audio OUT and a DVD/DVR player with component OUT. I find no use for video inputs and outputs on my receiver. Is it possible to find a Home Theater receiver that just exists to take care of your audio rather than wasting all my dollars on video inputs and outputs that I can't even imagine how I would use?
mack austin