Yamaha RX-V861 7.1 Receiver Review

[deacongreg]

Andrew, just reading this about the Outlaw, it sounded like that was the way to, until you mentioned it had no HDMI support. Now you have one, but how can anyone make a receiver, preamp, or processor, without HDMI support? I can only really see that, maybe? ina low budget ($599.99) receiver?

[Robinson_A]

In regards to the Outlaw 990 you have to understand that it was designed and released during the infant stages of HDMI when HDMI was tricky at best. DVI was the standard at the time and much more reliable with passing HD signals. Early adopters of HDMI and HDMI switching often found their product didn't work with all HDMI components, such was the case with my old Denon reciever and a couple of first gen HD DVD players. In order to circumvent this Outlaw decided to stick with what worked and backed DVI. While one may look at this decision as silly it was, at the time, very well informed and benifited the consumer greatly, for the 990 (in my experience) had no troubles with the day's HD content or sources including my ever troublesome HD DVD players.

Now that HDMI has been more or less hashed out the 990, while still very good and a valid product, isn't as "sexy" as say an Onkyo receiver with HDMI inputs and outputs. You can trust that Outlaw is working with and on HDMI technologies and will release new products with HDMI capability soon that will once again redefine price vs. performance, as they always do. I can not say officially when Outlaw plans to release such a product or products. All I can say is that they are, in fact, working on them.

[Enoch]

Besides, if you have a high end remote like a Phillips Pronto) that can change TV inputs in a macro command, video switching in the receiver becomes unnecessary.

[wazzzup]

Is this receiver out yet? Im seeing ads for it all over the place.

[Robinson_A]

Yes, the Yamaha RX-V861 is out and can be purchased at Best Buy or any other Yamaha Authorized dealer. The retail price (according to Best Buy) is $899.

See it here:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1169512521742

[chas]

Enjoyed the review Andrew. I know you commented earlier in the thread about the Outlaw 990, but how do you think the Outlaw 970 compares to the RX-V861 for sound?