my dad wants a receiver for Christmas he wants a Yamaha but i don't know what inputs he needs he has 4 surround sound speakers 1 sub woofer 1 left speaker 1 right speaker and a center speaker. i don't know what kind of inputs for this please help
So he has a 7 speaker and .1 subwoofer system?
- Receiver should be 7.1 so he's 7.1 speaker system can plug/wire up to the receiver.
You want a receiver that can do the surround sound formats.
- Receiver should have the surround sounds formats, dolby digital and dts and especially dolby-true-hd (and dolby-digital-plus) and dts-hd-master-audio.
- Receiver should have the stereo up mixing surround sound formats, dolby pro logic and dolby pro logic II and any others will be fine.
- Any other formats will be a bonus, need stereo and 5 channel stereo.
Receiver should have at least 4 inputs for video and audio ports with at least 2 outputs for video and audio ports. Notice most ports will be in the back, but some can be in the front for easy access.
- 4 hdmi inputs and 2 hdmi outputs, should be the newest hdmi version which is 1.4 (you don't want less than 1.3).
- 2-4 s/pdif inputs and s/pdif optical inputs (they are pretty much the same so 2-4 is ok) and at least 2 s/pdif optical/coaxial outputs.
- 2-4 s-video and composite video inputs (they are pretty much the same so 2-4 is ok) and at least 2 outputs.
- Im not going to explain the rest, but there is also dvi, component, vga, scart.ect
Receiver should have upconverting/upscaling.
- With this lower resolutions cable can go to receiver, and hdmi to tv (tv's can have it too). (1080 scaling).
- This is also good for this setup, 1st hdmi cable to hdmi out on device to hdmi in on receiver for audio, then 2nd hdmi cable to hdmi out on receiver to hdmi in on tv for video.
Receiver may be network ready or have any extra features.
The concludes the basics, note that good receiver's are going to cost $300 and up.