Electronics Onkyo HT-S5100 7.1 Channel Home Entertainment System (Set of Nine, Black)
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Rating: - AMAZING!!!
i knew that its only hdmi pass through and only true 7.1 if you have the right player. but this system does a great job of turning 5.1 into 7.1. when i was playing a video game i was hearing sounds right behind me when i never heard them before. it took awhile to set it up and get everything at the level i wanted but its worth the struggle. i only really had problems getting more bass outa the sub. but i read the manual and figured that out pretty quick. over all it has great sound and i think one of the best systems you can buy.

---

Rating: - Great sound, but faulty front AV inputs.
I did a lot of research before buying this item. It clearly gives you the most for your money. I hooked it all up and it performed as expected. Great. However, when I plugged our WII into the front AV inputs, the picture went black about 5 minutes into gameplay. The audio was fine, but the video was gone. I checked the connections and nothing was out of place. Then I switched it to another input on the rear and it was fine. I figured it was a bad video input on the front so I went through the REALLY tedious process of returning the whole thing. 7 speakers, receiver, everything. 81 pounds worth. Amazon did not send me a return lable so I had to go to UPS and pay $125 (which Amazon did reimburse). But to my GREAT disappointment, the replacement has the SAME DEFECT. After about 10 minutes of gameplay using the front AV inputs, the picture goes black. Everything else works though. I really enjoy the system otherwise and don't plan on returning it again (too much trouble) but was very disappointed. How could something as simple as a front AV input be defective on more than one of these systems? Anyone else have a similar experience?

---

Rating: - Watch out for HDMI
I finally got this system hooked up after trying since Christmas. When I first tried to hook it up I used the HDMI connections for my cable box and a d-link box and got nothing. I got an error about my TV not being HCPC compliant. I read online that many people have this problem with their Onkyo systems. I knew my TV was compliant because it was already hooked up with an HDMI cable to the Comcast box. Then when I tried to hooked it back up directly it would not work anymore. After hours of trial and error I discovered that it was not the TV ports and after a visit from the comcast guy and two trips to the Comcast store to get a new box, I finally got it to work with the new Comcast box connected to the onkyo with the hdmi cables. Apparently it had something to do with the HDMI repeater in the old comcast box. So if you buy this and are having trouble, switch your cable box because I think they now have a new firmware that fixes the HDMI repeater error. Otherwise the system is great.

---

Rating: - Great Price - Good Value
Great product for the price!
I knew what I was getting so I'm giving this 5 stars.

However, I wish the look/size of the speakers was better - smaller. I'm really picky and love the utilitarian simplicity of designs like apple and bose products. So with me wanting speakers like the bose satellite cube speakers and getting this unit I wish they were smaller. I can not fault Onkyo because I knew this when I purchased this unit as my first true AV system and did not want to pay 2500+ for a Bose Lifestyle system.

I picked this system up for under $350 on Amazon during the Christmas sales - so it was a great value for me and the Audessy (programs the sound for the room automatically) system is way cool and works great to setup room acoustics. I did tweak setting afterwards to my liking, but overall it works well.

It did degrade my component video signal from cable box and blue ray player. Not a big deal as it's only passthrough hdmi unit anyway (so I was not planning to use HDMI for audio). So I just run optical to the Onkyo for both cable HD and my Sammy BD-P2500 Blue Ray and then run HDMI to my Sammy 67 LED DLP HDTV directly for cleaner signal.

Overall - GREAT VALUE and GOOD PRODUCT (just don't expect it to be small or to sound like a 3000+ plus home audio system).