| The STR-DG720 7.1 Ch. A/V Receiver delivers the Full HD 1080 experience to a home theater system. This new 1080p A/V Receiver features HDMI with “Active Intelligence” and 1080/24p signal capability thus making it compatible with Blu-ray Disc Disc, the PlayStation 3 and other HD sources. Need more HDMI inputs— The STR-DG720 features three HDMI inputs that allow the desire for more HD content to grow. Speaking of an enhanced experience, the STR-DG720 decodes uncompressed audio (LPCM via HDMI) so you can hear the original mix of your favorite BD titles. Looking for simplicity— BRAVIA Sync provides a one button operation (via HDMI) of your entire A/V experience with a select number of BRAVIA televisions. Because no room is perfect, Sony’s Digital Cinema Auto Calibration (and its supplied microphone) simplifies speaker set up and optimizes speaker performance with the push of one button in just 30 seconds. Do you want to connect your iPod or Walkman— Would like to listen satellite radio— Well, the STR-DG720 features a DIGITAL MEDIA PORT connection which expands its flexibility to playback music from various audio sources (i.e. iPod, Walkman, PC, etc?) with one of the various accessories (sold separately) whereas the XM Connect-and-Play Ready feature provides the ability to access XM satellite radio programming in surround sound. |
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 Best Budget Receiver! |
| Review Date: May 19, 2008 |
| Reviewer: C. C. Ramirez, Highland, CA |
If you own a Blu-ray player and it decodes uncompressed audio like Dolby TruHD and DTS-HD MA. Then now is is time to buy this inexpensive yet very capable receiver. It was huge improvement from my nine year old Sony 5.1 receiver, which still works well.
I wanted to complement my PS3 and 1080p 65" Mitsubishi with clean uncompressed audio. This receiver met this expectation for me and beyond with the incredible sound it can process. After setting it up, I popped in The Simpsons Movie on Blu-ray which has DTS-HD MA. I could not believe my Sony speakers could sound any better until it started playing. I then tried Spiderman 3 with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and it sounded amazing when Sandman fought Spiderman during the armored car scene. I was truly convinced that I made the right decision buying the 720 after listening to those tests movies.
To every high, there is a low.
The receiver menu took awhile to understand from its manual. I spent about an hour trying to figure out how to adjust my speaker set up settings. After some curse words and taking a break, I finally figured it out. Its still not easy to navigate the menus for minor tweaking to this day after using it for a week! Also I miss the blue light that lets you know when its processing surround sound. It does have a brief scroll telling you what it is processing. But its not the same :(
Bonus!
Harmony does now have the 720 in their database and my 880 remote works great with it.
The 720 is sure a great upgrade for my home theater and I hope it can last just as long as my old one! Be sure to have enough HDMI cables for your home theater set up. I get mine from mycablemart.com and no I dont work for them bcuz I dropped their name. They have 6' 1.3a compliant cables with shipping for under ten bucks!
If you have it set up right, you will not be disappointed with the 720.
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PS3 and HDTV Perfect Match
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| Review Date: June 10, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Adam C. Bloom, Farmington Hills, MI |
I bought this receiver to compliment the following setup.
Sharp 46" 1080P LCD
60GB PS3
Polk RM6750 Surround Speakers plus two Polk bookshelfs(6.1 Surround).
This receiver is a fantastic value! Has all features needed to enter HDTV and Blu-Ray heaven. Don't bother spending big bucks on high end receivers since the PS3 does all the hard work for you. Just run the whole system via HDMI and your get crystal clear sound. It doesn't have a video menu, but you don't need it. Setup is straighforward. Adjustments can be made to ensure perfect sound regardless of room size or shape.
Not sure a 6.1 or 7.1 setup is worth the effort. Just fills the sound stage a little better. PS3 games really sound good through this setup.
Dolby True HD on Spiderman and Dolby 5.1 Uncompressed on National Treasure sound fantastic.
Downside, remote isn't too smart. In the end, get by with Cable TV universal or pony up the big cash for the Logitech Harmony. |
Look out for COX Cable
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| Review Date: August 26, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Mike in San Diego, San Diego, CA USA |
I got the receiver a week or so ago and it is great, especially considering the price. It sounds great and most setup is automatic. It works great with PS3/HDMI. HDMI is required for the PS3 to output more than 2 audio channels from a Blu-Ray Disk (Standard DVDs on the PS3 reproduce Dolby 5.1 just fine.)
HOWEVER, beware of COX cable if you want to use HDMI from the cable box. You will get an error on your TV about it not supporting HDCP, which is a copy protection scheme. Cox (Scientific Atlanta) DVR boxes see any HDMI switching receiver as some sort of pirating device and requires you to use component cables. This is a major inconvenience! The result is that you can't switch from the COX box to the PS3 without changing inputs on your TV.
A call to COX customer "care" revealed that they don't care to remove HDCP from their cable boxes even though I suspect it would be a simple ROM upgrade. |
Sony STR-DG720
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| Review Date: April 8, 2008 |
| Reviewer: A. Sahni, FL, USA |
I recently bought the Sony STR-DG720 about 1.5 weeks ago, and this receiver does everything it should. No issues thus far, and the receiver works with Harmony 550 remote though the Logitech site does not have the codes for the remote yet so you have to self program the Harmony 550 remote for now to work with the 720.
Setup was pretty easy, and the automatic speaker settings was easy with using the provided Sony MIC.
Sound quality is amazing with watching Digital TV, HDTV and DVDs with enough power to power my BOSE 5.1 Speaker system.
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Powerhouse of sound
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| Review Date: May 9, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Keith Russell, Minnesota |
| My entire system consists of this, PS3 for BD player, STR-DG720 for my reciever, SAW2500 for subwoofer, SS-B3000 bookshelf speakers, and SS-CR3000 for my center and rear channels. I'm going to have to buy the SS-B1000's for my surround channels. I am very impressed with this receiver. I just watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind in DTS-HD MA audio (PS3 decodes it internally sending the signal in LCPM to the receiver). The sound is absolutly clear and amazing, it made a huge difference. On my old receiver, I would have to crank up the sound to around 50 for movies and 35-40 for music. Now for a movie all I have to do is turn it to around 33-35 and I am flooded in an ocean of sound. I have a Zune connected into the system as well, it makes my music more alive. This receiver has everything that I could want and more. If you have a player that can internally decode HD codecs (Dolby TruHD and DTS-HD MA) like the PS3 and you want to save a couple hundred dollars, this is the system like you. Sony has stepped up their quality in home audio greatly. |
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