After I updated the TV with the HD Fury to accept HDMI signal and the Yamaha RX-V665 for the new HD audio formats such as DTS-HD MA and DD TrueHD, it is time to revisit the HTPC setup. Before jump into a new HTPC setup however, media players has gaining popularity in recent years and it certainly has its advantages being more like consumer electronics than PC and possible easier for day to day use in a home theater environment.

After looking into the many available media players on the market such as WD TV Live, I was disappointed to found out none of the sub $200 players are capable to act as DVR. In other words, if I get one of these players, I still need the PC to record TV program. Another problem these media player is most of them are not capable to handle HD audio formats. Take TVIX 6620N for example, I have considered it because it can function as DVR. The problem is the TVIX is not only very expensive but also not able to pass through DTS-HD MA and DD TrueHD. For something cost close to $400, I expect more. In addition, TVIX’s local dealer has a rather unfriendly return policy and all the unhappy user feedback on the web make me to give up even give it a try. Then, there are the equally expensive Dune players that seem to be able to handle the DTS-HD HA and DD TrueHD but there is DVR option available. For the price those TVIX and Dune guys ask for, I can build a HTPC and be able to handle both DVR and HD audio.

While it is true, the HTPC can have a lot of issues, lacking proper remote friendly UI is just the most obvious. On the other hand, all those media players seem have their own set of problems too. One just has to search the web to see for example so many unhappy users about them too.

At the end, I went back to the HTPC option. After the failed trial with XFX GeForce 9300, I have settled with MSI 785GTM-E45 motherboard but only to find out it cannot do HD audio either. The great thing about HTPC is it is expandable and I am not depends on the media player companies to make good on their product. In this case, I added an ATI 5450 graphics and now my HTPC can do both DVR and handle HD audio. To me, this is a better choice by far than any media player on the market today.

Follow up:

• As of 4/15/2010, TVIX now has an “updated” 6600N+ selling in China using an “updated” Realtek 1283+ chipset that they “hint” will support HD audio down the line but as of today even this “new” upgraded 6600N+ still does not support DD TrueHD and DTS-HD MA. People who brought the “old” 6600N seems out of luck ! If you think TVIX’s customers got short change, the US dealers did not even mention this “new” model!
• Also as of 4/15/2010, it seems models from Dune has problems with many Blu-Ray disc.

When I first got the Magnavox NB530MGX I was using an older Pioneer receiver that lack of HDMI connection which means I was not able to decode the HD audio formats. I was using the coaxial digital output of the NB530 to the receiver. The result of course is as good or as bad as regular DD or DTS.

By coincident, right after I got the NB530, I stumbled upon a great deal on Yamaha RX-V665 receiver. As a receiver, the Yamaha RX-V665 has a rather mediocre power supply and even worse power amp section but if use as a pre-amp and processor, it is quite decent. Anyway, connecting the NB530MGX to the RX-V665 is straight forward; all is required is the HDMI cable.

The NB530MGX does not have HD audio decoder but it can pass the HD audio bitstream when HDMI HD audio output is selected. The Yamaha RX-V665 detects and decodes DTS HD Master or  DD TrueHD or for that matter, PCM without any problem.

Speaking of decoding HD audio, many more expensive Blu-Ray players besides adding what I view as less than useless BD live function, they also added HD audio decoding. On the other hand, most if not all the sub $300 players even most of the sub $400 players do not have multi channel analog outputs. If a player does not have multi channel analog output then what is the use to decode the HD audio inside the player? The need to have the player to do in player decoding is for those older receiver is not capable to decode the HD audio, most of which does not even have HDMI input. Without analog output, the decoded HD audio bitstream is of no use for those older receiver, as those greedy studios would not allow HD audio stream be sent over the coaxial or optical digital I/O. While it is true there are some early HDMI days receiver has the HDMI input for PCM stream but does not have ability to decode HD audio, their number are far fewer than receivers either do not have the HDMI connections or the newer ones like the Yamha RX-V665 that is capable to decoding. The question then is why pay for something most people don’t need? Even for someone like me who did not own a HDMI HD audio capable receiver when I got the Blu-Ray player, I would not want to pay the extra to have built-in decoder. I would rather save the money to get a receiver that does. It does not have sense when you have more than one HD audio capable devices each has its own decoder when all is required is one set in the receiver.

I only have a small issue with the remote in the sense I think the FF/RR and chapter skip keys can be better arranged and somewhat bigger. As for the NB530MGX itself, I am quite happy about it. True, it is profile 1.1 and does not have Ethernet connection and that’s fine as I consider the BD Live even the Java stuff is more harm than good as they are the causes of most of the incompatibilities among Blu-Ray world. As mentioned, the unit does not decode HD audio, which is good as I don’t want to pay for something I don’t want or need. As long as it can send raw HD audio bitstream to the receiver, I am happy. The player is also a very good upscaler for regular DVD. In fact, some of the good DVD looks far better than those poorly made BD!

By looking inside the player, I would say there is more room to cut cost and yet made the player even more reliable and possible performed better. I would not be surprised to see the next generation of this player lower the price by another $10 or even $20. But if you don’t want to wait, $98 is a good deal.

The digital section of the Yamaha RX-665 looks much much better than the power supply and power amp section. Let’s take a look from the input end.

The HDMI connectors are directly soldered on to the board. They are controlled by Silicon Image’s chips,

• Receiver: SiI9233
• Transmitter: SiI9134

These chips can handles up to 4 HDMI devices. I doubt Yamaha’s earlier model like V653 uses the same chip set as that unit can only handle 2 HDMI devices.

Up the stream, we find the ADI ADV7800 comb filter and 10 bit ADC. This is the chip that converts analog video signal to digital. What I was surprised to find next to it is the Anchor Bay’s VRS ABT1012 upscale chips. Surprised, because reading from various users’ comments on the web, Anchor Bay’s VRS chip suppose to be quite good but on the other hand, it seems RX-V665’s user did not feel the upscaled image is that good.

On the audio side, there is the TMS320 DSP chip. From the marking it is very clear it is used to decode DD, DTS etc. Since this chip has Ymaha’s “Cinema DSP” imprint, it is likely an ASIC that only available to Yamaha and no detail spec is available to public. Next to the DSP chip is the TI PCM1680 ADC chip. This ADC chip can do 8 channels at 192KHz and 24bit. Oh. BTW, Burr-Brown is now TI but I guess Yamaha still think Burr-Brown is a better name to list as “feature”. Notice the marker writing on the board? Doesn’t look very professional isn’t it?

Without doing any testing, just looking at this digital board, one can reasonably assume it can do a decent job as pre-pro.

Links to major components mentioned:

• Silicon Image SiI9233
• Silicon Image SiI9134
• ADI AVD7800
• Anchor Bay ABT1012 VRS
• TI PCM1680

One thing need to be mentioned is that the HDMI output of the RX-V665 does not enough power to drive none powered external device such as HD Fury. As result, if you are plan to use this receiver with HD Fury, you need to power HD Fury with its own optional power supply.

 While just by the weight we already know the Yamaha RX-V665’s power amp is not going to be that good, we are still surprised by what we found inside the cover.

First, the power transformer is unbelievably small for rated spec output. To make the matter worse, the capacitors in the power section are wimpy 6,800 µF ones. Just by the transformer and the capacitors alone we can concluded this receiver is not capable to drive high end speakers that typically are low ohm and inefficient.

But the worst and most shocking of all is this unit’s power amp is actually made of Sanyo STK series of hybrid power amp IC! Using hybrid IC for Hi-Fi equipment is already bad enough, using Sanyo? Yamaha does not even use its own power IC? Sanyo is really more suitable for boom box than midrange receivers.  Luckily we only use this unit as pre-pro. If you are planning to use this unit to drive larger or low ohm speakers, you probably should pass this one.

If any cares, here is the link for Sanyo’s hybrid IC

By all account, the Yamaha RX-V665 is a just another mid range A/V receiver. What made this unit attractive to us is it probably the lowest cost A/V receiver in mid 2009 that has pre-amp output.

 Why is pre-amp output important for a receiver? This is because it will allow us to use it as preamp and/or processor and because otherwise all those A/V manufactures wants big bucks for their preamp/processors. We have been using receiver as preamp for some time now. First was a Denon 3600 which dies after years of services. The next one is Pioneer 2012 which still works great but outdated because it can not handle HDMI and due to the evil DRM do not allow higher bit rate audio through either coaxial or optical digital audio connectors, we would not able to enjoy the HD audio that come with HD DVD or Blu-Ray.

 Although we had a HD DVD player for some time but we never felt there is any urgency to update the receiver because to us regular DTS or DD is good enough for movie and for HD music such as SACD or DVD-A, we can use the multichannel analog input of the receiver. By chance however, we find out Newegg has this receiver on sale for $349.99 and on top of it throw in a free set of Energy Take 5 speakers. While we don’t really need the speakers, it did make the deal irresistible.

The receiver packaged in the usual brown box. The UPS ship weight is only 21 lb and that is very light for a receiver and is one of the lightest receivers we ever owned. Upon open up the box, the packing has nothing special either. Because of the light weight, even the foams are very slim.

Aside from the receiver itself, there is a remote control, auto speaker setup microphone and cable, the user manual and addendum sheet plus flyers for satellite radios.

The front panel of the unit is rather plain. The back of the panel is more interesting with four HDMI inputs and two component video inputs that should be enough to handle most people’s needs. Besides the pre-amp output that is important to us, it also has the 12V remote trigger that is some thing we have to have to turn on/off the power amp along with the receiver.

 Out of curiosity, we opened the unit up before we put in to the rack, but that is for the next article.