Ive been looking into what I can put together for the price I can get a Samsung q990f system for and this reciever seems to do everything I want and it has the benefit of being cheapish.
Essentially I want to watch 4k blurays on a 4k tv with good surround sound. I love the "one box, minimal wires, no legwork" nature of the Samsung. That has value to me. BUT its not quite as good and if something in the bar goes dead, the whole setup is pretty much garbage. So I'm exploring my options.
Second hand receivers that arent 15 years old are still demanding half of what that receiver costs me new, and it seems to have everything that someone setting up a budget 4k 5.1 home theater could want. So, thoughts?
IMO what you're really asking about are your options for routing AV signals. These days you have two choices:
Both options come with their own pros and cons.
In no particular order, here are some option 1 pros:
Option 2 cons:
Option 2 pros:
Option 2 cons:
As option 1 is the "classical" way of doing things, most receivers are geared this way and have a huge amount of IO.
There are multiple ways to realize option 2, including:
I personally run a receiver from the 1970s using the optical audio out on my TV and an interface box for 2.0 sound. I use my receiver to switch audio only sources and my TV to switch video sources.
Many receivers have supported both optical and coax inputs for a long time, so if your TV supports that as an output option this would enable you to use an older receiver and save some $$.
If you want to go the HDMI ARC route you're going to need a new(er) receiver. The standard was introduced in 2009 for 5.1 audio. eARC was introduced in 2017 and supports many more audio channels.