Onkyo HT-RC430 5.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black) (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

I recently converted a guest bedroom into a media room, and was looking for a reasonably priced and capable home theater receiver to pair with my 42" LG flat screen, and also my Sony Blu-ray which gives me access to Amazon Prime videos. After copious research and review reading I settled on this Onkyo receiver, and it was definitely the right choice. I got everything hooked up 2 days ago, and have been watching DVDs and Prime movies; I have to say that features and overall sound quality of this unit just knocks my socks off. For speakers, I settled on the Yamaha NS-SP1800BL 5.1-Channel Home Theater Speaker System (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AVRD62/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_1) which were less than $100, and these were perfect with this amp. The setup was pretty straightforward, although I haven't yet tweaked every setting. I entered the distances to each speaker, and adjusted the individual levels using the built-in white noise generator. I tweaked a few of the HDMI settings like passthru and auto-standby. As to my hookup, I ran the Blu-ray HDMI out to the receiver HDMI 1 input, and the receiver HDMI out to the TV. I also ran an optical TOS cable from the TV digital audio out to the receiver as I just use OTA reception and wanted the 5.1 audio from the TV to go through the amp. Finally I hooked up the supplied FM antenna to the receiver. It didn't take long, and the rewards are great. For the price this beats the pants off of a more expensive Pioneer receiver I used to own. I highly recommend this unit. (There is one issue to be aware of. I installed RCA 14 gauge speaker wire from the speakers to the amp, but the connectors on the amp BARELY are able to accept this size wire. I'm sure 16 would fit well, and 14 worked but needed twisted tightly and a little finesse to get it into the holes. Just be patient and you'll be successful.)

Case of buyer beware. Receiver was delivered on July 19, 2013 and setup the next day. From the 20th until August 30th it worked fine and I'd would have given it 5 stars. It is used as a home entertainment control hub for a Plasma TV with satellite TV input and a Blu-Ray networked player. On the 31st I turned on the TV, satellite box and receiver and was greeted with a "Blue Screen of Death." After checking all connections and settings on all units I've determined that the Sat/Cable HDMI input is not working. The satellite is now hooked to the Game input and I get a picture but no sound when the receiver is on. Because I set the pass through to Game I do get the sound and picture when the receiver is off.Why the Caveat Emptor? Amazon has only a 30 day return policy. So now I have a receiver that has worked for only 41days and must be shipped to the manufactures warranty service shop which is approx 130 miles away. Next time I'll pay a little more and go to COSTCO or Best Buy.

I liked this receiver at first. Easy set up and decent audio quality(I'm sure you've figured out by now due to the other reviews that this unit runs hot).However, after two weeks of ownership the master volume knob on the receiver itself quit working.I tried hard-resetting it multiple times to no avail. Amazon refunded, but still disappointing.

I really haven't experienced surround sound yet, just all speakers making the same sound. Perhaps it's in the settings. I should reread the instryctions for the tenth time.

I upgraded my TV, Roku, and bought a blue-ray player and found my 14year-old Sony receiver not able to cope with newer audio codecs. That and it never sounded that good even with a newer powered sub(terrible bass distortion).I had good memories of an Onkyo receiver from the 90s so decided to give this one (Onkyo HT RC430) a whirl. It's a new model, Thus the lack of reviews. (till now.)I didn't do a lot of research. All I cared was that it would play dolby digital plus and whatever else the new components would throw at it (i.e. netflix 5.1 is dolby digital plus 5.1 that my old receiver would clam-up over). And I didn't want to spend much.Hook it up. Turn it on, I was pleasantly surprised that the factory settings played nicely with my components. Subwoofer had clear resonant bass. Highs were less muddy. No problems with all the audio codecs I was missing. They all play well.I have all my HDMI devices fed into the receiver; it does manage a "pass through" HDMI function where it doesn't have to be turned on, but it defaults to either a specific input or the last input that was used. Not very friendly for those with poorly trained households. I wound up using my 3way HDMI switch with auto sensing (wish the receiver had this) and routed everything through a single HDMI input on the receiver, and let the $12 switch sense what's on (why don't receivers do this?) 3 Port HDMI Pigtail Switch with 55 cm HDMI Cable .Oh, and the Amazon description of 1080i is meaningless. It will handle all HD including 1080p. It does have a good onscreen display capability (i.e. when adjusting volume on the receiver it shows a volume bar on the TV). Good as its included instructions (on CD) read like, well, stereo instructions.I was pleasantly surprised at the smart USB Ipod interface (kidlets didn't realize they could use this to play their tunes) with onscreen (TV) display.Update after 30 days:Shakedown cruise of the Onkyo RC430 has gone without a hitch. It's seen constant use over the holidays with blu-rays, over-the-internet (roku), game consoles, and even computer audio. No issues. It accepts all audio codecs I could find (remember to check your components; I found my blu-ray player was set to dumb-down the digital output instead of passing unaltered digital codecs to the receiver).Sound quality over a set of ancient smallish (less than 6") satellites and a half-way decent Klipsch powered sub woofer is much better than my old receiver with the same speakers. It was a higher quality Sony unit from about 1998 (the old receiver).I'm enjoying listening to media that I'd put away and forgot about now the new receiver does such a good job producing clear highs and undistorted bass. I had no idea how bad the old unit was.It's fairly easy to control. No complaints from the womenfolk (yes I'm a chauvinist with regard to electronic components and PCs). The remote is fairly intuitive, however it's sometimes necessary to push the "receiver" button to get it to work with the receiver if someone has played with it.The LED display is a bit difficult to read, and it doesn't have a lot of flash. Neither does the box itself. If you're looking for a receiver to visually impress your friends, this one won't do...Discrete 5.1 inputs from all sources sound much better. Xbox games the kidlets play are ear-catching and seat thumping. Even straight 2 channel stereo sounds great. Even old mono recordings from the 60s sound much better than they ever did even with chemical enhancers!The heat output seems high compared to the older receiver. I'd avoid stacking components.

This receiver is everything that I've expected out of onkyo...I had an older onkyo receiver that was not compatible with Hdmi and I love the fact that I now can watch movies and listen to music in dts.. This amp sounds awesome through my Bose cube speakers and my velodyne powered sub.. I highly recommend this receiver to anyone even though it is consider an entry level amp...for the price of this receiver it is a very smart investment and will compliment any speaker set up you may have