Onkyo TX-NR414 5.1-Channel Network A/V Receiver(Black) (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

Got this for my father to replace a 12 year old Yamaha. Granted, my 2 Yamaha's both over 10 years old as well are still going, so I think something odd has happened to his. Nevertheless, he was in the market to replace it and left the research and installation to me. So, after doing a ton of reading up, this more than fit the bill for him and even has features he won't be using right now (such as 3-D) but are there in case he steps up his TV or feels the need for 3-D. It also has network connectivity which is not going to be used in this installation either, but again, it's there for those who will take advantage of it. The ease of setup was great. If you know what you are doing, and have installed or are replacing a unit, simply plug in the speaker wire into the correct location and the antennas where they go and you are done. There was no need for me to look at the manual for a basic setup; it's all self-explanatory for anyone with moderate experience. With no fine-tuning or tweaking, his blu-ray and cable box were connected via HDMI and the sound quality was evident. I was able to eliminate many cables thanks to the HDMI ports and actually was able to free a port on his TV. Less cables, less clutter and nice sound. Using only the preset EQ's I was able to find one that would suit his needs for both TV and Blu-Ray watching. Nice deep bass from his sub, clear direct voice from his center channel and nice directional surround moving from left to right and so on as the move effects were all in sync. For the money, this unit does more than deliver. The sound is loud enough to fill a fairly large room as this is placed in a family room which is open to a kitchen and breakfast nook and it fills the entire space with no issues. It's overall look is plain and not sexy if that's important to you. In this case, it just needs to do it's job and a plain-jane look is just fine. The build quality seems good and only time will tell if it will be as reliable and last as long as our Yamaha's have. For the money, it was worth a shot as the Yamaha's were much higher in price.

This is a very reasonably priced high capability receiver. Price is excellent for what you get. Ease of use is good once set up. Sound quality is fine. I did not encounter some of the firmware upgrade horror stories in other reviews. Worked fine out of the box and upgrades have installed without difficulty or incident. I use the basics with sound and video from DVD player via HDMI, ROKU via HDMI, TIVO (sound only) via optical, and computer (sound only) via RCA inputs. I also use the network capability to stream from Pandora and a local media server.My biggest complaint by far is that the unit emits a burning plastic smell which seems toxic to me. I called Onkyo and they assured me it would pass and was normal and it has decreased but not stopped. I have to say this seems like manufacturing sloppiness to me - there must be some plastic coating on something that gets hot and is slowly burning off.Other details to know: The unit is heavy, though not atypical. It takes a good 10 seconds for the sound to come on after power up. The setup menus are not easy to use and have a number of quirks: the on screen display comes out of HDMI but not component video. You have to press the Receiver button on the remote to make it talk to the receiver. Some setup menus are behind the Setup button and others behind the Home button. Once you get into the setup menus, the cursor buttons, Enter, and Return buttons work to navigate. You have to select which inputs by name go to which plugs. The unit also lacks an automatic sound speaker configuration feature so you have to set the number of feet from the center of the room to each speaker.If it weren't for the burning smell, I'd give a 5 star rating. I've had the unit for a few months and it has worked great, but I have to give it a conditional recommendation because of the smell.

Let me start by saying that I was very excited to get this receiver up and running. It has so many bells and whistles that I could not believe it was so cheap. Well, my excitement quickly turned to disappointment after a few hours of use. I'll run down the list of failures in order of importance here:1) HDMI PASS-THROUGH -- The video pass-through via HDMI would randomly cut out to a black screen. The blank video signal would happen every five minutes or so, and last for 3-5 seconds. One time, the cut-out sent my system into a never-ending glitch cycle as the video would start to come back and then cut out over and over. I had to shut the thing off to get it to stop.2) AUDIO IN -- The audio in via optical cable would also randomly cut out for no reason. This would happen ever 2-4 minutes, and the silence would last 2-3 seconds.3) FIRMWARE UPDATE -- I thought maybe a firmware update would solve the problem, but the firmware update via wired network connection did not work. I could go into technical details here, but long story short - there was no way to initiate a firmware update check via my wired internet connection... So I tried doing a manual update via USB stick, but this method failed as well.4) CUSTOMER SERVICE -- So I went online to the official Onkyo support forums for help. I listed the problems there as I have here. Their moderators ignored my first two problems, and simply posted a link to a very generic how-to video about firmware updates. I told them that the update methods did not work, and got no reply after that.5) SPOTIFY -- I only mention this because it is a popular selling point for the system, and I could not get it to work at all. I have a Spotify account, but I always log in using my Facebook information. Come to find out, you cannot use the @ symbol to log-on using the Onkyo system. I tried using the numerical user ID provided by Spotify, but that did not work either. This seems like it would be a very common problem among users, but Onkyo had no answer for this issue that I could find. Their FAQ just seems to taunt your troubles by using the maddeningly simple phrase, "Enter your Spotify username and password."I experienced nothing but problems with this receiver, and absolutely no help from their support team. I returned it and bought a Denon 1613. The Denon might not have Spotify, but it was a breeze to set-up, sounds great, and everything works with ease! *sigh*