Lots of features

This receiver is one of the feature laden models on the market regardless of price.

Highlights-
* Full HDMI implementation including the ability to pass 1080p audio, and the ability to correctly handle 7.1 multichannel PCM
* Can stream MP3 internet radio stations, and MP3 music from Windows Media Player
* 140 watts x 7 channels (one channel driven)
* Can convert any analog video to HDMI allowing the RX-V2700 to act as a video switcher

I purchased this for its HDMI capabilites and high power. Installation was not too difficult, but the back panel diagrams in the manual are hard to use. If your situation is like mine you have to make the hookups partly blind in a tight spot. Some options I thought of after the fact were photographing the back, or downloading an image of the back panel online.

I have no HDMI sources, so I can't comment much on its ability to handshake with HDMI devices. I hooked up component video sources and converted them to HDMI. I stuck to 480i as my plasma TV looks fine scaling the image. Note that all fixed pixel displays have to scale to native resolution. Buyers should try out the scaling options to see if it improves their signal. Note that it's now common for DVD players, receivers and the display to have deinterlacers and or scalers, and the job only needs to be done once!

Audio is up to Yamaha's standards. I used its YPAO feature with the supplied mike. Afterwards I set all the speakers to small, but kept the crossover freq. that YPAO set. Sound is more than acceptable, but 7-channel surround did not sound as good as my much cheaper Yamaha RX-657. I have no explanation for that.

The network capabilities work as advertised, but the interface is dissapointing. It's slow, forcing you to slow down your button pressing; yet if you hit buttons too slowly, the selection screen dissapears. It's more frustrating than it should be. Entries are not as organized as you may be used to if you are used to Win Media, iTunes or other music libraries. The ability to stream internet radio is cool. I looked at what packets it was sending and it appears to use the vTuner database. You can't add stations directly, but you could suggest stations to vTuner. I forget what the supported streams are; MP3 streams are supported. The setup was simple; connect a network cable to it and let it grab an IP address using DHCP. Add the receiver to Win Media as instructed by the Win Media help and you are up and running.

This is a great receiver if you are looking at an HD DVD player or Blu-ray player as it should properly handle multi-channel PCM so you can hear TrueHD and other high def audio formats as intended. Your player has to be set to output PCM and not bitstream.

The remote is dissapointing. Its longer than I like, and you have to activate a slider to be able to use the buttons that control the USB/network source.

Its obviously pricey, and one of the reasons for that is that there is no other receiver on the market with the same set of features that I know of. It's also one of the most powerful sub $2000 receivers on the market.

I am happy with my purchase as it sounds great, the video output looks great and its HDMI capabilities should make it a good long term purchase*

* HDMI 1.3 is not needed at the present time, by anyone in spite of what some people think. HD players are doing their own decoding and sending the output via multi-channel PCM so you don't need to worry about the receiver being able to decode the audio from your HD player