Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After much research, this is one of the only economically priced surround-sound amps that decodes the surround-sound information in the amp itself before passing video on up to the TV. Many of the HDMI switching amps out there only switch the video, and do NOT decode surround (due to the DRM encryption on some HDMI signals) only 2ch PCM. Look over Sony's site, they have alot of good info for this unit. For the price it would be really hard to beat. Nice Stuff: -Surround decode from the HDMI sources -The remote also controls my Sony Blu-ray player -The Main L-R speaker outs are selectable to use either full range speakers, or small surround speakers -You can Name all the inputs whatever you want -For a small home theater, sound quality is good -auto shut off after 30mins of inactivity Not so nice stuff -Only three (3) HDMI inputs, i could have used more for later, but for now all I needed was my DishNetwork box, Xbox and blu-ray -Only one of the three digital audio inputs (2 optical, 1 coax) is programmable to any input. This would have been nice to be able to assign any of them to the remaining analog video inputs -Analog video inputs (Wii in my case) do not go out the HDMI output. While I didn't expect this, it would have been a nice touch. As it is I have to change my TV's input to play Wii. This is no biggie, but it would have been nice! In summary, this is a great replacement amp if you already had an older surround unit, or if you want to pick and chose your speakers. Like I said, it's nice that it has a built in selectable crossover for the main L-R speakers. My last Sony amplifier has lasted nearly 8 years. The only reason for me to replace it was to make switching video sources easier. There, this is my 2¢ on the matter