# Sony STR-DG1000 review



## 4DThinker (Dec 17, 2006)

I've just added Sony's Str-DG1000 to my home theater rack, and thought I'd share my experience. I bought it because my old receiver wouldn't decode the audio from my new Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD player. the 1000 has two HDMI inputs and one HDMI output. It has several component inputs, Svideo inputs, and RCA composite inputs. It also has 4 rear and one front SPDIF optical input and three coaxial digital inputs. I've got my DirecTV HR20 running though one HDMI input and the HD-A2 running through the other. The HDMI output is the only cable running from my 1000 to my HDTV. Of course my TV has an optical cable running back to the 1000.

All inputs sources are output through the HDMI out. There are also component, svideo, and RCA video outputs. Each output can pass all inputs less than or equal to it. So while component out can't pass HDMI inputs through it, it can pass component, Svideo, and composite inputs out though it.

I had to turn the "Native" video output of the HR20 OFF to get any video to pass through HDMI on to my HDTV. For some reason SD channels weren't making it through when their resolution was 480i. Any digital channel at 480p, 720p, or 1080i would show up on the TV. I could hear audio from all channels, but I had to fix the resolution to something other than 480i to have my Samsung HDTV see them on the HDMI input. This is a quirk of the DG1000, as the HDMI output when directly to the TV does pass all the channels including SD at 480i.

The DG1000 does decode PCM audio directly from the HDMI cable coming from the Toshiba HD-DVD player. Sound is impressive, although I don't have the best speaker setup. 

The DG1000 has 7.1 speaker outputs. The normal 5.1 with two rear surrounds, and two extra back surrounds. There is also a second Zone output. One set of outputs can be run to another room, and the 1000 can seperately switch and pass any of it's inputs to that second zone. I can be watching direcTV in the living room, and watch a DVD in some other room, all processed though the same receiver. Or I can route the same thing being watched in the living room to a second room. Lastly, the zone-2 outputs can be routed to drive two more side speakers in the living room, for a suedo 9.1 surround.


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