Receivers

Onkyo TX-SR875

Onkyo unleashes THX tech tank

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Last reviewed: March 4th

Onkyo's TX-SR875 is the first AV receiver to feature on-board decoding for Blu-ray and HD DVD

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Hands up how many of you bought an HD Ready TV long before there were any meaningful HD sources? Yah, me too - it's all about wanting the best and future-proofing your home cinema system. Anyway, if that is a philosophy to which you subscribe, then have I got something for you...

Onkyo's TX-SR875 is the first AV receiver to feature on-board decoding for all the key sound formats appearing on Blu-ray and HD DVD discs - namely Dolby True HD and DTS HD of the Master-Audio variety.

In true Onkyo tradition this receiver is ahead of the game, well-specified and, in terms of more traditional features per pound, competes head-on with models from other manufacturers up to £1400. Fabulous, put me down for one. No, make it two - I'll get one for the bedroom as well.

Long live analogue

Well, I would if I could find anything to play through it. Just like buying that HD TV a few years back, Onkyo's on-board HD sound decoding is hamstrung by a critical lack of anything to feed it.

Yes, all Blu-ray and HD DVD players handle these formats, but at the time of writing not one of them output it as a bitstream over HDMI to the amp.

They all decode these formats internally and output as multichannel LPCM or, slap me around the face with the ancient-history fish, analogue 7.1 channel, albeit in new glorious uncompressed form. I'm not actually sure I have that many phono audio leads anymore...

Come Christmas this year there will be a few HD disc-spinners in the shops able to do HD-audio bitstream output over HDMI, with probably an Onkyo model being the first to market. The good news for anyone with a Blu-ray or HD DVD player now is that many (but not all) are capable of taking a firmware update later on that will enable the bitstream output.

Thankfully HD audio decoding is not the only feature to get star billing on the SR875. It packs a THX Ultra2 badge - a rarity on receivers below £1,000 - plus Audyssey's full MultEQ Room EQ system and Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) processing courtesy of a Reon-VX chipset, the world's first AV receiver to sport one.