Do you know what a home theater receiver is? It receives audio signals from a variety of components and then powers the home theater system by decoding them. The next big thing in home theater receivers is 3-D. Home theater receiver company Onkyo has embraced 3-D technology with its new range of AV receivers. It’s got a new model, Onkyo TX-SR308 Home Theater Receiver, which utilizes the latest technology.

This model comes with a 5.1-channel receiver and includes three HDMI 1.4 inputs that are supposed to support 3D playback and Audio Return Channel (ARC). This new range of home theatre receivers has a simple front layout that is supposed to be easier to use. It has a standby button on the left and a volume control on the right. The digital fluorescent display is faint to avoid distracting the movie watcher in a dark room. The front face also includes inputs for the mic and headphone jack. These are set to ease the interaction with the user.

Connectivity is easier, too, with one HDMI output and three HDMI inputs. There are also 4 sets of composite video inputs and two component inputs, for low-resolution devices. The universal port on the Onkyo TX-SR308 is included for the iPod or iPhone. A large market uses these devices, and the company wanted to tap into this most valuable resource.

It also supports 3-D video, which allows the user to connect up to three high-definition sources, including popular video components like a gaming console, satellite tuner, and a BluRay player. Analog audio performance is also optimized with Burr-Brown DACs. Cleaner audio and video sound is possible with the DACs because there’s less jitter.

There are on screen set up menus through the receiver, overlaying the video image so that you can adjust settings without having to go back and forth between blank screen and video. Front panel audio input is via direct connectivity, so that if you use an iPod or MP3 player, you can connect immediately to playback through the front panel. This also has technology that optimizes music, so that you can take compressed portable music player files and enhance their quality.

The receivers can be used for multiple rooms, optimized so that it’s not only usable in one main room, such as the living room. Music from outside the home can be listened to on this system as well, for enhanced quality sound, possibly brought in via wall speakers or ceiling speakers.

The Onkyo TX-SR308 Receiver raises the bar on the features usually offered by home theater receivers. Because there are so many products of this type flooding the market today, time will tell whether or not this home theater system can deliver what it says it can, and whether or not it will really be the standard in home entertainment.

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