I know, I know, you many times get what you pay for... I'm thinking about buying a low-cost Surround receiver for my brother. He has the wife and kids and other more pressing needs to spend his money on but I wanted to sort of get him a start with a decent system. I'm sure in a couple of years he may choose to replace/upgrade this item. Until you've owned (even a bad system) you can't fully appreciate the added bonus when watching a movie. I know they watch a lot of TV (VHS and now Direct TV). My problem is I didn't want the receiver to be sooo low end that he would have to upgrade it very soon. I was hoping to find one with S-Video switching capibility... He has a DSS system and it cost next to nothing now to pickup a DVD player. There, that would be two sources where it would be nice to have S-Video capability on the receiver. I guess I could just get him something like a Techniques DTS receiver (I tried out for one night...) It appeared to be a decent unit (but no S-Video). I'm trying to keep the receiver purchase in the $275-375 range. Of course I would hope that he would quickly add a DVD player and get an even better experience.
Any recommendations... I guess... low-cost with S-Video switching and low-cost without S-video switching but must have DTS.
thanks
Ken