What does 1.5 million dollars get you? The Ultimate Home Theater!

We finish out our Holiday buying guides with a look at receivers. We also had another listener review. This time Al from Green Bay tells us about living with the DirecTV HR 20 DVR. 

Pioneer Elite VSX-82TXS : 7.1 channel receiver, 130 watts/ch. Sharc 48 bit freescale DSP, Faroudja upconversion for all inputs to the HDMI output, 3x1 1080p compatible HDMI switching, very good automatic calibration, THX Select2 certified, XM-ready, iPod compatible (cable included). $1200 MSRP, $799 Street

Yamaha RX-V2700: 7.1 channel receiver, 140 watts/ch, 3x1 1080p capable HDMI switching (version 1.2a), video upscaling, upconversion and de-interlacing, audio delay for lip-sync, YPAO sound optimization, Network, Internet, USB, portable device and flash drive playback, XM and XM-HD, 8.1 channel inputs, $1699 MSRP, $1099 Street

Denon AVR 4306: 7.1 channel receiver, 130 watts/ch. 3x1 1080p capable HDMI switching, with analog conversion, discrete iPod and USB player inputs, Internet radio access, 8 channel inputs, Audyssey MultEq Auto-Setup, $1999 MSRP, $1899 Street

Harman Kardon AVR 745: 7.2 channel receiver, 80 watts/ch. Faroudja upconversion of all incoming video to 720p or 1080i on HDMI. 2x1 HDMI switching (version 1.1), XM-Ready, iPod playback through The Bridge, USB playback, EzSet/EQ II auto calibration system.  $3499 MSRP, $1699 Street

Integra DTR-10.5: 7.1 channel receiver, 150 watts/ch.  Built to order, THX Ultra2 certified, future proof with add on cards, HDMI switching and upconversion are non-standard (upgrade), $3800 Base, $5000 Fully loaded

DirecTV DVR (HR 20) listener review -  (Thank You Al from Green Bay WI)

I got the HR 20 fully installed and up and running. Still no OTA HD, my Green Bay locals just came in Dec 1st.  No fox 11 due to a carriage rate problem. The unit takes some getting used to coming form a tivo but it is pretty solid. Connections are easy and DirecTV sent out a tech on a Sunday to install the 5 LNB dish. Its 45 lbs and needs a bracing arm to hold it on the fence.  You also need to connect 2 filters to your satellite inputs on the back of the unit, I assume this is for mpeg 4 filtering.

Glitches have been minor.  It randomly starting recording and had to reset it 2 times. That has been the only time that has occurred in 3 weeks. Its easy to set up recording, just hit the record button once. For episode recording just hit record 2 times or you can run a search for the show and toggle through the menus to set up all or first run episodes. You also can set start and stop times and how long you want keep the show. it has an easy to review "to do", "recordings",  and "prioritize" list.

I had to hunt through the screen menus to learn how to do a "manual recording" as that's not covered in any of the manuals they send. There is no wish list like Tivo, however you can run a stand alone search for an actor and it will tell you what's available 14 days out from that search.

Front panel has blue lights like a server, supposedly you can dim them, but when I try to do so per the instructions nothing happens. When you go to the play list and play a recorded show there is a slight lag to start the show.  Due to the soft feel of the remote's buttons, my natural tendency was to hit the play button on the remote a second time, but that kept locking up the unit.  What I learned was to have patience and look at the front panel and watch the light sequence.  When the hard drive kicks in and the show starts to play, the center light will light up and then remain solid.

I'd give it a 7 out of 10