Yamaha 735-Watt 7.1 Channel Network Home Theater Receiver (Model: RXV671)

Great receiver, works well with macs

The sound from this receiver is amazing. I give it 5-stars and I still need to add more speakers. Even when playing compressed mp3's the enhancer actually adds quite a bit of ...Read complete review

The sound from this receiver is amazing. I give it 5-stars and I still need to add more speakers. Even when playing compressed mp3's the enhancer actually adds quite a bit of depth.

Setup was straight forward. The on screen menus are easy to use, the design is lacking, but really they aren't accessed all that often once everything is setup. The on screen menus are still far better than trying to configure everything with extra buttons on the remote or using the front panel display.

Speaking of the remote...they really need to simplify the remote and do more on screen. The remote is ok, but it could be better with less buttons. Once you program the 4 main buttons to the settings of your choice then it is one click to go to any device you want to use and it works pretty well. In fact, it was able to control my tivo just fine. The remote isn't as nice as a tivo remote... too many annoying buttons and the layout is lame, but at least I still only have one remote. On the plus side they offer an iphone app to control quite a bit. The iphone app interface could could be designed a bit better, but it is nice to be able to browse through itunes playlists and have full control of volume and power, selecting other devices, browsing pandora, and other radio stations.

The one area that I had a hard time deciding on when I was looking to purchase this unit was the lack of Apple Airplay support found in two other receivers at a similar price point. I have to say it would have been nice and easy and would have saved some time. However, I can report this unit works just fine with my itunes library and dynamic playlists, but you have to use some third party software to get DLNA to work. Some software is free others are affordable and do the same thing. The one I am using now is Elgato Eyeconnect software for the mac. Once this software is running everything is easy to setup and use. Note the audio-only version of this software is completely free and works great. There are others that work on intel Macs but since my library is on an older G5 this is one of the only solutions that worked seamlessly. Read below for the full details of the process I went through evaluating different UPNP/DLNA software solutions for the mac.

There are two other areas that I would like to see improved...
1. When listening to music from Pandora or your itunes library it will pull up artwork and display info about who is playing but the overall design is horrible. It should be elegant and fun to watch or something you wouldn't mind leaving on at a party. Instead I just turn the tv off, or go through the PS3 interface which has a lot better visualizer.

2. Before adding a receiver everything was connected to the tv directly and the tv allowed each HDMI input to have its own picture settings, so you could really have a different setup for games, movies, Tivo. but since the receiver is now the middle man you only get one setting for all devices, it would be nice if they allowed each to be configured a little bit, like contrast, brightness, color, etc. I haven't really seen this on other receivers though. After a few months of use this doesn't seem to be an issue, or maybe I am not as critical.

Overall, I really love this receiver and would recommend it even without Airplay.

Here are the details about my adventure getting DLNA/UPNP to work with my setup.

First off, I thought DLNA and UPNP were the same or had the same goal of working nicely together, but it turns out they are completely separate and therefore the poor consumers have to pay attention to the details. Apple Airplay is similar, they noticed DLNA was nice in theory, but not great in practice so they created their own way to share things on the network with other devices. Great now we have all these devices and they all have their own interoperability standards. LAME.

Ok, so I know my tv is DNLA compatible, I thought my PS3 was or is UPNP, now my receiver supports DLNA 1.5, my PowerMac G5 uses the powerPC processor instead of intel, it is getting a bit dated now, but its still a great server and should be quite capable.

I know I needed DLNA or UPNP software to make my Mac visible to these devices so I downloaded as many as I could and evaluated the following: Nullriver MediaLink, Elgato Eyeconnect, Playback, TVMobili, Majestic, Serviio, and TwonkyMediaServer.

What I found is some of the newer open source software is for intel macs not my older powerPC, so my options were limited. Next, some software such as nullriver works great for sharing music, movies, and photos to the PS3, this allows me to use the PS3's prettier visualizer when listening to music. However, the nullriver mediaLink does not show up directly with my receiver. This means I have to have the PS3 on to listen to music, which is fine some of the time but not all. Next, I found Elgato EyeConnect works with both the PS3 and receiver directly, but the software crashes or stops frequently when used with the PS3, (note this is an older version that supports older Mac powerPCs), and it works great with the receiver. Some of the others had a conflict where you cannot have multiple DLNA or UPNP software running at the same time because they need to use the same ports.

Here is a quick evaluation of each:
Nullriver MediaLink— best for PS3 $20
Elgato Eyeconnect — best for receiver, not sure about movies, I am using the free audio-only version
Playback - not sure
TVMobili - interface shows up for both PS3 and receiver, but no content shows up, others noticed this problem specific to G5's powerPC
Majestic - older version is available for the powerPC, only works with the PS3
Serviio - Free, doesn't work on an older Macs
TwonkyMediaServer — $20 works for both PS3 and yamaha receiver but itunes dynamic playlists aren't available ( i like dynamic playlists so this one was out for me)

Now I am using Nullriver MediaLink for movies/music streaming to the PS3 and I use Elgato Eyeconnect when I just want quick access to music directly from the receiver with the TV off.

After all this Airplay is looking better and better, but now that I have a solution I don't need to upgrade my G5 just yet and I can control my music from my iphone and have a nice setup. Hope this is useful to someone.