I am looking at buying the Pioneer Elite 84TSXi receiver. I would like to make an offer to a local retailer to pick up the last one he has in stock. Bearing in mind that the new Elite receivers are being released next month would anybody be able to give me an educated guess as to what I should offer the saleman for the "outdated" 84 model. I have no idea what dealer cost is but I would like to try and get it for pretty close to that.
Canadian of course.

Could be me, but not too many dealers I know will sell at their cost. I have no idea what it is, but units are going for about $1,200+/- USD on E-bay for comparison.

Why do you wish to invest to get this premium A/V receiver?

Is it HDMI switching?

Today's lossless audio need to be decoded by the players, the Toshiba HD DVD players or the Panasonic DMP-BD10A player, and the HDMI function needs to be set to PCM to passthrough without receiver processing. Same applies to multichannel analogs.

For CD playback, my HD-A1 does the DAC conversion and has DAC's for each of the 7 audio channels (HDMI can playback 6.1 sound) and they are as high end as in the Elite.

Of course this Elite player cannot decode the new lossless codecs or pass on HDMI 1.3 color spectrum, so why? A good basic a/v will do the job for most applications.

I am looking for a good future proof reciever. My main interest is video. I have the pioneer elite PRO 1140 Plasma and would like a receiver with upscaling capabilities to 720P / 1080i. I don't really need the 84 model I was origianlly looking at the 82 model but the store I deal with doesn't have any 82's and wont be getting them as the new 90 series are about to be released.
I don't really need HDMI 1.3 as my plasma is only 1.1.
My requirement are that all inputs be output via HDMA and it would be nice to have upscaling to 720/10801.

Upscaling what? For HDTV, you should set the sat or cable box at 1080i and the Elite will display in its 768p native resolution.

For standard DVD (upscaling model), HD DVD or Blu-Ray the player does the upscaling and in your case should be set at 1080i which your Elite will downconvert to 768p.

No matter what the TV receives, the display will be in 768p. The a/v receiver simply passes on the signal (even if the receiver would be capable of upconverting, the TV display is what I said above).

Thank you for your response. I am new to this type of thing and when I see a receiver that says that it will take a 480I signal and upconvert it to 1080i through the HDMI port I became very interested.
Are you saying that a recevier such as the Yamaha RX-V1700 which converts all signals to HDMI will give me the same picture quality as the Rx-v2700 which also does upconverting to 1080i......or likewise the Pioneer elite 81VSX recevier?

The receiver passes on the resolution it receives via HDMI or via Component. There is no resolution conversion by the a/v.

Your pioneer elite PRO 1140 already upconverts and displays in its native resolution of 768p.

To upconvert 480i from DVD, it is best to have an upconverting DVD player, such as an Oppo, an HD DVD or a Blu-ray. You then have the player transmit in 1080i (including HD playback), rather than 720p, and the display will downconvert to 768p.

If the A/V receiver doesn't upconvert then why do they advertise that a 480i input can be output at 1080i using the Farouja chip for the pioneer, the Anchor Bay for the Yahama or the new Reon chip in the Onkyo's?

I appreciate the help. I am really confused with all this stuff

These upconvert devices are also available in players. Oppo has Farouja, HD-XA2, HD-A20 and Sony S300 have the Reon chip.

My HD-A1 upconverts SD DVD very nicely without the Reon chip and does it at least as well as the Oppo from all that was reported in different Forums for over a year.

I hope you are not thinking of upconverting SD TV.

You could tell us what it is you plan to upconvert.

I have a Elite 46AV DVD player that has the up conversion so I am not too worried about that. As far as the other inputs go, I will have a regular XBOX as well as a Molorola HD set top box.
I wouldnt't think standard TV would be upconverted very well but I these recievers clame to take anything from 480i up so I would try it with standard tc..
Basically what I would like to know is if it is worth it to pay th eextra for the upconverting if I alread have a DVD palyer that does it. I can get a Yamaha rx-v2700 for around the same retail as a 1700 but I don't know if I need it. I like the networking feature in the 2700 tho.

I'm about to take the plunge on the 82TSX for much the same reason. I am not looking so much at the upconversion (I have no real SD sources anymore) but more at video conversion and HDMI audio.

With three HDMI inputs, I can run my HD-DVD player, my Blu-Ray player, and my STB through the receiver. It will let me get TrueHD and DD+ from my HD DVD and uncompressed PCM/DD+ from my Blu-Ray without having to go with 5.1 analog cabling (and I only currently have one 5.1 hookup in any event). I can also run my Xbox 360 and my HTPC from the component inputs to the HDMI output and eliminate at least one component cable run to my TV. Really looking forward to being able to enjoy advanced audio with both BD and HD and elminating a lot of cabling.

I pulled the trigger on the 84. So far it is great. I was sitting on the fence betwen the 82 and the 84 but after dealing with the salesman the price differnce can down to $100.00 between the two so I opted for the 84 due to it's 4 HDMI inputs and USB.

I bought the pioneer elite 84 for a number of reasons, 4 HDMI's in, 140w/channel, upconverting, USB input, to name a few. For the most part I am satisfied, HDMI's are great, 140 watts I think is exaggerated...my 110 yamaha had about the same kick, the USB is a little disappointing as you can not carry a digital input out to any 2nd or 3rd zone, and I have yet to try out the upscaling. I just got my Sanyo Z5 projector and have been using a panasonic upscaling dvd to view my dvds. By my way of thinking the Pioneer which upscales with the Faroudja DCDi HD video scaler, the same as the oppo which is so highly regarded, should be a great upscaler and I will let you know when I get the opportunity to set it up on my amp. (I misplaced my manual and can't download it from the pioneer site for some reason but as soon as I do I will let you know how its conversion works) Only the 84 has upscaling I do believe and it has pass thru for 1080P.

After having used the 84 for the last few weeks I can say that I am very impressed with the upscaling. I have an upscaling DVD player which is passed through the 84 via HDMI and a digital cable box and XBOX (original) that I upconvert to 720P and they look amazing. I prefer the 720p over the 1080i that is probably more my preference than anything else.
I have not tried the USB yet. Can I plug a USB drive or memory stick in and play audio?

from my experience you have to have your computer hooked up to the amp thru the USB. Then you can output the sound to the amp directly and not thu the computers audio out to a splitter cable and into a CD or some other input in you amp. So presumably the sound quality is better. One other feature that I think is great is the retrieve? button that returns an MP3 recording back to almost CD quality. You can really hear the difference. My only complaint is that you can't input with the USB and go out to zone 2 or 3 because it is a digital signal and so you must go back to the audio out with a splitter and into one of your other inputs on the amp that I mentioned earlier with lessor quality output.