Gone are those days when home cinema receivers were just decoding and amplifying surround soundtracks. Today,  models offer advanced video switching and processing, decoding for an ever-growing range of multi channel formats, and a huge range of inputs and outputs for everything from high-definition video players to iPods and home data networks. They can play your movies and music, deliver different sound and vision into several rooms, and in some cases even stream internet radio.

SETING UP YOUR RECIEVER
Most receivers will set themselves up, calibrating their output to suit your speakers, your room and even the viewing position. Keep your cabling simple. It could be set up in a manner that it facilitate bewildering proposition. Relax and enjoy its performance with none of the hassles of setting it all up.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT MULTI CHANNEL RECIEVER
Top quality receivers will be too costly as quality has a price. When you are buying one for yourself, you need to make sure it is as per your requirements and also integrates well with your other inputs and also have some flexibility for future developments. Following are the check points which will serve as a guide for your chosen receiver.

1. SIZE: Have you heard that good things come is small packages. There are some monster receivers on the market, but lot of small receivers is also available with packed features. So, the deciding factors when it come to size are more likely to be physical-making space for all the connections on the rear, for example-than related to electronics

2. AUTOMATIC FEATURE: Automatic set-up, using test tones and a microphone, has revolutionized home cinema set-up. Some of them further refine the process, with a stereo microphone able to check loudspeaker positions, rather than just distance. The complicated factor also plays an important part in choosing the receiver.

3. POWER ELEMENT: You might get confused with the power figures with the large numbers quoted in the AV receiver market. The important issue is that how well your receiver uses the power at its disposal, and that's more about solid audio engineering than just using bigger amplifier stages.

4. REMOTE COMFORT: A remote control is a must vital for complex equipment such as the best handsets to drive a whole system, being either programmed for or able to learn commands in and for your DVD or HD player, television, and so on.

5. INPUT & OUTPUT: Most receivers now have video inputs and outputs in a variety of formats, from HDMI right down to composite video, and many can also accept sound from a player through a single HDMI connection. Most also offer some video conversion, from simple scaling right through to progressive scan conversion, to simplify the wiring to your TV display.

6. CRACKING THE SURROUNDCODE: The Dolby Digital and DTS systems used on DVDs are handled by every receiver, but features to be able to handle the enhanced versions of these formats on new technology is equally important.