I've been looking at the 1070 primarily due to the clarity of the manual. I figure that if they spend so much time making it understandable, then they probably spend a great deal of time making their products top notch.

I plan to buy KEF 3005 speakers for the surround system and a Sony HDTV, and attach the HDMI cables to the Sony and audio to the 1070. DVD manufacturer is still up in the air.

My question is this: do you think the 1070 is overkill, as I will use the system basically for surround sound.

I am not too thrilled about the audio cut-out issues, but I could live with them if the fix works. I've eliminated a Denon because the manual was not understandable and in places, even to me wrong. I was looking at an Onkyo 674.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks.

I'd say that the 1070 is an excellent choice for surround sound. The drop-outs were pretty hard to isolate (some people never ran into them, others encountered them fairly regularly), but indications are that the beta firmware has done great things on this front.

I think I have determined the cause of my sound drop outs, but am going to test some more. It appears that TV sound dropping out doesn't happen if I turn on the 1070 first and let it come online before turning the TV signal source on. In my case TV sound is being fed from a TV into the AUX inputs of the 1070. I haven't yet sprung for a monitor and don't have cable/satellite. I was having a problem with the 1070 and my Pioneer Elite 59AVi, but the sound drop out doesn't seem to be there anymore either. I hope this fixes the problem.

nice work Bob - keep us posted. I'm using a Motorolla HD box linked into my Video 2. I'll start paying attention to my startup sequence and see if that helps. I haven't been using my setup much lately with the sale of my house being a big priority. One thing is for SURE. I'm not updating my 1070 until move time. No point in unhooking it all now just to disconnect everything later.