A few questions about A/V receiver
 

After spending the better part of the last two weekends wiring my living room for surround sound, I come to find out that my receiver is not putting out to the two rear speakers. The receiver is about 6 years old, so I'm thinking of going ahead and upgrading, but I really don't know too much about what's out there.

My current receiver is 5.1. I have 2 rear, 2 front, a center and a sub. While I still have holes in the wall I was thinking about running the wires for 6.1 or 7.1.

Ok, now for the questions:

What does 6.1 add? Is it simply another center channel speaker in the rear? Would a regular center channel speaker work for this? What is the seventh speaker in 7.1? Is there an 8.1 around the corner?

What receiver would you all recommend in $200-$300 price point? I don't really listen to much music, I mostly use it for surround sound when watching TV. I've read the Onkyo's are pretty decent at this price, is there a specific model?

Had I known I was replacing my receiver I probably could have saved myself a ton of time and money. I just finished running 25 feet of HDMI (x2), Component (x2), Composite, S-Video, VGA, and coax cables from my AV rack to the TV. The main reason for this is that my receiver doesn't have HDMI in or out, but since I'm replacing the unit I can probably find one that can switch the video for me. Oh well, live and learn I guess.

First are you sure everything is connected properly? Have you run the test tones to verify connections?

6.1 adds a rear center. 7.1 is two rear channels and two side channels.

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_e...oomlayout.html

You do not say what your speakers are so it is tough to recommend a receiver.

Thanks for the link. All speakers are Sony with the exception of an AR subwoofer. The rears are bookshelf speakers, I'm not sure what else would help?

Edit: I did check the connections, I swapped the front and rear speaker connections, and the rears work when plugged in the the front ports on the receiver.

It is possible that the channels have failed although two at one time is a little odd.

Your budget does not allow for much in the way of features, Onkyo are good, might also see if you could snag a Yamaha

Well, I absolutely had to upgrade receivers. I just purchased a (refurbished, with one year warranty) Onkyo 504 7.1 receiver for $160 shipped at shoponkyo.com

You can sign up for their "club onkyo" and receive a $10 bonus.

I bought this receiver as a stop-gap, until I can purchase a major receiver next year.

I am due to have the receiver in tomorrow. When I hook it up, I can give impressions if you want, but for the price paid, I am sure that I will love it.

Oh, and you wont be able to find an AVR that has any kind of decent HDMI switching/upconverting in your price range. I wasn't able to find one in mine ($500-600) either. You have to get close to $1000 before you can find one.

I'll check out the reviews on that receiver, but I'd like to hear you impressions when you get it hooked up. It will probably be a little while before I pick one up anyway.

And I'm happy to hear that about the HDMI switching. I was getting down thinking I spent all that effort for nothing.

Well, you can find the switching in the $400-$500 range if you look, but even at that range, you have issues. If you want the receiver to do any upconverting, then the problems are even more evident. I am hoping that with the 1.3HDMI spec makes the HDMI switching/upconverting in the receivers "better", if anything the 1.3 will bring down the receivers with 1.1/1.2 considerably.