Well, in a modern world where your satellite/cable box, upscaling DVD player, games console or Blu-ray player might sport a HDMI connection, it will help you deal with three of them at once.

Setting up three HDMI devices gave us our first minor winge. This is an entry-level (ie. inexpensive) model, so that all important extra HDMI cable isn’t included as standard. So, even though you might already have a HDMI lead for your PS3, Sky HD and multi-region upscaling DVD player (we do), once they’re all plugged into the Onkyo receiver you’ll need an extra one to go from that box to the TV. Bummer.

So, what does your £250 buy you? Well, there are naturally 7.1-multichannel inputs, which deliver a very respectable 130 watts of power. However, the array of connections on an impressive back view of the box hides a very annoying fact: the Onkyo TX-SR506 does not accept audio signals via HDMI.

What you’ll need to do instead is pair each individual HDMI connection with an audio source using a different connection for each one. If you’re a novice at this stuff, then good luck - you really will wish you’d splashed out a bit more for a player that uses the sound from your HDMI connection. Otherwise, once you’ve worked around this problem it’s finally time for a test run.

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