AV Receiver Reviews

User Interface
The onscreen display (OSD) is, to put it bluntly, old, tired, and boring. It's the same text-based menu design and structure that Pioneer AVRs (as well as those from most other manufacturers) have used for years. A text menu isn't particularly offensive if you're only using it for the initial setup or making occasional adjustments. But if you need this menu to search through Internet radio stations, access music on a USB drive, or navigate an iPod, you want something that is more graphically appealing. Actually, the rather crude interface is not the best design for making advanced EQ adjustments, either. Hopefully, Pioneer is working on a more useful and pleasing graphical user interface (GUI), much like Sony has done in its newest AVRs by using its XrossMediaBar GUI originally developed for the PS3.

The remote control is visually busy with color-coding and several button groups, no doubt in an attempt to easily identify the appropriate control for the needed operation. For instance, a group of buttons at the bottom is associated with surround and EQ settings. Navigation buttons are arranged in a circle in the center of the remote with two rows of input buttons near the top. However, because several keys have multiple functions (requiring the use of a separate Shift key), the labeling is pretty small and there is no way to read it in the dark. You just have to learn by touch where the most common functions are located.

It's rare that I have to crack open the manual to learn controls on a remote, but when I wanted to go into the setup menu, nothing happened when I pressed the Menu button. It turned out that I had to press the Receiver button near the top, which then allowed the Menu button to become functional.

All four HDMI inputs are assigned to an input button labeled HDMI. You toggle through the four inputs with this single button, but you have to hold the Shift key at the same time. This action requires two hands because the HDMI button is near the top right of the remote while the Shift key is at the bottom left.

At first, this bothered me because it seemed the HDMI inputs were almost an afterthought. Fortunately, its super easy to reassign the HDMI inputs to existing buttons labeled for commonly used components (TV, DVD, BD, etc.). Not only can you go directly to the input you want, you don't have to remember which component is connected to which HDMI input.