Is it worth getting a 7.1 home theater system?

[Driver_King]

Originally Posted by fighthefutureofhd

but you could use something else other than hdmi and get hd audio? one would think so if hdmi is the only problem.

Yes, you could use optical to get 2.0 uncompressed PCM and you can use analog outs on a compatible player and receiver to receive HD audio.

Originally Posted by mustang-gt-2002

I had a 5.1 pioneer reciever that died. then went to a 6.1 YAMAHA reciever. now I have a 7.2 YAMAHA 663 reciever. I would have kept the 6.1 but it didn't have HDMI's. I even would have taken a 5.1 YAMAHA with HDMI's being that there is not that many 7.1 Blu-ray's for me. 5.1 would have been fine.

I don't quite understand what you're saying. You would rather have a 5.1 receiver of the same quality or lesser quality over your 663 7.2 receiver? Many receivers and many speakers have the option of bi-amping the front speakers in place of the back surround so you get an even better 5.1 or 5.2 system (or 5.4 or whatever you want to call it) so I'm a little confused there.