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>> Hi, I'm John Falcone, senior editor at CNET.com and this is the Sony STRDA5200ES. It's the top AV receiver in Sony's line up this year. And it offers a lot of the high end features we expect in such a flagship model. Among them are plenty of HD inputs including three HDMI inputs and three component video inputs. Its XM ready. And it's also multi room, multi source and has an RS232 port for advanced home installation applications. In addition to all those features that we expect in such a high end receiver such as this one, the 5200ES is also the first receiver we've seen that has a very elaborate graphical onscreen user interface. What that means is it's a lot easier to set up and access some of the functions than we've seen in receivers up to this point. Interestingly the interface that Sony's used on the screen is reminiscent of the cross media bar that's found on the Playstation 3 and the PSP. The graphical user interface is particularly useful during the set up process. And it helps you do things from as simple as setting up the AM FM and XM satellite radio stations. A few things that would be a lot more convoluted on other receivers, such as setting the AV inputs, assigning the correct digital or analog audio to that input. And naming that input. Another frustration with this unit was the remote that they included. As good as the on screen interface was, the remote is a lot more standard and just a lot more average than you'd expect with such an advanced receiver. I'm John Falcone for CNET and this is the Sony STRDA5200ES.
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