New Sony ES receivers stream HD video over Ethernet

Audiovisual receivers act as the control center of a home theater, and over the past few years they've become increasingly complicated, adding features such as video switching, HDMI upconversion, and even media streaming to the standard task of amplification. Sony's ES line of receivers have been on the cutting edge lately, and the company's two new receivers--the STR-DA5400ES and STR-DA6400ES--both add the capability to stream HD video to a second room over a category 5e (Ethernet) connection. In addition, STR-DA6400ES will also offer up more traditional media capabilities, including streaming media from DLNA-compatible devices as well as access to the Rhapsody streaming music service. Sony hasn't released a full specification sheet on either receiver yet, but let's take a quick look at what we know so far.

Sony STR-DA5400ES

Key features of the Sony STR-DA5400ES:

• 120 watts per channel
• Six HDMI inputs and two HDMI outputs
• CAT5e output can transmit HD video to a second zone
• Dual Faroudja DCDi video processing chips; capable of scaling video to a second room
• Onboard Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding
• XM and Sirius ready
• Available in September, with a list price of $2,000

Sony STR-DA6400ES

Key features of the Sony STR-DA6400ES

• DLNA compliant, can stream media from other DNLA compliant sources
• Can access Rhapsody and Shoutcast Internet radio stations
• Upgradeable firmware over Ethernet
• Available in October, with a list price of $2,500

Sony and Denon have been in an arms race with their high-end AV receivers, and these new ES receivers look to move the bar up another notch. The capability to send HD video to a second room over CAT5e is attractive, especially considering that CAT5e cabling is cheaper than running HDMI and easier to work with. You will, however, need to buy an adapter--sold separately for $130--to convert Ethernet to component video. But even if you don't take advantage of the multiroom features, there are more incremental improvements such as overlay of the graphical user interface on 1080p signals and the addition of music services like Rhapsody that are welcome as well.

Our biggest worry is that with all these new features, AV receivers are getting very complex and difficult to configure for the average person. While we were generally been happy with the setup and interface on last year's STR-DA5300ES, we did feel that Denon's AVR-3808CI was difficult to use because of how many features and options it had. That being said, we're eager to get our hands on these receivers and see how they hold up to hands-on testing.

Editors' note: This post has been edited since publication to correctly state that sending video over Ethernet requires an adapter sold sepately, rather than another AV receiver.