Wifi in AV Receiver

[sonics]

I am shopping around for building HT and my question is on AV Receivers.

I see all the latest (and expensive ones) AV Receivers come with built in bluetooth and Wifi. Since I am on a budget I was considering Pioneer VSX-531 which does not have Wifi. Do I really need Wifi? My Sony TV has wifi and I can watch online content like youtube etc with it and also I use DLNA server to stream content on it. Having AV Receiver with wifi going to help me with same?

Please help me decide.

 

[regeHA]

I am shopping around for building HT and my question is on AV Receivers.

I see all the latest (and expensive ones) AV Receivers come with built in bluetooth and Wifi. Since I am on a budget I was considering Pioneer VSX-531 which does not have Wifi. Do I really need Wifi? My Sony TV has wifi and I can watch online content like youtube etc with it and also I use DLNA server to stream content on it. Having AV Receiver with wifi going to help me with same?

Please help me decide.

WiFi will always help. Also, most of us need an AVR always... the TV speakers are extremely limited.

But there are workarounds like using Chromecast, Chromecast Audio, Roku, Amazon Fire, etc. In fact most of these smart sticks are smarter than smart TVs and get more frequent updates in addition to handling a ton of apps and channels.

A lot will depend on your eventual setup... are you planning to have media streaming, HTPC, Chromecast, Roku, Kodi, Plex, etc.? This is where the real need for WiFi, streaming, ethernet, etc. comes in. If its just TV via STB and AVR then WiFi should not be a requirement.

Or you can simply purpose a PC as HTPC and plug into the AVR via HDMI.

 

[Appys]

I don't think an AVR needs wifi, no one in India uses spotify in their avr directly, wifi can be used by connected devices well enough for playback, bluetooth I understand for streaming music, but imho let the device focus on the core job i.e. sound processing or e.g video for tvs. For all your streaming needs look to a simple device like pi as a htpc and enjoy. If you ask me after 3 years now much smartness of my smart tv i actually used answer would be less than 6% of the on time. So if you don't have the budget don't regret that you don't have a wifi avr.

 

[rahuln]

One of the key usage of Wi-Fi for me is using an app to control the device. This is for various reasons like multi room audio, AVR not placed in line of sight or kids not turning off the movie. The last one I use very often [emoji3]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sonics]

WiFi will always help. Also, most of us need an AVR always... the TV speakers are extremely limited.

But there are workarounds like using Chromecast, Chromecast Audio, Roku, Amazon Fire, etc. In fact most of these smart sticks are smarter than smart TVs and get more frequent updates in addition to handling a ton of apps and channels.

A lot will depend on your eventual setup... are you planning to have media streaming, HTPC, Chromecast, Roku, Kodi, Plex, etc.? This is where the real need for WiFi, streaming, ethernet, etc. comes in. If its just TV via STB and AVR then WiFi should not be a requirement.

Or you can simply purpose a PC as HTPC and plug into the AVR via HDMI.

Thanks. I wouldn't need wifi per say but I would prefer to connect the receiver to WLNA server on my laptop to avoid connection using HDMI wire and stream. Would I need wifi feature of this to work? If not then can I have workaround like Chromecast to make this work?

 

[sonics]

I don't think an AVR needs wifi, no one in India uses spotify in their avr directly, wifi can be used by connected devices well enough for playback, bluetooth I understand for streaming music, but imho let the device focus on the core job i.e. sound processing or e.g video for tvs. For all your streaming needs look to a simple device like pi as a htpc and enjoy. If you ask me after 3 years now much smartness of my smart tv i actually used answer would be less than 6% of the on time. So if you don't have the budget don't regret that you don't have a wifi avr.

This has been my view so far, feel vindicated.

 

[elangoas]

Good to have.. When you are in no mood to switch on devices and change the songs, playback from mobile becomes very easy in addition to controlling the AVR thru app..

 

[efernand1]

Hi

If you are looking out for Wifi & Bluetooth features within budget, you would perhaps need to look at For Sale by Owner or Hi Fi Ads for some good deals which keep coming up....rates are quite reasonable. You can get an excellent AVR with the features at an affordable price.....that's your decision if you are open to pre owned...

There are AVRs in the market with the required features and they may cost above your intended budget.

 

[sonics]

Thanks everyone.. in the end I was able to stretch my budget and got Yamaha RX-V481. The decision was primarily to take care of my future needs, also I was inclined to buy Yamaha brand for AVR.