The Yamaha manual sucks, that’s for sure. Unfortunately, the 3808 manual sucks even more. You’re screwed on that account……. The only manuals that I’ve found useful are HK’s. But HK’s suck in general any more, so that’s a mute point.
The 661 is very limited to user set up. The 3808 set up options are nearly limitless. The 3808 will drive you nuts at first. It could even take a trip out the window if you drink espresso while trying to figure it out. But, after you figure it out (possibly never fully figure it out), you will soon realize just how nice it is to have very little restrictions to how you want to set up everything.
HDMI 1.2a verses 1.3 is an old and tiring debate. The only ‘real’ advantage of 1.3 over the previous version is as John said…… HD codec decoding in the AVR verses the source. Whether one is better than the other is a ridiculous debate as far as I’m concerned. It also supports deep color, but I seriously doubt I’ll ever see a disk or source with deep color in my lifetime. The different power output of the two is significant. However, it’s doubtful you will ever need more than what the 661 can output. If you do, you should probably have your hearing evaluated. The 3808 just works. I’ve had no problems with it at all. The only thing it will not support is 48 hz video. This should not be an issue for the majority of users and only for those of us who use an external video processor that convert 24fps to 48.
And by the way, I don't "break things". I just demand that they work the way they are supposed to work. I'm also unlucky. Murphy likes me for some reason or other. It may be that he has no friends and has decided to stick to my side because I have grown used to him being around and tolerate the bastard.
