JVC TH-G31

Sound fills a dorm room/entire hallway

Sound quality on this one is pretty good for the money, no port noise unless you play it very loud (as expected). Definitely gets the job done on the lows, they are very clean and low. I didn't have to buy any extra wire but i am in a ten by 12 room. The wire is thin (24 gauge). The dvd upscaling is pretty awesome when paired with a good lcd screen. There are 4 surround functions: play movie (louder out of center channel 5.1), play music (even volume all around 5.1) , play MTRX (haven't figured this one out yet =/ 5.1), and bypass (Front L and R and sub 2.1).
Because JVC didn't give Sonicelectronix any detailed pics of the back of the receiver/dvd player I will describe it here. **THERE IS ONLY ONE HDMI OUT PORT***, one component video (red, green and blue) out port, one yellow video out and of course 5 speaker and 1 subwoofer out. As for "in" ports there are four: an optical, component audio (red and white), a 35mm (normal headphone jack) on the front of the receiver and a fm transmitter port.
The reason i gave 3 stars on ease of use is because you cant change the surround function while playing a dvd, and the set up menu stops everything you're doing. The menu is also very basic but it gets the job done. i would have also liked more out and in ports, but that's me.
I would recommend this system for college kids who are on a tight budget. It has entirely too much wattage for a dorm room (isn't necessarily a bad thing for me =) but my neighbors don't talk to me much) but it will fit in nicely next semester when i get an apartment.

mislead

This system seemed to be ok when i got it. Sound was awesome; picture paired with high-def TV was great But; recently i went to enjoy my purchase (which i am not often able to do) & after about 10 minutes of play it just stopped. I could not believe that less than a year after purchase the unit would give problems when i seldomly use it. I am not pleased & it is very likely my next unit will not be a JVC model.