Quite a bit of inaccurate information in the other "reviews". First of all, this IS a HD Receiver...always was, always will be. The problem is that DirecTV stopped transmitting HD channels in the format (MPEG2) that this receiver can handle 1-2 years ago. They replaced their signals with MPEG4 which requires a different receiver (and dish) So, its not that it can't receive HD, its that there is no longer HD material from DirecTV for it to handle. However, you CAN STILL receive HD channels from your local broadcasters by using a suitable antenna. This is known as OTA (Over The Air). Also, as an aside, early versions of this receiver had problems with bad HDMI ports.