Stay away from this receiver's optical digital input

Based in part on reviews I read here, I purchased the Sherwood 6500 receiver to pass audio from my plasma TV to my surround sound speakers. The first unit died within 24 hours. Turn power on and within seconds power was turned off by the receiver. Back to Circuit City for another unit.

The second unit powered up fine, but would not process the signal from the TV using the receiver's optical digital cable input. A call to Sherwood's technical assistance confirmed that this function will not work coming from the TV. A call to the TV manufacturer's technical assistance resulted in another call to Sherwood who said that using the optical digital cable with their receiver to receive sounds from the TV was impossible.

Now it's back to Circuit City to get another receiver, but this time not a Sherwood!