To adress a few points mentioned earlier:
"Number of Video Inputs: 3"
Sort of true. It only has options for DVD, DBS, VCR, and TV. I have HDMI 1 as DVD, HDMI 2 as VCR, and Svideo in as DBS. But you can trick it by using 2 more analog inputs for the DVD and VCR selections. You would then switch between them. For example: have it set to "DVD", with "digital" video input, for watching DVDs over HDMI. Keep it set on "DVD" but switch to "analog" video input, to access a Wii over component cables. So you basically get 1 HDMI and 1 analog video input for the "DVD" input, and same thing for "VCR". so that makes total of 2 HDMI ins and 3 analog ins. Kind of a hassle but workable.
Hate to pile on bad reviews, but I hooked this receiver up to my Mirage nanosat system because a friend challenged my spending $400 for the Pioneer 1018. It sucked feet. Had to crank it around 7 o'clock to get any decent volume out of it and it ran very, very hot. Beware of the quality associated with the low price. If you can take the chance, not a bad price at all. Re: upconversion -- no one could tell any difference bt this and SD piping into my LNa630.
All digital amps tend to run hot, however mine never gets too hot to touch, and is really fairly equal to analog units I've owned from Marantz and Denon. I would only consider this an issue if it was going into a cabinet with no ventilation.
Mine gets plenty loud, and did not put up a fuss even when I used some 4ohm Onix Reference 1 speakers (the JVC is technically only rated to 6ohms).
As far as upconversion: What this unit has is a de-interlacer chip (DCDi by Faroudja, was pretty high end a while back). It de-interlaces 480i material so you end up with 480P with less jaggies. This process only works in conjunction with the analog to digital conversion process. Bottom line: you feed it 480i via composite, Svideo, or component, you will end up with a 480P signal via HDMI. I do notice it cleans up a standard Dish network signal quite a bit. On the other hand, it occasionally makes strange artifacts across the whole screen, every 10-20 minutes or so. I have read that many of these have issues with the upconversion process, so I wouldn't but counting on that feature alone.
I sometimes have HDMI handshake issues between this and my Samsung BD-P1200 Blu-ray player. I'm not sure which is at fault, but I end up with 2 channel audio instead of surround. I simply turn off the JVC and turn it right back on, and it fixes the problem. Many early HDMI units have funny quirks like that.
Overall I think this is a great unit. It sounds better than many receivers I've used costing much more. It is not without it's faults, but a great budget buy.