I consider myself to be fairly confident with audio visual equipment and computers. I am consistently amazed at how complicated modern home equipment is to set up and operate. We have a TV, a disc player, a PS3 and all I wanted to do was to hear the surround sound than each is capable of producing via a set of 5 speakers and a sub-woofer. I found the Onkyo HT-S6305B product that sounded perfect for the job and tried to set it up yesterday but although the actual sound was amazing, it made the equipment so difficult to use that I had to give up and put it all back in the box.
It is supposed to have a universal remote controller which can be programmed to operate the TV and the disc player as well as the amp itself as well as numerous other components too. Sounds good but this universal remote means working out how to get from one thing to another which is impossible. If I can't work out how to do it, how will anyone else in the family work it out?
It is also supposed to have a feature that works for late night viewing. The main thing I was expecting was a reduction in output of the sub-woofer as it is this that thunders through the house and disturbs people who have already gone to bed. I switched this feature on, turned down the volume and the bass was still blasting out! The only way to get rid of it was to physically reach behind the sub-woofer and turn it down with the volume knob. I don't consider this to be the most sophisticated solution to late night TV viewing.
All of these items have hundreds of settings within their respective set-up menus which makes for millions of different combinations of settings to get right. I couldn't even just turn off the amp and rely on the TV volume for late night viewing because when you switch off the amp, it switches the TV off as well.
I'll probably end up having another stab at this another day but looks like having to leave printed instructions next to the TV so everyone can switch from one thing to another. Surely not necessary.
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