Haywood Gets a New Receiver

[Haywood]

Tonight, I will finish running the analog audio cable to the kitchen and get the IR repeaters set up so I can get that ugly little pyramid off the island. If I have time, I will also pull out the rack again, connect the linker directly to the Roku and the TV, so I can sniff EDID settings while playing back HDR content without the receiver in the signal path. That should give me the most accurate metadata for my HDMI inputs and allow me to finalize the settings on the Linker.

 

[Randy]

I'm basically just too stubborn to quit. I paid good money for this gear and I WILL make it work! I'm also learning a lot of useful stuff to add to the repertoire. I do not have a house where I can do a customer theater room, so I'm spending my time on things like media servers, media players, multi-room systems, home automation and so on. By the time I buy my own house, I will know everything needed to make it absolutely sick.

Ya Scott, that was my point exactly, I commend you on your persistence, but if they really want this stuff to be mainstream they have to make it more user friendly. I think I am a little more in the know than the average Joe and I wont do it. I also think it sucks that you have to hire a professional installer if you want to take advantage of the technology.

 

[Towen7]

I don't think the average Joe is worried about trying to split a single 4K HDR source between two rooms where one display is capable of displaying it and the other is not.

I think decent equipment is already very capable of doing what most people want/need.

 

[Haywood]

I don't think the average Joe is worried about trying to split a single 4K HDR source between two rooms where one display is capable of displaying it and the other is not.

I think decent equipment is already very capable of doing what most people want/need.

I do have a pretty specific use case with the display, but the rest of it is just clunky design. The receiver and remotes were much harder to set up than they should be. User-friendly is not a term I would use to describe the SR6010. Powerful? Sure. Flexible? Definitely. Easy to set up? Only to a point. Things get squirrely very quickly when you start playing with Zone 2, Bluetooth, AirPlay and Internet Radio. Even the Audyssey setup has some issues. I still had to go in and set the speakers to small, change the crossover points and tell it how I wanted the amps assigned (to avoid Zone 2 audio playing from the rear surrounds). This is NOT a receiver just anyone should buy.

 

[lulimet]

You're commitment to mirroring entertainment is commendable!!

He should have just bought a couple of Apple TVs and hook them up to each TV and Airplay live TV from his wife's iOS device.

 

[Towen7]

Things get squirrely very quickly when you start playing with Zone 2, Bluetooth, AirPlay and Internet Radio.

Even that, I think, are functions that the vast majority of buyers don't really care about. Except maybe Bluetooth. I'd bet a lot of money that 90% of people never use zone two and that 90% of those that do only use it for music.
But your challenges do beg a sort of chicken or egg question...

Do people not use those functions because they don't need them and thus the manufactures don't put a huge amount of effort into making them easy to use?

Or

Do people actually want those functions but don't bother because they're such a PITA to setup and use?

 

[Haywood]

I am officially DONE!

The remotes are set up. Zone 2 works. I'm getting the best possible video quality in both rooms. The Blu-Ray player issue will be fixed in an upcoming firmware update for the Linker. I got the Chromecast Audio setup and it works great and I found an app that will allow my wife to play the iTunes music on her phone over Google Cast. I am looking for some wood to knock on, but everything looks great right now.