I am in the market for a home theater system to go along with my 50" plasma TV. I have brothers and sisters with home theater systems that are so overengineered and complex that they usually have to mess with 3 different remotes for an average of 5 minutes before they can get their systems to work properly. I am fairly savvy with electronic components, but I have a 6 year old, a 5 year old, and an un-savvy wife. I promised her that I would purchase a system which would use only 1 remote FOR EVERYTHING. The kicker for this is that I only have $350 to spend on my home theater, and I don't want to spend $150 on a truly universal remote. The universal remote I got with my DVR cable box right now runs my TV, Stereo (which is hooked up to the TV), DVD/VCR and my cable box. Ideally I would like to use the same remote to run the surround receiver. The only things I want to do with my surround system is to turn it on and adjust the volume. Isn't it possible to set up a system that is controlled by the T.V.? In other words, hook up all my HDMI connections directly to the T.V. (DVR cable box, and ultimately Blu-Ray DVD) and run 1 optical digital out of the TV to the surround receiver? Does audio quality get sacrificed with this configuration?
I will put it very plain and simple. If you are looking for simple to operate, it does come at a price. If you have a set budget of only $350, you will probably are going to have to use more than one remote control for the whole system. As far as running all your HDMI cables to the tv, thats fine if you are using just the tv for audio and video. If you plan you use some type of home theater system, you must run separate audio cables from each component. The digital audio output of most tvs out there is for the ATSC tuner when using an outside antenna for local broadcast signals and wish to hear it in a digital format. No tv to my knowledge will take a digital audio signal from an HDMI cable and then pass it back out through either a optical or coax digital output. If you promised your family ease of operation, better save up so it really is. Your budget will not allow for everything you promised. Remote control programming for simple operation is one of my specialties but it does come at a price. Ask any professional installer or remote control programmer and they will tell you that the easier the remote operation of a complete surround sound system, the price does go up. I hope this helps out. Good Luck.
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