Recent content by xx Brian xx

With the AV closet too far from the TV to see what is on the screen, I decided to do something about it. I added a 7" monitor to the AV closet and looped it in from the AVPro HDMI extender. Now when I work in the closet, I can see what is playing in the main room and can see the receiver menu...

No, I don't have to use apps to control things. I did test the remote with the apps for a week but haven't used any since. I run RTI on the remote which is programmed to run everything. The remote will run in kiosk mode with automation programs like RTI or Crestron. I've been using the...

Why are you using the speaker in & out on the sub? You should be using the line level input on the sub from the sub out on the receiver. Then turn on sub in the receiver and set the front speakers to SMALL. Set the crossover in the receiver to 80hz and turn the crossover all the way up on the...

I wouldn't totally write off using an av dealer. Depending on how deep you want to get into whole home automation, you may need a dealer to program it. Also, Lutron Caseta is great bit it is limited. Lutron RadioRa3 can be programmed to do way more. With Ra3 you can use 4 button keypads and...

You just have to install a network switch at the locations where you have multiple devices that need to be networked.

If you hire a company to install your network, they will probably install Luxul, Araknis, Ruckus or Ubiquiti and they will charge you to monitor it. I recommend installing Ubiquiti access points yourself with the Ubiquiti Cloud Key and you can monitor it yourself. The Cloud Key will keep all...

You mentioned liking Marantz receivers, so you could run a Marantz in the main room and Heos amps in the other zones. This way you can link all the zones for music or play what's on the TV to the other areas. If you don't want to be tied to an av dealer, you could install Lutron Caseta...

Do you want this to be self installed? Do you want touch panels around the home? You can get a Yamaha receiver in the main room for surround sound and then the Yamaha XDA-QS5400 quad streamer for 4 other zones. You can run the MusicCast system from a smart phone or tablet. If you want to go...

Are you going to listen to music with the streaming service in the receiver? I would check out demo's for Heos and MusicCast. I really like my Marantz receiver but avoid Heos because I don't care for how it works. In my opinion, MusicCast from Yamaha is easier to use. I dislike Heos enough...

Here is the remote. I had to break it into 2 parts to upload it. I really like the remote, I've been using it all week and have no big complaints.

I've seen quite a few Yamaha's have weird issues when they don't fully complete an update. Leave the receiver on and then unplug it. This will force it to do a hard reload and will complete the update if that is the issue.

I scored one of the original remotes last week. It's a little smaller than I thought it would be but looks really good. Programming was straight forward and easy to get going. I added the remote to my RTI programming and downloaded the app on the remote. It works very well with RTI. It does...

Their first remote had no physical buttons, it was pretty much just an Android tablet in the shape of a remote. It can be programmed in Kiosk mode where it's locked down to one program. Which means it can be setup as a remote for Creston, Savant, RTI or Elan. The one thing it won't do, is run...

They also will have the "Nano Brain" that will basically be like the Harmony Hub for $399. So that means if you want to make it comparable to the Harmony Elite with remote and hub, this setup will set you back almost $1700.