Yamaha Receiver - Questions

[Legend83]

Hi, I am the proud new (2nd-hand) owner of a Yamaha V-377 after my Onkyo HTX-22 HDX sadly kicked the can after 10 years of reliable service. The Onkyo only had so many buttons and functions, and I found it pretty easy to use given my A/V in-expertise.

With the Yamaha, there is a lot to take in. Setup is as follows:

Freeview Aerial Cable -> Panasonic Plasma
Yamaha HDMI Out <> PP HDMI In (ARC)
Yamaha HDMI In <- 4K Firestick
Yamaha HDMI In <- PS3

I get sound beautifully on all inputs but I have some questions I can't seem to solve myself:

1. Freeview TV on the PP requires me to hit "TV" input on the Panasonic remote, there does not seem to be a way to change to this input using the Yamaha remote. So if I hit HDMI1 on the Yamaha controller to watch the Firestick, I then have to pick up the Panny remote to switch back to terrestrial TV - a first world problem, but annoying to not be able to stick the Panny remote in a draw for good...

2. I have setup the speakers (2 x front, 1 x center, 2 x surround) using the clever auto setup using a microphone thing (YPAO). When I look at the various "sound options" I seemingly have "Straight" which mostly only outputs 2 channels (so the center is wasted), or I switch to a SURR option like Neo Cinema which brings the center in to play but then also outputs the surrounds...the surrounds are usually tucked away behind the sofa for normal TV viewing and brought out for films etc. Is it better to change the CONFIG to say no surrounds when I am watching like this? Or will I have to do YPAO again to account for it thinking I now only have 3 channels? Basically I don't want to lose power up front when the surrounds are not being used.

Any advice welcome...thanks in advance!!

[Mr Pointy]

I don't know the answer but try AVForums as well as here:

https://www.avforums.com/forums/

[Legend83]

Mr Pointy said:

I don't know the answer but try AVForums as well as here:

https://www.avforums.com/forums/

Thank you but I cross-posted direct from there . Often find I get a ton of views there but no replies (perhaps I am boring ), but we shall see.

[bigandclever]

Don't know if this is the answer, but can you tell the Yamaha remote it can control the telly? On my (different, it's an A1050) receiver it's Code Set, input the appropriate 4 digit code for the telly and then you can use the Input key to change the TV inputs.

[Legend83]

bigandclever said:

Don't know if this is the answer, but can you tell the Yamaha remote it can control the telly? On my (different, it's an A1050) receiver it's Code Set, input the appropriate 4 digit code for the telly and then you can use the Input key to change the TV inputs.

It's a good shout but no I don't think I can. The Yamaha remote doesn't have "change channel" buttons so don't think it's setup with this in mind.

I have HDMI control on which means I can just have one remote for the volume.

[anonymous-user]

On HDMI settings on the TV you should be able to get it to control the receiver (CEC) volume, inputs etc. You can then put the Yamaha remote to one side and forget about it.
Assuming it’s a smart TV, just use the apps on that, and the receiver will oblige. If you want to change the input, do it on the TV remote. This is how it works on my LG OLED. When setting up the receiver, set your speakers up automatically, then go into settings and make adjustments to distance, gain and whether they are small or full range etc. When listening to TV or music, use the “straight” setting and let it decide what speakers to use. Not all broadcasts will be surround so won’t use your centre speaker. You can set the amp to DD Surround Decode and it’ll always play through all your speakers, whether the source is 2.0 or 5.1

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 14th March 19:00

[Lucid_AV]

Legend83 said:

Hi, I am the proud new (2nd-hand) owner of a Yamaha V-377 after my Onkyo HTX-22 HDX sadly kicked the can after 10 years of reliable service. The Onkyo only had so many buttons and functions, and I found it pretty easy to use given my A/V in-expertise.

With the Yamaha, there is a lot to take in. Setup is as follows:

Freeview Aerial Cable -> Panasonic Plasma
Yamaha HDMI Out <> PP HDMI In (ARC)
Yamaha HDMI In <- 4K Firestick
Yamaha HDMI In <- PS3

I get sound beautifully on all inputs but I have some questions I can't seem to solve myself:

1. Freeview TV on the PP requires me to hit "TV" input on the Panasonic remote, there does not seem to be a way to change to this input using the Yamaha remote. So if I hit HDMI1 on the Yamaha controller to watch the Firestick, I then have to pick up the Panny remote to switch back to terrestrial TV - a first world problem, but annoying to not be able to stick the Panny remote in a draw for good...

2. I have setup the speakers (2 x front, 1 x center, 2 x surround) using the clever auto setup using a microphone thing (YPAO). When I look at the various "sound options" I seemingly have "Straight" which mostly only outputs 2 channels (so the center is wasted), or I switch to a SURR option like Neo Cinema which brings the center in to play but then also outputs the surrounds...the surrounds are usually tucked away behind the sofa for normal TV viewing and brought out for films etc. Is it better to change the CONFIG to say no surrounds when I am watching like this? Or will I have to do YPAO again to account for it thinking I now only have 3 channels? Basically I don't want to lose power up front when the surrounds are not being used.

Any advice welcome...thanks in advance!!

I've been a Yamaha user for 10-15 years.

TV: I have a Panasonic LED TV. My amp is an RX-A3070. I have just programmed the Yam remote to work the telly. When I press 'INPUT' I can scroll through a list. That list includes 'TV' which is the Freeview tuner. In my case, the TV input does just analogue and digital tuner. Your plasma may be different in two respects. First, pressing AV might only scroll through a list of the 'not-TV' inputs, if that makes sense. The second reason could be linked to this. Your plasma might include a Freesat as well as a Freeview tuner. Not being able to get to the Freeview tuner via the Yam remote is very likely then a TV limitation. Have a look through your user manual to see if the other tuner options can be excluded.

Sound formats and surround modes: The STRAIGHT setting makes the speakers play exactly the channel configuration of the source signal. If it's stereo then you'll get the left, the right and the sub if the main speakers are set to small. Where the source signal is DD in 5.1 then all of your speakers will work. Changing the audio processing to SUR.DECODE will light up all the speakers.

With a Freeview signal, they broadcast in stereo, or stereo with Dolby Surround, or - for the HD channels - when there's a film or new series on then you might get DD5.1 For the stereo and stereo with Dolby Surround, then use the Dolby ProLogic II Movie setting. When the source signal is DD5.1 then you don't need to do anything. The amp will detect the signal and engage DD processing.

So far, none of this addresses your issue though. What you're doing with the surround speakers - pulling them out or hiding them away - is a little unusual, but I think there is a facility on the amp that might help you with that. The feature is the SCENE menu. Have you looked at that?

SCENE gives you four memory slots. Each slot can remember a source and how you want the amp to treat the sound signal. This is perfect for what you need. You can set up two scene memories for the TV ARC input. One with the audio processing set to stereo, and then a second with the same input but this time with the audio processing set to SUR.DECODE.

Setting these scene memories is really easy. It's almost like taking a screen shot, but instead of what's on your phone, you're taking a snapshot of the settings of the amp. The scene memories have names rather than numbers. If I was in your shoes, I would set 'TV' as the one with stereo processing, then use BD/DVD for the setting with SUR.DECODE (in DLPII Movie).

Hope that helps.

[Legend83]

Thanks both that's really useful.

SCENE sounds like it will definitely help with issue 2 .