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Comment by al_borland | Hacker News Reader

This is one of the things that kept me from getting a proper home theater setup. It always seemed like more complexity than I wanted under my TV. I could do it, but I simply objected to the idea. Not to mention, I like for someone to be able to come to my house and use my TV without taking a class first.

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Yes, definitely had that experience growing up of going over to someone's house and being unable to operate the very complex tower of black boxes. Could not agree more.

> It always seemed like more complexity than I wanted under my TV.

the receiver doesn't need to be under the TV. it can sit in a basement. the question is if you really want to have proper sound or it's only a nice to have.

> use my TV without taking a class first

this is not an issue at all. HDMI ARC handles this.

I got one recently for a room that was already wired with speakers, and man the ability to control the volume on Apple TV remote app on your phone is amazing. For whatever reason none of my other Apple TV's will allow that (could be the tv's fault, but obviously somewhere along the line they at least expect a speaker bar). I'm sure it's a fault of the HDMI spec somewhere that you can't easily change the volume on the tv itself but you can on downstream devices.

I have an AppleTV on 2 different TVs and it works to change the volume on both of them.

Sometimes it stops working, but a reboot of the remote fixes it. The idea that I need to reboot a remote hurts my soul a little, but at least it works. Hold the TV and Volume Down buttons until the LED on the Apple TV turns off. Wait a bit and you’ll see a notice that it disconnects. Wait a while longer and press a button (volume seems safest) and it will connect again.

There are also some settings around the remote and volume. It can be set to use HDMI, the TV’s IR, and there is a learn option. The TV I’m currently on is using the IR direct to the TV… I guess this is why it doesn’t work when I try to use the app, but I almost never use that anyway.

The difference is with the app. With the Apple Remote it works fine, but in the app it only works with HDMI magic (I'm sure some tv's allow you to use the HDMI magic with no sound bar / receiver)

I have a somewhat cheap Denon for 5.1 audio and after the initial sound setup, I've never needed to touch the settings other for adjusting the subwoofer volume. It's mostly Apple TV -> AVR -> TV, but I got other inputs like a PS4 and a PC for music. And it has Airplay, Bluetooth and Spotify Connect for anyone that wants to play from their phone.

There's no need for a super-complicated setup for good sound.

When non-tech people(ie my folks) set one up, you end up with the 3 remote thing for a cable box, receiver, and streaming stuff. It's real wild - I just let them turn stuff on when I'm over there.

I do audio work but they took my brothers recommendation on the home theater so I'm a bit 'you made your bed' about it haha.

It's three remotes (TV, Apple box, AVR), but if you setup HDMI-CEC, it quickly becomes one (the Apple box). It's not like you're fiddling with the others' settings every day.

That sounds well set up. My mom's flaw is she's actually good at troubleshooting and tech so finds the weird solutions instead of addressing the actual problem lol

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