Need Help Simplifying a System

bunnyville

Active SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Nov 22, 2005
20
0
Pasco, WA
Hi - I am trying to help get my boyfriend's 90-year old mom set up so she can have surround sound on while watching TV. We tried getting her a Harmony 650 remote but I couldn't get it configured properly, even with 2 hours on the phone with Logitech tech support.

She's got a Dish VIP211K receiver, LCD 55-inch LCD TV and LG Network-ready Blu-Ray Home Theater System. The current configuration is HDMI from Dish to TV, HDMI from HTS to TV and she uses the Dish remote to turn the TV and receiver on. Unfortunately, the setup she has now is way too complicated for her for just watching TV.

When I tried setting up the Harmony remote, it became very clear that the APIs they were getting from LG were out of date for the devices - the HTS screen at Logitechwas missing any inputs/codes for any of the internet/iPod/etc. inputs on the HTS. I had everything set up but it would only work the 1st time and then it wouldn't work right again, meaning that not all the devices would power down when I turned them off using the remote, or not all would come back on when I pressed "Watch TV" or the HTS would just shut down halfway through startup. I was on the phone with Logitech for over an hour and for what was supposed to be a 45-minute setup became a 4-hour adventure in frustration. They sent us an email about changing some inter-delay timing but that didn't do anything so we sent it back.

What I am wondering is (a) if this system can be set up to be used simply by a 90 year old woman, (b) if there is a Dish receiver with multiple HDMI inputs - I didn't see one on the website or (c) if we cand find a nice HD 1080p TV that has the speaker inputs directly on it that we could swap out for her. She doesn't really watch movies, and if she does, someone else who can manage the extra remotes is there to help (unless of course, we can simplify that process, too)

Thanks!!
Lori
 
Honestly the issue you are going to run into is the LG HTS. I would suggest just getting a cheap regular Yamaha HTS, a regular blue-ray player and that will make life sooo much easier. Run your a/v sources to the tv, then run either an optical audio cable or a set of red/white rca speaker cables from the tv to the receiver and call it a day.
 
Cool, Jonathan. I was thinking about finding a way to replace the TV with one that had speaker inputs, but I don't see any of those. I'm somewhat surprised by that because so many people aren't really into the whole component system thing. But I think you've hit on a good way to fix it. Thanks!!
 
Why are you running Dish to TV to HTS via hdmi? It should be Dish - HTS then TV. That way you are sending the surround sound directly to the HTS and only need to send the 1080i video to the TV.
 

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