Summary
A home theater system typically includes a stereo receiver / amplifier in addition to the standard components like a Samsung Smart TV, a cable TV tuner, a Blue-ray or DVD player, and perhaps an LP record player. This guide describes how to use such a system, starting with some basic common tasks.
The Remote Controllers
Below is a photo of common controllers for an Onkyo stereo receiver, a Samsung smart TV, and a Mediacom cable TV controller.
Watching TV
Follow these instructions to watch television.
- Turn on the Onkyo receiver by pressing the power button in the top left. If it is already on, skip this step.
- Using the Onkyo remote control, select TV as the audio source by pressing the TV button in the third row of rectangular buttons from the top.
- Using the Onkyo remote control, set the listening mode to Stereo or Music using the buttons on the bottom of the remote. Some of the other audio settings may not sound right if you do not have a full set of 5 or 7 home theater speakers.
- The Samsung TV should already be turned on. If it isn’t, press the power button in the top left of the Samsung controller.
- SOURCE — You will want to select the video source to be displayed on the Samsung smart TV. To do this, press the Source button in the top middle of the Samsung remote.
- You will see several options available as sources of video. Note that Samsung televisions will have TV listed as a source, but this refers to the Samsung streaming TV service. So, ignore that option. You will be selecting from among the HDMI inputs to select your cable tuner box, the Blue-ray player, or some other video source. In this case, the cable tuner box is probably on HDMI 1, but you can determine this by seeing what these different HDMI inputs provide.
- The Mediacom controller can be used to change channels, adjust volume, look at the channel viewing guide, and some other functions.
- If you’ve completed these steps, then you should be able to watch cable tv channels and control the volume.
Other Activities
The above steps work for other activities, but instead you will choose the video source you prefer.
