Making my system family friendly

[Jaimo]

My setup is perfectly fine for my personal use but my family finds it very difficult to use when I am not home. I have considered writing up a mini manual on how to watch Amazon Prime, Netflix etc but figured I'd pose the question to the group first...

What can I do to make it easy for a non tech person to watch a movie or play a record?

 

[Purité Audio]

Leave everything on, preamp set to TV and show them which is the input for the T`T.
Keith

 

[staticV3]

Exactly which Visio TV do you have?

 

[DMill]

View attachment 329155

My setup is perfectly fine for my personal use but my family finds it very difficult to use when I am not home. I have considered writing up a mini manual on how to watch Amazon Prime, Netflix etc but figured I'd pose the question to the group first...

What can I do to make it easy for a non tech person to watch a movie or play a record?

I love this question. I recently installed a new TV in my family room and have to learn a number of new things again. Application passwords and sound settings to the receiver all are enough different to cause me to suffer every time I play something two days later. That said, I have been able to default to having the sound system work with the TV in a very basic profile without too much hassle. Set up something easy and go from there.

 

[Timcognito]

Buy a internet/streaming ready AVR, NAS and dump that other stuff.

 

[MCH]

I would buy a tv that has Netflix and Amazon prime apps built in.

For the rest of the setup, my experience is: if they have interest, they will learn. If they don't learn, they are not interested. My 10 year old only learned one thing: to switch the audio set up off when I leave it on. And I didn't need to explain it to him.

 

[RayDunzl]

Here, if the TV comes on, the audio system switches to TV.

If the TV is off, the audio system switches to the local non-commercial Classical FM, WSMR..

If that doesn't work, a power glitch has glitched one of the devices in the chain, and it sometimes even takes me a while to figure it out.

She knows how to get sound from the TV with the TV remote, and and how to mute the audio system if needed, and that's good enough..

 

[Chrispy]

Even a Harmony remote with good macro setup can still trip up the family. Maybe add a soundbar to the tv just for them....

 

[AaronJ]

Consider replacing the Topping preamp with a Parasound 200 Pre. The Parasound has a bypass input specifically for AVR use, but the beauty of the way it is implemented is it is automatically selected when the unit is turned off. So if you're not home, and your system is off, it will automatically work for the TV. Unplug everything from the Topping EX5, and instead run the TV optical out to the DAC, then into the bypass input on the 200 Pre. All your digital sources sending signal to the TV will then automatically go to the speakers as long as the preamp is off, and all your family will need to do is to select the source. If anybody wants to listen to a turntable then they need to turn the preamp on and select the proper input (this may be automatic if it was last on this input before it was turned off).

I can understand if this isn't your preferred solution because you may want to run Tidal directly from the Mac Mini to the preamp and bypass the TV, but you could also accomplish that by simply running that additional USB to the 200 Pre and just turn it on and select the input to listen. This would effectively cut the input from the TV, but you could still use it as a display if you wish.

And for a lot less money you could also get the Parasound Zpre3 which does the same things without the digital inputs. This might even be more useful to you to not pay for all the DAC circuitry that you might not need.

 

[pseudoid]

Even a Harmony remote with good macro setup can still trip up the family.

I was going to suggest a proper unifying remote like the Logitech Harmony [no longer manufactured, I think] but you just ruined it!
@Jaimo: There are a few RC related links here at ASR, but I think you may wish to find one that can do 'macros' to have harmony in the family/house.

Your Vizio should have more than one single HDMI interface, that may enable you to remove the HDMI switch from your connectivity diagram.
You may be able to get the audio from the Vizio's optical (or maybe even RCA analog) outputs, since you don't seem to be employing an AVR that can handle extracting the audio from the Vizio HDMI.
Can you just make multiple print-outs of your connectivity diagram and highlight each page with red lines to show connectivity for each audio/video changes that are needed?

 

[Dunring]

View attachment 329155

My setup is perfectly fine for my personal use but my family finds it very difficult to use when I am not home. I have considered writing up a mini manual on how to watch Amazon Prime, Netflix etc but figured I'd pose the question to the group first...

What can I do to make it easy for a non tech person to watch a movie or play a record?

I'd get a Firetv stick or cube and plug into the other HDMI port and have that remote keyed to it. When you hit home it turns on the TV and uses the TV speakers. I have family that are not technical and it's the only thing simple enough to work for them. Different profiles make it easy for each to customize it.

 

[GXAlan]

This is where ARC/HDMI-CEC comes into play. I would get an older AV processor with an analog bypass. Your family will be fine with even a low SINAD mode for TV content and then the analog bypass lets you use your fancy DAC.

If you have the budget, a good Dirac processor that is pre-Atmos can be affordable too.

 

[Trouble Maker]

Why is the HDMI switch even there?
That part seems unnecessarily complicated.
Just run all of the HDMI straight into the TV. The family can just use the TV speakers.
Like someone else said, if TV speakers not aren't good enough, get a sound bar.

 

[Rednaxela]

Eventually it’s box count box count box count.

There’s lots of old tech and duplicate functionalities in your system.

I count two, maybe three, maybe even four streaming sources. Cut that back to one. Get rid of vinyl, Blu-ray, and CD playback. There’s three Topping devices - why? A Mac Mini is a fine computer but as an audio/video source it’s too complicated for the uninitiated. Work towards having one, max two remotes.

Etc.

Hope this helps.

 

[pseudoid]

imo: It is a terrible idea to suggest using the TV's sardine-cans - or even a soundbar - as substitute(s) for speakers.
[Don't 86 me, I will walk out on my own!]

 

[Galliardist]

I think I would replace all of the amplification and the computer with an all in one box - maybe an AVR that can handle all your apps in the same place. (I don't know enough to recommend one).

 

[Berwhale]

I don't think your setup will ever be family friendly. I would buy a decent soundbar and let them use that with the TV - especially if you can find one with smart features...

Recently, I bought a Roku Streambar for the TV in the bedroom which is an old LG 32" FHD, with no ARC (so I had to connect the sound bar using HDMI and optical). The Streambar works very well and sounds quite decent for it's size (it's only 14" wide). I have mounted the Streambar to the bottom of the TV (which is mounted on the wall).

Being a Roku device, it has a lot of smart features built-in...

For TV, I use the HDHomeRun app (I have a terrestrial TV HDHomeRun box in the attic) plus the various on-demand players for the UK (BBC iPlayer, etc.)

For streaming, I use Netflix, Amazon and Spotify apps.

For local content, I use the Plex app.

Everything (incl. TV) is controlled from the Roku voice remote. I paid £60 ($75) for the Roku Streambar

 

[Middle Earth]

+1 on a sound bar for the family that is divorced from your audio system
+1 on the Roku
My audio is for me in my space
My family does not give a rat’s arse about audio beyond a soundbar and a subwoffer
I respect that, and I don’t watch TV except when they want to watch a move or bing watch something
There would be zero TV if it was left up to me but I want to be part of a family not the dictator of how the family lives day to day
BTW, I like your set-up…nice work on that

 

[JohnnyAudio]

My family said my music sucks so I moved to the other house.

 

[Rednaxela]

The crowded one?