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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2019
I recently purchased this kit to replace a problematic LG BH9431PW. The LG claimed to support Dolby Digital Plus, but would not decode the new encoding from the Roku Amazon or Netflix channels. The Yamaha receiver in this kit handles the DD+ output from the Amazon and Netflix channels wonderfully.
In case anyone is wondering, the AV Receiver included in this kit is the RX-V385.
Some highlights so far compared to the previous LG BH9431PW:
* Full Dolby Digital Plus support!
Woohoo! I am now getting Dolby 5.1 output from my Amazon and Netflix channels. This was the number one reason for purchasing this unit.
* The receiver allows direct navigation to any of the inputs:
We use a Logitech Harmony 650 universal remote to map all of our devices, and the LG forced it to cycle through the inputs. This meant that, to go from our ROKU on HDMI2 to the DVR on HDMI1, the remote had to cycle forward through the other inputs like the optical, tuner, USB, and bluetooth to get back to HDMI1. This not only meant waiting a long time with the remote pointed at the equipment, but also tended to be prone to failure if the bluetooth scanning took too long. With the new Yamaha receiver, the remote is able to quickly switch between HDMI2 and HDMI3 with no delays or errors.
* The speakers use standard wire connectors.
The LG had a weird, proprietary connection plug and wiring scheme, so the old speakers could not be easily re-used with a different receiver (which is what forced me into buying a complete home theater system vs just upgrading the receiver).
* The auto-speaker setup was nice.
The unit comes with a microphone that can be hooked up to help balance the speakers for your particular viewing arrangement. The setup program not only validates the functionality and wiring of the speakers, but will calculate the relative distances from the speaker to the viewing location to help balance the volumes of each speaker.
* Volume trimming between inputs.
Related to speaker balancing, the unit will also let you decrease/increase the volume a bit between inputs. This is a handy feature since our DVR volume tended to be a bit softer than our ROKU, and the tuner would blow us out of the room. We now have the relative volume between the inputs a little closer to each other.
* Powered Subwoofer.
The subwoofer seems to have a bit more punch than my previous setup.
Things that could be better:
* Wireless surround connection.
My old LG surround speaker setup had a wireless connection between the main unit and a satellite surround base unit. The new Yamaha forced me to run long speaker cables to the back of the room. A pain, but at least I no longer have to run power back to that location.
In case anyone is wondering, the AV Receiver included in this kit is the RX-V385.
Some highlights so far compared to the previous LG BH9431PW:
* Full Dolby Digital Plus support!
Woohoo! I am now getting Dolby 5.1 output from my Amazon and Netflix channels. This was the number one reason for purchasing this unit.
* The receiver allows direct navigation to any of the inputs:
We use a Logitech Harmony 650 universal remote to map all of our devices, and the LG forced it to cycle through the inputs. This meant that, to go from our ROKU on HDMI2 to the DVR on HDMI1, the remote had to cycle forward through the other inputs like the optical, tuner, USB, and bluetooth to get back to HDMI1. This not only meant waiting a long time with the remote pointed at the equipment, but also tended to be prone to failure if the bluetooth scanning took too long. With the new Yamaha receiver, the remote is able to quickly switch between HDMI2 and HDMI3 with no delays or errors.
* The speakers use standard wire connectors.
The LG had a weird, proprietary connection plug and wiring scheme, so the old speakers could not be easily re-used with a different receiver (which is what forced me into buying a complete home theater system vs just upgrading the receiver).
* The auto-speaker setup was nice.
The unit comes with a microphone that can be hooked up to help balance the speakers for your particular viewing arrangement. The setup program not only validates the functionality and wiring of the speakers, but will calculate the relative distances from the speaker to the viewing location to help balance the volumes of each speaker.
* Volume trimming between inputs.
Related to speaker balancing, the unit will also let you decrease/increase the volume a bit between inputs. This is a handy feature since our DVR volume tended to be a bit softer than our ROKU, and the tuner would blow us out of the room. We now have the relative volume between the inputs a little closer to each other.
* Powered Subwoofer.
The subwoofer seems to have a bit more punch than my previous setup.
Things that could be better:
* Wireless surround connection.
My old LG surround speaker setup had a wireless connection between the main unit and a satellite surround base unit. The new Yamaha forced me to run long speaker cables to the back of the room. A pain, but at least I no longer have to run power back to that location.
