How can I best leverage existing AVRs/wiring/speakers for specific AV upgrade goals (detailed goals in post)

Tech Support

I’m looking for some advice/ideas regarding home entertainment setup. My main questions are:

  1. What’s a good universal remote suggestion for this set up?
  2. Do I need 1 or more new AVRs to do what I want below?

Goals

  • 1 universal remote per room - Living room, family room, bedroom
  • Use existing in wall wired surround speakers, including for streaming (Hulu, Netflix)
  • Enable gaming on Living room TV & use existing surround speakers
  • Minimize incremental cost

Summary

I am moving into a place that is pre-wired with a lot of equipment (see below info), although it’s all ~6-8 years old. Prior people spent a lot getting everything centrally wired back to a closet with a full size rack that has all equipment and wiring. There are centralized IR repeaters for each room to help power the universal remotes. They

Existing Equipment / Services

  • TVs:
    • Living Room: Samsung 75” Q80T (4K)
    • Family Room: Samsung 65” Q6F (4K)
    • Bedroom: Samsung 55” (forget model, older 1080p TV)
  • Wiring: Single HDMI through wall at each TV wired from the central AVRs - Wiring seems to be CAT (6 i think) for the distances with HDMI converters at each end [binary b-500-ext-230-rs]
  • Speakers: Kef T301 speakers - Living room and family room have 6 channels (3 front, 2 back, sub) + bedroom has 2 front + sub.
  • Receivers: NAD T748 - manual
    • These have 4 HDMI + 1 HDMI/arc out
  • Gaming: i will be wiring 2 more HDMI cables directly to the living room TV from Switch and PS4
  • Existing remotes: URC MX-980i (i want to get rid of these most likely) - manual
    • IR receivers are URC MRF-260i
  • Cable Boxes: Verizon Fios TV One boxes (1 main, 2 satellite boxes) - all are connected to COAX in the equipment closet
  • Other Equipment / notes:
    • Ethernet switch (D-Link DGS-3120-24TC) for wired ethernet throughout unit on central rack
    • Old apple TVs (need to replace, not 4K)
    • For anyone asking why Fios Cable - its embedded into my HOA so its sunk cost (i’m sadly a cord connector after cutting for years)

Current Thinking:

  • For Living room, the existing HDMI can use ARC to the receiver for audio out (e.g., when i’ve got PS4 on different HDMI input) and video in (Fios + Apple TV)
    • Need to confirm the NAD receivers can support this via single HDMI cable to TV
  • Buy 2 4K Apple TVs for 4K tv’s for streaming
  • Buy new universal remotes - e.g., SofaBaton

Thank you in advance for suggestions!

Posted Jul 1, 2021, 12:00 AM UTC

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