Originally Posted by MrBottomTooth

If you get yourself a universal remote it makes things even simpler. You have to program the remote, but once you get it setup it works great.

Press a button on your remote that says: "watch Blu-ray."

Your Blu-ray player turns on, your tv turns on and switches to the proper input, the receiver turns on and switches to the Blu-ray input. All with one button press. You also don't need to even point the remote at your equipment if you get one with a transmitter. You can be in a different room and turn shit on.

I have a computer, satellite receiver, cd changer and 15 video game consoles (I collect video games) all hooked into my Onkyo 818 receiver (had to add 3 extra video switchers because of all the consoles) and I can turn on almost anything with just one button press. Some of the older consoles obviously require one further step because you have to manually turn their power on and in some cases choose the correct button on the corresponding video switcher, but otherwise it makes things really simple.

I would hate to imagine trying to do that without a receiver and a universal remote. I have a drawer full of remotes that I don't have to use anymore.