I recently bought this A/V Receiver (which is probably similar to the other STR-DE models with lower numbers). I'm generally pleased with it (though the remote sucks).

For anyone with experience with this or simiar Sony receives, I have two questions:

Mystery Power On: for reasons that are completely baffling to me, the receiver will switch on all by itself (while all other components --TV, VCR, DVD, CD) are off). Anyone experienced this?

Soundfields: Sony's multitude of soundfields are very poorly described in the manual. Can anyone give me a general overview of the "Cinema A,B,C..." and the "Virtual Enhanced A, B, C..." ? I'm just trying to figure out which modes I'd ever use with my 5+1 speaker set up. (The music modes, like "Church", "Arena", etc I understand).

Thanks!

The Cinema Studio AB&C are sonys flagship DCS features for movie watching.

All are a representation of a particular Hollywood Theater owned by Sony.

A is for movies heavy on dialogue
B is for modern action/blockbuster movies
C is for movies with lots of singing and music

All are supposed to create 5 sets of 'virtual' surround speakers around the back (just like a cinema has).

The other 'Semi' & 'Virtual' functions are for people with onyl Front speakers and no surrounds - it creats a 'virtual' rear end fopr surround if you dont have the speakers back there.

Thanks, I had the same question.

Re the 'Mystery Power On' question: Check that your VCR does NOT have the 'Auto Clock Set' feature set to 'on' AND 'AUTO TIME CHANNEL FIND' set to on! I have a VCR with that feature AND the 'Cable Box Channel Changing' feature and every time I used the VCR, then shut the VCR power off, it would constantly search through the cable channels for the channel that transmitted the time info (usually PBS)! This is VERY annoying when you're trying to watch a cable channel. I found that even if I told the VCR which channel to find the time signal at, it would go there shortly after shutting the power off on the VCR, again changing the cable channel for me! If you do have such a VCR, try covering the window that sprays IR signals all over the room so that it can find your cable box. If the problem goes away, you found the cause. Good luck!