AV Receiver Reviews

The unsavory design of the STR-DA5800ES’s remote control is a casualty of the chimeric nature of the AVR. Sony, I’d guess, felt it needed to include a traditional-style remote control for those who don’t like activity-based onsceen GUIs. But really, one of the huge features of this AVR is the GUI and the simplicity of operation it provides. So you certainly could use the included remote to control the STR-DA5800ES as if it were any other feature-laden run-of-the-mill AVR, but you’d be stupid—or seriously masochistic—to do so. The good news is that once you embrace the activity-based scheme of operation, there’s a free ES Remote app (both iOS and Android) that’s slickly designed and super user-friendly. Since it uses your wireless home network to talk to the STR-DA5800ES, there are no additional dongles or proprietary communication devices to purchase. It also displays important info from the AVR for certain sources, such as what station the FM tuner is currently on, as well as something that’s entirely missing from any of the onscreen GUIs: the AVR’s current volume level. The only gripe I have about the ES Remote app is that the damn Home button is still directly below the Down cursor.

In one respect, the STR-DA5800ES is like a very clever universal remote control with lots of macros (or activities) built in that take care of turning equipment on/off, selecting the proper input, etc. The AVR isn’t clairvoyant, however, so you have to tell it what components are in the system, how they’re connected to the AVR, which of the four built-in IR blaster ports controls which component (Sony conveniently includes four IR blasters), and what various A/V parameters should be set for each input. Sony attempted to make this inevitably tedious setup process as painless as possible by incorporating an interview-style Easy Setup procedure in which you follow the onscreen prompts. If you’re used to programming universal remotes with detailed macros via your computer, you’ll find the experience akin to waiting in the grocery store checkout line while the 90-year-old lady in front of you slowly and deliberately handwrites a check. On the other hand, less advanced users will appreciate the technological hand-holding.

I Prefer Number Two
The process takes a little longer if the components you have aren’t in Sony’s IR code database. In that case, you have to patiently assist the STR-DA5800ES in Discovery mode while it spits out IR commands until it finds the ones that work for your particular component. In my situation, Sony didn’t have the codes for the Samsung PN50C8000 HDTV or the Oppo BDP-105 Blu-ray player in my system. Although Discovery mode worked for the Samsung, I had to go old school and individually teach the basic IR codes for the BDP-105 to the AVR by holding the Oppo’s remote 3 inches in front of the AVR’s front-panel IR receiver and repeatedly pressing buttons as instructed by the STR-DA5800ES.

There’s no way to overemphasize the importance of having the correct IR codes for your components programmed into the STR-DA5800ES because, in its native operating mode, that’s what the AVR uses to make the activity-based automated magic happen. Unfortunately—and unlike most programmable universal remotes—there’s no way to go back and reprogram a single IR command that might have been corrupted or mistakenly entered. Instead, you have to teach all the codes for that device to the STR-DA5800ES again. You can’t individually test commands in the learning mode, either, so you won’t discover a particular IR code doesn’t work until the system fails to respond the way it’s supposed to.

Once you’re past the Easy Setup and have the STR-DA5800ES responding as it should, it becomes, if not a total joy, at least a truly enjoyable experience. Pressing the Home button on the AVR’s IR remote fires up the AVR with your TV and presents an onscreen layout of activities, including Watch, Listen, Favorites, Lighting, Easy Automation, Sound Effects, and Settings. (If you’re using the ES Remote app, the Home screen appears on your phone/tablet. Nothing happens with the system until you select an activity.) Selecting Watch brings up a screen populated with icons for all of your available video components plus icons for access to DLNA devices on your network and streaming services. Likewise, Listen brings up the available options for audio sources, including Internet music streaming services, such as Pandora and Slacker. Easy Automation offers four choices of activities (Movie, Music, Party, and Night). Essentially, these are macros on steroids; each adjusts numerous system settings associated with that particular activity. Although they can’t be renamed, just about every other parameter within each Easy Automation option can be modified in one of the most unbelievably easy ways possible by saving a snapshot of the AVR’s configuration when you get it the way you want it. For example, my family watches the Dish Hopper with Sling in my system more often than any other activity. So all I had to do was Import Current Settings into Music after we finished watching a show on the DVR, and I was done. Now any time one of us presses the Easy Automation #2 button on the remote or the front of the AVR, the system wakes up and does just about everything except choose which episode of The Colbert Report we’re going to watch.

“Why button number two?” (I politely ask for you.) Two reasons. First, Sony only put buttons for #1 and #2 on the remote and on the AVR’s front panel. (To select #3 or #4, you have to go through the Home screen, which is slightly less easy.) Second, the tiny #2 button—the Easy Automation buttons are two of the smallest on the entire IR remote—is at the bottom right corner of the layout on the remote control, a placement that makes it easier to find than the button for #1.

Just ZigBee Yourself
While the automated control of an A/V system is magical, simultaneously interweaving control of the lights in your home theater room verges on the mystical. And that’s exactly what the ZigBee adapter dongle Sony includes with the STR-DA5800ES allows you to do. With the dongle plugged into the back of the AVR, you can create a network of Control4’s wireless outlet switches and dimmers all controlled by the AVR. Each $130 wireless outlet box includes two independently controllable AC outlets. You can control each individual outlet on up to 10 outlet boxes from either remote, but the real magic happens when you configure the four Easy Automation scenes to include lighting scenes that automatically adjust the light levels to your preferences for each activity. Obviously, this only gives you control over lights that can be plugged into an outlet. Lights operated by in-wall switches and dimmers are a different story.

And that story begins when you pony up the $300 it costs for the Control4 activation license. The actual cost for unlocking the incredible capabilities of the Control4 controller built inside the STR-DA5800ES will be a bit more, though, since there’ll be some labor dollars involved for the authorized dealer who does the automation programming. This’ll vary, of course, depending on the scope and nature of what you’d like to automate. While $300 is a lot of money, especially after spending $2,100 on the AVR, the power an activation license unleashes is jaw-dropping, allowing your installer to give you access to other Control4 peripheral components and functions that let you control lights and shades, set timers and schedules, lock and unlock doors, and create media scenes. It’ll even send you an e-mail telling you if a specified event happens (a door is opened or the system is turned on) while you’re away. Once activated, the system will also respond to one of Control4’s handheld remotes, which have much better button layouts, or the company’s handheld and in-wall touchscreens. And, with Control4’s Composer Home Edition software, you can do some of the system programming on your own.

By the time you read this, HouseLogix’s VoicePod could be available. It’ll let you ditch the remotes and touchscreens altogether and control the STR-DA5800ES (and, by extension, the other things under its control) by talking to it. Unlike other voice recognition devices in the past, the beta VoicePod unit I have at the moment is absolutely astounding in how well it works.

By itself, the STR-DA5800ES is designed to handle a one- or two-room system and is very close in overall capabilities to Control4’s HC-250 controller. The controller in the AVR doesn’t support IP cameras, and it requires the addition of a Control4 IO Extender in order to use serial communication for control of some components. But the STR-DA5800ES doesn’t stop there. Once activated, it can be incorporated as a secondary controller in a larger whole-home Control4 system. Once you’ve done that, there’s very little in the way of home automation that you can’t do.

Conclusion
A secondary definition of chimera is a thing that is wished or hoped for but, in fact, is illusory or impossible to have or achieve. Sony took a big gamble bringing out the STR-DA5800ES. It would have been a chimera either way—an amazing piece of gear that combined the elements of multiple components. But Sony figured out a way to take an excellent AVR, soup it up with extra connectivity, add a healthy dose of system (and lighting) control capabilities, and put it under the control of an easy-to-use activity-based GUI. Straight out of the box, it’s a fantastic AVR (with a mediocre remote control) with some remarkable capabilities. Add the Control4 activation and programming to it, and it becomes something no other manufacturer’s AVR can currently dream of being.