Well, here I am back, battered and bruised but alive (an APPLAUSE reference) and here to tell the tale.
Unhooking the various cables was relatively painless. because all of my equipment (except the laserdisc player) can be connected through HDMI, the number of video and audio cables is drastically reduced. So, when I finished, I had this MOUND of video and audio hook-ups. (I could give Radio Shack a run for its money.)
When I unhooked the speaker wires, I was very careful to label everything. The new receiver came with preprinted tabs for the wires which actually came in very handy (see below).
The new receiver weighs almost 40 pounds, so I placed a cushion under the front plate as I tipped it toward me and started reattaching the speaker wires one by one. It went much faster than I expected. I guess having done this for the fourth or fifth time makes this part of the process less a pain than it used to be. I should have known, of course, that it COULDN'T or WOULDN'T be that simple.
When I finished with the speaker wires, I hooked in the two HDMI cables (one in from the HDMI switcher that controls four machines and one out to the TV). I also hooked up the s-video and optical cables from the laserdisc machine. And I was done (I thought).
This receiver has automatic speaker recognition. You plug a supplied mic into a front port, the receiver sends signals through all your speakers so it can adjust sound levels automatically. I had to do this several times as it kept getting hooked up on one speaker and wouldn't for farther. Finally got that done.
I had to tell the receiver which buttons controlled which machines, but that was easy. Then, I started first with the cable TV connection since I use that probably the most. I punched up the DVR to the CSI episode I had watched yet, and the sound came out - Dolby Digital 5.1 just like it was supposed to. I was very pleased.
UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE was still in the upconvering player, so I tried that next. Sounds came through fine, but it's a mono movie, so I thought I'd better check with a DD 5.1 movie. I put in a HARRY POTTER movie, switched it on, and immediately the receiver had a heart attack and turned itself off. (I also had a heart attack at such a startling problem. I thought I had fried the receiver.)
Tried it again, turned itself off again. Went to the manual, and it said to call the user hotline if this happened. I did. The tech guy (very nice) explained that more than likely one of the speaker wires was breaking the circuit, and he recommended that I take out all the speaker wires and rattch them one at a time. Turn it on after each one when in to determine which one might be causing the damage. I did this, but as I was taking them out, I saw a stray piece of wire from the left rear speaker wire touching metal, and I knew this was the culprit. I still redid all of the speaker wires and put them in again one at a time just as he suggested, and I now have a perfectly functioning receiver.
(I did have to go in and manually readjust some of the speaker volume levels. The front speaker wasn't quite loud enough to compete with the surrounds.)