I bought a 628 a while back. Wasn't impressed but decided not to return it as it did most of the things I needed it to. I recently bought a Pioneer VSX-1015-TX and I now want the 628 to change the surround modes when I change activity. Let say I want to watch TV, I'd like the Pio to switch to "TV Surround" and if I play games, switch to "Game Surrounds" and finally if I want to watch a DVD, it switches to "Auto Surround".

I know how to customize the activities but the pull down menu doesn't provide the appropriate functions. How do I go about it ?

Repeat the setup for the Activities (on your home page under "Customize"). When it asks you if everything is set the way you want, tell it, "Yes but I want more control." It will then walk you through setup again, and then give you the opportunity to define sequences of commands to run at Activity start and Activity end.

Decide upon one Surround mode to be your base mode (the one you use most frequently). For all activities that use other surround modes, set up a startup series of commands to switch from the base mode to the desired mode. Set up an Activity end series of commands to return the Surround mode to the base mode.

Well that's where my problem starts. The pull down menu doesn't provide the exact surround mode I want. It will list something like "Auto Surround" or "DSP" or "THX" but there is no way to choose which "DSP" or "THX flavor that I want.

That's what I am mainly looking for here.

First, using the device mode, you need to try and figure out which command names and sequence to use to get the desired DSP mode. The command sequence should be the same as with your original remote. Look for command names similar to the original remote. Teach it any missing commands if necessary.

That makes sense. I'll try that this week-end.