Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. So throw away the remotes and don't even worry about AV receivers and how they work. It's time to work with smarter hardware.

To the untrained eye, an AV receiver may just look like a big black box that a bunch of TV and speaker wires run in and out of. Far more than a junction box for your go-to components like streaming ...

The front of an AV receiver with a large volume dial. - Alexstepanov/Getty Images You can't have a home theater without an AV receiver to power speakers and handle device connectivity. Surround sound ...