Denon AVR-687 zone setup

[sharpstick]

This is my first new receiver in 12 years or so. I finally decided to upgrade from my venerable old Kenwood when the speaker output started breaking up.
I have speakers mounted on my deck by the hot tub and am trying to have the back surround speaker outputs configured as zone 2 so I can control volume separately(heaven forbid I should be watching some nice - um - sensual entertainment in the living room and have it blasting out in the backyard!).
I see reference to power amp assignment settings but I can't seem to find my way to that within "system setup". Is there a good tutorial that is better than the manual in describing this? I'm not a technomoron. I've been messing around with computers since the 70s and have been a systems analyst for several years but i appear to be stumped on this one. I would really like to see better manuals though. When will they start using a GUI for this kind of stuff? A nice client that lets you check boxes and fill in fields and upload all that to the receiver with USB or an SD card would be nice. (My Harmony remote does that pretty well). A one line by 15 character display and up and down arrows is so 20th century!

 

[AVRat]

The instructions on pg. 43 seem pretty straight forward. Where are you having a problem?

 

[samjc]

Hi,

I have a AVR-687. Same scenario (speakers by hottub) I have it connected via HDMI to my Directv stb. I am trying to output the sound from by directv stb via (RCA) analog to the second zone because as I understand the 2nd zone can only handle analog. Can you tell me exactly what analog inputs get connected to on the back of the AVR-687? I have the Power Amp Assignment set to zone 2, and analog cables from L/R audio of STB to TV/DBS L/R Analog of the ABR-687. I push the two zone button and still don't get any sound (the two zone light comes on). I have the two zone speakers wired to the 2 zone speaker connections on back of receiver as well (not the surround backs). I must be missing something, any ideas? Is there a setup I missed...the manual is not very clear.

Thanks for any help.