Just Set Up the NU8000 -- Many Queries...

[IntelliVolume]

Okay -- I have the new 65" Samsung UN65NU8000 up and running (the cabinet guys were here yesterday to modify our entertainment center to fit the screen, though some more tweaking is going to be needed due to an open back they left which allows us to see the wires and the wall behind the unit -- not what I wanted) and confirmed that I have my cable box and Blu-ray player/AVR connected via two HDMI ports.

First of all, this is my first HDTV (well, my very first UHD TV) since purchasing our Sony SXRD in 2008 (aside from a 40" LG we bought for our bedroom during the holidays a couple of years back) -- suffice to say, it's going to take some getting used to for me. Beginning with the remote, I don't understand how to program it to control the volume when watching cable transmissions; I understand that I have to reprogram my cable box remote in order to control the TV (with a new code for a Samsung), but I can't seem to use the TV's tiny remote to control the volume. When I press the volume button, it merely mutes and unmutes the sound...can anyone with any Samsung experience help?

With regard to HDR -- there is an option to keep HDR on or off in one of the menus, but when I select it, it seems like it completely changed the look of the cable transmissions (haven't tried it on Blu-ray yet)...like the screen goes dull or dim or something. Is this normal? Should I be using the HDR on the cable input, or just the Blu-ray input? Should I be using it at ALL without a UHD disc player?

Now, with regard to the motion smoothing feature (the soap opera effect) -- by default, this seems to be set to AUTO out of the box but I'm not sure how I like it...I didn't fool around with the sliders for judder and such. I turned it OFF for now because it was making many standard def HBO transmissions look like video...but should I just leave it OFF for Blu-ray film playback as well?

I gotta say...it's gonna take some getting used to when it comes time to make picture adjustments to contrast, color, etc. -- I'm TOTALLY unused to Samsung's value system on these new TVs. For example, with our previous Sony SXRD, the values for contrast, color, etc. were 0 to 100 -- this Samsung's values are like "max of 25" or "50" for parameters like color and such...so weird and different. I left everything in the default Standard picture mode for now, as we didn't really care for Natural or Movie; what's weird is that upon setup and out of the box, the default picture mode setting WASN'T Dynamic...shouldn't it had defaulted to Dynamic out of the box, or is this not the way these TVs are shipping anymore?

I like the "Apply to All Inputs" feature for the picture settings; is there any place in the setup menus wherein I can check to see what the incoming resolution is? On my old Sony, I was able to press an input button on the remote that confirmed we were getting "1080i" or "1080p"...is there any way to check this on the Samsung NU8000?

I'm sure I am going to have a mountain of additional questions, but that's all I can think of now; I know those weird picture setting values are going to make calibration, when it's time, with setup discs difficult and challenging...but if anyone could address some of these aforementioned queries to start with, I'd appreciate it.