If you use your blu ray player for cd's too, you can set it up as 5.1 or 2.1. If you want 2.1 (front speakers and sub working), use the 'Stereo' setting (press 'D/ST' on back panel till 'stereo' appears on the diplay (assuming it works the same as my 2310).
If you use 5.1, then use the 'music' or 'cinema' buttons on the back panel, till you find one that sounds good to you.
Whatever settings you switch off the receiver with, will be there when you switch on. In other words, if you connect your tv analogue outputs to an input on the receiver (Maybe use 'TV' inpu, then when you switch on again and select 'TV' the same setting will be there . Hope that makes sense a bit.....
My receiver took a few weeks before it was really singing, and speakers can take time. I left my Q Acoustics on through the day to bed them in. Not too loud, but it helps to speed the bedding process up.
Both the 2310 and 1910 sound better with the audyessey settings off. Use audyessey to get the distances etc, but then switch of the processing. Saying thatm try with it on too, you may prefer the sound that way...it's all personal taste really.........