Hi MCL,
Leave the EQ off for all the initial calibration.
Use about 80 dB SPL (use the "C" weighting scale on the sound level meter) at your listening seat to manually calibrate all the speakers, if that's a comfortable level of loudness. Some use 75 dB SPL; others 85 dB, which is quite loud.
And yes, adjust the individual speaker levels to 0 dB, then you can make minor adjustments once everything is set. I run my center channel about +4 dB for better dialog clarity and I adjust the subwoofer upwards or downwards depending on the content of the program. You'll find deep bass content varies quite a lot on Dolby Digital TV soundtracks, movie soundtracks and especially from one recording to another.
If you seem to have a pronounced hump in the bass at a couple of frequencies, where the bass seems too boomy, you can use the manual EQ to reduce the bass level in that frequency region. But trying to boost bass with EQ where there is a cancellation happening in the room never works.
Regards,
