*Official* Denon AVR 1909/789 Thread

[slogun]

Originally Posted by The Bruiser

jeez all these brands everyone tells me are impossible to find anywhere... BB and CC need to carry more brands audio wise...

You need to go to a BB that has a Magnolia inside.
They are heavy on Def Tech there.
Me, I'm using Klipsch RF-82s purchased from Magnolia as well.

[slogun]

Originally Posted by ab2ab

I would agree with this statement only if we were talking about 8 year olds counting down days 'till Christmas on their advent calendars...

OK, well I believe keeping the child within us alive, nothing wrong with that.
In this context your analogy is not far off

[batpig]

Originally Posted by aktick

So the manual is very Greek to me - can somebody be so kind as to tell me in very simple to understand steps how to go about setting up the video part of things? I'm just worrying about the DirecTV DVR for now, I'll do the DVD/Xbox stuff once I got the DTV figured out. I've connected the DVR to the input labeled VCR via HDMI, and the receiver to my TV via HDMI (monitor out, of course).

Hate to quote myself, but anybody have some advice? Thanks.

Basically, you just have to walk through the setup step by step. For beginners and first-time setup, just skip the auto calibration for now.

This is how I would do it if I were you:

Hook everything up, and WRITE DOWN all your connections, since you are going to have to reassign your inputs and coordinate everything.

For example, let's say you hook your DVR up to HDMI1; DVD player to HDMI2; and your Xbox you hook up with component cables to RCA1 for video, and audio you hook up to Optical 1. You hook up all your speakers and turn the AVR 1909 on.

Hit SETUP. This opens the setup menu. Going through the sub-menus one-by-one. (refer to page 24 of your manual for a map of the menu structure). When you hit "Enter" to enter a submenu, if you want to leave it as default or accept any changes you made just hit "Enter" again and it marches you on to the next sub-menu.

Note that for most Denon submenus, you have to hit LEFT on the directional pad to execute a particular command like running test tones (this confuses a lot of people).

1. AUTO SETUP: skip this for now, come back to this once everything is squared away and you have the time/silence to run Audyssey.

2. MANUAL SETUP: I'll skip through most of this since you were specifically asking about video.... I'll dwell a little on HDMI setup since that's important here.

2.a. First go through speaker setup, setting your speakers to small/large, set distances, channel level, crossover, etc. I assume you're OK here since you just asked about video.

2.b. Next, HDMI setup. Unless you are using DVI-HDMI, you should set it to: Color Space = YCbCr; RGB Range = Normal; Auto Lipsync to "ON" if you have a compatible HDMI 1.3a TV with this feature; HDMI Audio out to "AMP" if you are going to use your surround speakers, "TV" if you want to pass through audio to the TV speakers (it's one or the other, you have to choose); and HDMI Control (see earlier posts by Bugs on this feature) and Power Off control as desired depending on your equipment compatibility.

2.c. Next, Audio Setup, Zone 2 Setup, and Option Setup should be fairly straightforward, just march through one by one and set it how you like it.

3. INPUT SETUP: Now we're in the important stuff for getting everything squared away with setting up all your specific inputs correctly.

It looks like at the top, you hit left-or-right to scroll through your inputs. Scroll around until you get to the "TV/CBL" input to setup TV, "DVD" to setup DVD, etc. We'll call your Xbox "VCR" for now, just as an example.

3.a. First is the ASSIGN menu. In the HDMI IN menu, make sure that "HDMI1" is assigned to TV/CBL, and "HDMI2" is assigned to DVD.

In the DIGITAL IN menu, all you have to do is assign "OPT1" to VCR, so it matches up with your Xbox.

In the COMPONENT IN menu, make sure that "RCA-1" is assigned to VCR also. Now, when you switch to "VCR" to play the Xbox, it will take the video from RCA-1 and combine it with the audio from Optical-1.

Now you have done your assigning, you just need to make sure your VIDEO settings are all lined up.

3.b. In the VIDEO submenu, skip VIDEO SELECT. On CONVERT, you can leave these all to ON unless you specifically do NOT want one of your video devices to be up-converted. Note that this is separate from the video processing -- this is just to allow the Denon to take one input type and pass it through to a different output cable (i.e. s-video to component, component to hdmi, whatever).

Next you set up the scaler -- if you want to disable the scaler completely, turn "i/p scaler" to OFF. In this mode, all the Denon will do is take what you put in and output at the same resolution. For example, 480i into component will come out of the HDMI output still at 480i.

If you turn "i/p scaler" to "A TO H", now the Faroudja scaler is working. Remember that it only affects analog video, it will not touch your HDMI video from the DVR or DVD player in our hypothetical scenario.

On RESOLUTION, select the desired resolution you want 480i/p to be scaled to. Leave PROGRESSIVE MODE to "Auto", and in ASPECT you can have the Denon's scaler automatically stretch out 4:3 signals from 480i/p sources (probably just leave this as "Normal").

3.c. For INPUT MODE, set them all to Auto unless you have issues or specific needs.

3.d. At RENAME you can change the "VCR" input to say "XBOX" or whatever you want.

3.e. SOURCE LEVEL you can adjust if there's a big difference in volume level between sources.

That should do it! The last two menus (PARAMETER and INFORMATION) you don't need to touch at this point, PARAMETER just contains advanced audio tweaks and options (doesn't affect video at all) and INFORMATION is, well, information!

Now, when you turn on the TV and select the correct HDMI input, and you select the "TV/CBL" input on the Denon, it should be receiving audio and video from the DVR over HDMI, and outputting video only to your TV (or both if you selected "TV" in HDMI Audio Out setup, 2.b. above). If you select "XBOX" (your renamed "VCR" input), you should get video from component 1 and audio from optical 1, and the video should be output over HDMI to your TV.

The key is to make sure your assignments (audio/video) are all correct and "match up" with the input you select.

Hope that helps! Let us know if you still can't get things set up correctly...

[Diseasedyak]

Something I've been wondering, say I run through the Audyssey setup, it sets my channels, etc. If I go to the Manual Setup menu and tweak something, say lower the subwoofer by -1, does this now throw out all the Audyssey settings, or will it override them (if Audyssey had the subwoofer at -4 and I manually do a -1, will it now be in effect -5)?

[bagakay]

Originally Posted by Old Deuteronomy

Question to 789 owners: One bad thing I noticed when comparing the 1908 with the 1909 (EU model) was that the front panel is made of plastic on the 1909, while on the 1908 it was made of metal.

Is this also true for the 789 variant?

AVR-789 - plastic too.

[The Bruiser]

Originally Posted by slogun

You need to go to a BB that has a Magnolia inside.
They are heavy on Def Tech there.
Me, I'm using Klipsch RF-82s purchased from Magnolia as well.

honestly i don't think their is a magnolia anywhere in ohio... sucks for me

[Bugs]

I've received a few email communications from Logitech support. Most have been confusing, but the one I received this afternoon seems promising. In part, it said:

Thank you for your recent inquiry about your Harmony Remote

I understand that the model number for the a/v is still not in our database when trying to add it. Our engineering team is working on making the device public so all users may add this model to their account. In the meantime, reply back to this email to advise which commands are missing from your account.

l replied that eventually we would like to have all of the commands listed on the Denon PDF, but if they are going to do this in stages the most important are listed below. My apologies if I left your favorite command off this list. I don't know how Logitech will handle this, but at least it appears they are working on it.

MASTER VOLUME UP
MASTER VOLUME DOWN
MUTE
CENTER LEVEL UP
CENTER LEVEL DOWN
SW LEVEL UP
SW LEVEL DOWN
DYNAMIC EQ ON_VOL ON
DYNAMIC EQ ON_VOL OFF
DYNAMIC EQ OFF_VOL OFF
DYNAMIC VOL SET: MIDNIGHT
DYNAMIC VOL SET:EVENING
DYNAMIC VOL SET: DAY
ALL POWER ON/OFF
ALL POWER ON
ALL POWER OFF
CURSOR UP
CURSOR DOWN
CURSOR LEFT
CURSOR RIGHT
ENTER
RETURN
OSD MENU
QUICK SELECT 1
QUICK SELECT 2
QUICK SELECT 3

Second priority:

DOLBY PL2/PL2x CINEMA
DOLBY PL2/PL2x MUSIC
DOLBY PROLOGIC
DTS NE06 CINEMA
DTS NEO6 MUSIC
GAME MODE
CINEMA MODE
DSP SIMULATION
5/7 CH STEREO
ROCK ARENA
JAZZ CLUB
MOMO MOVIE
MATRIX
VIDEO GAME
VIRTUAL
NEURAL SURROUND
AUDIO RESTORER
RESTORER OFF
RESTORER MODE 1
RESTORER MODE 2
RESTORER MODE 3
AUDIO DELAY MODE
AUDIO DELAY UP
AUDIO DELAY DOWN
SIRUS/XM
SIRUS
TUNER
CD
CDR/TAPE
XM
IPOD
DVD
HDP
TV/CBL
VCR
V. AUX
DVD/HDP
VCR/DVR
MULTI EQ SELECT
RESOLUTION
MAIN ZONE TUNING UP
MAIN ZONE TURNING DOWN

Third priority: all the rest.

[Gary J]

Good work on the Day, Evening, Midnight. Did you tell them there are already a gazillion 1909's out there?

[slogun]

Originally Posted by The Bruiser

honestly i don't think their is a magnolia anywhere in ohio... sucks for me

Spring Meadows OH (Store 247) has one, next is Taylor MI (Store 401)

[tingham]

Originally Posted by murphy4040

I bought this http://www.siig.com/ViewProduct.aspx?pn=CB-000032-S1 at Frys, before reading the article. On the box it says 1.3 compliant. On the website it says 1.2b. Not sure what the difference is. While it seems to work fine, based on the article I get the Blue Jeans online (it's about the same price). But I was able to watch Blu-ray, DirecTV, Oppo, VCR upscaled... all looked good to me.

Thanks for the response..I think I will call Blue Jeans and see what they recommend. I heard their customer support is very good!

[Bugs]

Originally Posted by Gary J

Good work on the Day, Evening, Midnight. Did you tell them there are already a gazillion 1909's out there?

I went out to dinner and when I returned, there were 2 more emails from Logitech. One said that they had added some new commands to my 1909 profile. I checked and there they were:

DYNAMIC EQ ON_VOL ON
DYNAMIC EQ ON_VOL OFF
DYNAMIC EQ OFF_VOL OFF
DYNAMIC VOL SET: MIDNIGHT
DYNAMIC VOL SET:EVENING
DYNAMIC VOL SET: DAY
ALL POWER ON/OFF
ALL POWER ON
ALL POWER OFF
QUICK SELECT 1
QUICK SELECT 2
QUICK SELECT 3

Mind you, my 'private' 1909 profile already had 140 commands, so now I have a pretty complete set. I still don't understand why this profile isn't available to everyone, but hang in there, it must be almost ready for prime time. And yes, Gary, I told them that the rabble were getting ready to storm the gates.

[Gary J]

Excellent. Your next mission, should you decide to accept it, is to see if learned Quick Select buttons will execute on the One properly.

[Bugs]

Originally Posted by Gary J

Excellent. Your next mission, should you decide to accept it, is to see if learned Quick Select buttons will execute on the One properly.

No such luck. The only 'new' buttons that work are the power buttons. Back to the drawing board, or Logitech support, or the tooth fairy; anything that works.

[union1411]

i just received the 1909 from denon. haven't opened it yet.

now i read all this stuff about it not having pre-outs.

so . . . what are pre-outs and will i likely want them?

my set up is:

5 infinity beta bookshelves (6.5" woofer)
SVS 10 inch sub
HSU MBM-12 midbass module (a 2nd sub for midbass)
acoustically treated small dedicated HT room (about 12 x 9); i use a projector

[batpig]

"pre-outs" are outputs for an external amplifier, i.e. you would be bypassing the Denon's amps for those channels and instead using it just as a "preamp", thus the term "pre-outs". The idea being, if you are driving a really difficult load, you can use a fancy external amplifier that will be more powerful than the AVR's internal amps.

The subwoofer output is a pre-out, since it allows you to connect a sub with its own amplifier.

You will not need them, considering you have two subs covering the low bass and midbass, which are the toughest frequencies to power anyway. You've got that covered in your setup, the 1909 should have no trouble driving the 5 betas.

[murphy4040]

Originally Posted by BOOBUG

I currently have a ps3 connected to a Mitsu HD1000 projector over a 50' HDMI cable and it works great. I have recently ordered a 1909 and I am worried after reading some threads here that it will not be able to pass the signal down my 50' foot monoprice HDMI cable. Is anyone having this problem and should I worry about it? I dont see why it would be an issue if I can pass my PS3 signal just fine alrerady.

Originally Posted by batpig

The thing with HDMI is that there's no way to predict what will happen at long runs. The Denon HDMI 1.3 receivers are all supposed to be "repeaters", meaning they amplify and re-send the signal, so it THEORETICALLY should be fine, but that doesn't mean you won't experience issues.... you'll just have to bite the bullet and see what happens...

Well, as one of those who had problems... for me it seems like it was a bad cable on the 30 foot AVR to projector run.

BTW, to clarify a mistake in my earlier post, the website for the cable I bought said 1.2a, not 1.2b. There is no 1.2b. I did a little more research and since all I'm doing is passing video to the projector it's probably ok for me to stick with that specification level (Wikipedia actually has a relatively easy to follow description of the topic with links to a number of other good references at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI).

However, I'm leaning toward getting the Blue Jeans cable ANYWAY based on the article batpig pointed to earlier in the thread. For a 50 foot run it seems fiber optic might be a good, though expensive, alternative. Bottom line, I'm sure you can make it work.

Oh, and in case anyone is interested, I'm not currently waiting for anything from J&R.

[union1411]

Originally Posted by batpig

"pre-outs" are outputs for an external amplifier, i.e. you would be bypassing the Denon's amps for those channels and instead using it just as a "preamp", thus the term "pre-outs". The idea being, if you are driving a really difficult load, you can use a fancy external amplifier that will be more powerful than the AVR's internal amps.

The subwoofer output is a pre-out, since it allows you to connect a sub with its own amplifier.

You will not need them, considering you have two subs covering the low bass and midbass, which are the toughest frequencies to power anyway. You've got that covered in your setup, the 1909 should have no trouble driving the 5 betas.

thank you for taking the time to help the mentally challenged. now time to set this puppy up without hurting myself or starting a fire (hopefully)

[slogun]

Originally Posted by union1411

thank you for taking the time to help the mentally challenged. now time to set this puppy up without hurting myself or starting a fire (hopefully)

Yea, good luck. It's not as straightforward as other receivers/amps. I wish I had Batpigs post #783 when I was starting out.

[Bugs]

Only bad news to report on the Logitech front. They updated my 1909 profile again and this time 90% of the commands disappeared.

This is my version of the J&R drama. Totally irrelevent to anyone who doesn't have a Harmony remote. But hey, electrons are so cheap I can waste a few.

[slogun]

Originally Posted by Bugs

Only bad news to report on the Logitech front. They updated my 1909 profile again and this time 90% of the commands disappeared.

This is my version of the J&R drama. Totally irrelevent to anyone who doesn't have a Harmony remote. But hey, electrons are so cheap I can waste a few.

I've been counting on you to get this squared away cause my wife is getting me a Harmony One for my birthday this weekend.
You're letting me down

[fvbounty]

Originally Posted by Bugs

Only bad news to report on the Logitech front. They updated my 1909 profile again and this time 90% of the commands disappeared.

This is my version of the J&R drama. Totally irrelevent to anyone who doesn't have a Harmony remote. But hey, electrons are so cheap I can waste a few.

Please keep Logitech on there toes and thanks!!!!

[nagyg]

Originally Posted by jazzbass

OK, I'll post no more about this. Please everyone keep us informed when you placed your order and about every email you receive from J&R updating you on when your 1909 is due. Please post tracking numbers so that we can all track it as a group and then we'll all hug when they arrive

A couple hundred posts ago I suggested a separate thread for the "How, When, from Where and for How Much I got my 1909" crowd and was shot down too ...

[ciner]

Originally Posted by murphy4040

I bought this http://www.siig.com/ViewProduct.aspx?pn=CB-000032-S1 at Frys, before reading the article. On the box it says 1.3 compliant. On the website it says 1.2b. Not sure what the difference is. While it seems to work fine, based on the article I get the Blue Jeans online (it's about the same price). But I was able to watch Blu-ray, DirecTV, Oppo, VCR upscaled... all looked good to me.

OT but I used this cable recently for a 50' run and works fine from my SA8300HD to Samsung Plasma, no amplifier needed.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

[cat6man]

anyone have a *.pcf file (pronto remote format) for the 1909?
i've programmed the buttons on the remote into my prontoproNG
(i.e. manually copied them) but don't have all the discrete codes.

thx

p.s. nothing on remotecentral yet............

[FiguredMaple]

Originally Posted by batpig

Basically, you just have to walk through the setup step by step. For beginners and first-time setup, just skip the auto calibration for now.

This is how I would do it if I were you:...
Hope that helps! Let us know if you still can't get things set up correctly...

What a great post.
The people that write Denon's manuals should get some tips from Batpig!

[ciner]

Originally Posted by Bugs

Only bad news to report on the Logitech front. They updated my 1909 profile again and this time 90% of the commands disappeared.

This is my version of the J&R drama. Totally irrelevent to anyone who doesn't have a Harmony remote. But hey, electrons are so cheap I can waste a few.

Just gotta keep on them most likely, the squeaky wheel gets oiled and all. I don't understand what's the holdup and why they keep issuing ones to your private profile vs launching them for everyone. Learning the commands shouldn't be a huge deal for them I'd think they would have a professional setup to add devices from hex codes on the fly. I still don't understand why the Harmony One can't learn the commands itself, just seems silly, my URC remote learned them no sweat. Though I'm sure it will be the same delay getting those discrete commands for day/evening/midnight in a URC remote profile. Using the 1908 profile I've had to learn about 8 commands so far and able to use the remote as needed.

[Bugs]

Originally Posted by ciner

Just gotta keep on them most likely, the squeaky wheel gets oiled and all. I don't understand what's the holdup and why they keep issuing ones to your private profile vs launching them for everyone. Learning the commands shouldn't be a huge deal for them I'd think they would have a professional setup to add devices from hex codes on the fly. I still don't understand why the Harmony One can't learn the commands itself, just seems silly, my URC remote learned them no sweat. Though I'm sure it will be the same delay getting those discrete commands for day/evening/midnight in a URC remote profile. Using the 1908 profile I've had to learn about 8 commands so far and able to use the remote as needed.

My Harmony One does have most of the commands that I need for daily operation. As you said, the 1908 profile provides the basic funcionality. I just want the rest of the commands so that I can consign the 1908 remote to the drawer where old remotes go. You know, the one you open once every couple of years and look at the collection and wonder: "What device used to use that thing?" Then you think about scrapping it, but hesitate because you just never know...

[1MaNArmY]

Originally Posted by Blacklac

Look through the vents on the top, towards the right, middle area.

I went back to view the chipset and still no luck, maybe I need a flashlight? All I was able to see on the Denon 789 was PCB board with multiple chips which none were labeled Geneisis and they were probably to small. This PCB board contained the 3 HDMI inputs.
Can someone who recently received their 1909/789 post a photo of the chipset prior to connecting it?

[bagakay]

Did anybody tried using the remote with DirectTV ? Which preset code works. Thanks.

[fvbounty]

I have a question about the Denon 1909 that I just got and was hoping someone could help me. I have a Toshiba A30 HD DVD player hooked with hdmi 1.3 cable and on the Denon1909 it how says "multi channel in" on the Denon's screen, before when I had it hooked up to my old cheapy Sony av receiver with a optical cable it would say "Dolby Digital" on the Sony screen, is this normal? I've read the whole Denon manual and I can't seem to find anything on this, I probably missed something?

I looked in the A30 menu and it has three opitions for "Digital out Hdmi" and they are...

1 - Auto
2 - PCM
3 - Downmixed PCM......

I have it set to Auto and thats when it says "Multi Channel In" on the Denon, any help would be Great....