*Official* Denon AVR 1909/789 Thread - Page 11

Well, I gave in and bought the 1909 today!

Went into my local best buy this morning about an hour after they opened up, since earlier in the week they said they would not be selling the 1909 until today. They got 3 in stock. First was purchased by a magnolia employee, second one was purchased by a guy who came in right as the store opened to buy it (lol). So, I got the last one they had in stock, and I was only an hour into them selling it. $649, they accepted my 12% reward zone coupon, so after taxes it came out to around $606.30. I saw the JR deal for $499, but that will involve some waiting time, and I am an impatient man. Not to mention, I like the idea of being able to return it to a brick and mortar store if I have any issues or decide to upgrade to a 2309!

I won't have it hooked up for a few days, as I am waiting for some banana plugs to be delivered, and I am also considering selling my speakers and replacing them with new ones.

So, hopefully they are hooked up later this week.

The JR deal sounds great, going to jump on that shortly I think.

I have a question about the XM tuner. When I connect the tuner to the XM specific input on the back of the 1909. Will it be sending an analog signal to the receiver? I want to send the XM to zone 2 while still being able to use 7.1, etc in the living room if needed.

I'm guessing you can connect the XM tuner via line out/analog but then you wont have the song/artist information display on the receiver.

I, too, pulled the trigger on the 1909 and I am ecstatic about how it sounds (Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Volume are indeed the cat's meow) and how it looks (video passthrough works like a charm with no artifacting). However, I do have one small, yet irritating problem.

My TiVo 3 is connected via HDMI into the HDP (HDMI2). I am trying to set the upconversion on the 1909 to see if it will make a 480i picture any better. However, when I go to the menu, select Input Setup, and select Video, all I see on screen is a choice for Video Select. I know I am supposed to see "Convert" underneath Video Select, along with a down-pointing arrow for more options. What gives?

I was also waiting on the 1909, but jumped ship for the CC sale on the 988. The only thing I'm going to hook up to it right now is a new Direct TV HD DVR that was installed last week, and a XBox 360. I'm not real experienced at this. The Direct TV HD DVR has a HDMI cable that I ran into the #1 HDMI input on the 988. I then ran a HDMI out of the 988 into my Samsung DLP. The problem is no picture or audio. It's searching for signal. I unplug the HDMI from the 988, and go directly into the TV, and there is a picture with audio. Does anyone have a similar setup with the new Direct TV? The HDMI from the satellite appears to handle both audio and video since the TV works properly. In the setup I reflected that SAT was hooked up to HDMI #1.

It looks like I will have to be calling the Geek Squad or someone to come straighten me out. The wife got me the set up for my birthday, and we worked all day with this thing. Would appreciate any comments. I will say the manual, and the remote as well as the functions in the setup are all not very user friendly. There are a lot of questions in the setup that I had to scratch my head on. I'm a CPA - not an electronics major.

Any ideas?

OK, I figured out that problem: the HDP source cannot have its resolution adjusted, so I swapped it with the VCR HDMI input.

However (there had to be a catch, right?), now after going to the menu and selecting the following: Video; Convert: On; i/p Scaler: A to H; Resolution 1080p (my TV supports it); Progressive Mode: Auto; and Aspect: Full, I set my TiVo to native, expecting the 1909 to scale everything to 1080p, but no such luck. Everything is passed through "as is" with no upscaling.

Ideas?

IIRC, 1909 doesn't upscale HDMI sources. Most $1000 boxes don't. There should be a chart on the manual that shows which can (pg 79?? don't know I don't have it yet). If your TV is good/new enough I'd let it do it for HDMI sources.

You were indeed correct. Thanks.

I just purchased the 1909 from Magnolia for $649.99. They were also running a weekend special where they didn't charge tax. I had a problem with the automatic setup saying that my center speaker is out of phase. I double checked and it wasn't. Is that a typical problem? Other than the crappy remote, I am extremely happy with it. I have an HD-Cable box, PS3, 360, Wii, Mac Mini (sound only), and the TV sound all input to it. I had to get a little creative with the inputs, but it all works great.

I had the same issue with the bogus out-of-phase warning. I just hit 'skip' and it was all good.

The remote that comes with the 1909 is pretty bad. I'm happy to be using a Harmony One, but it's annoying that Logitech hasn't included the 1909 in its database yet. For now, I'm using the 1908 commands and adding a few that are unique to the 1909 with the learning procedure. In spite of this, the Harmony is a pleasure to use. It will only get better when Logitech updates their database.

In case anyone missed it, vdO posted a link to the "What HiFi" review of the 1909 over in the 'Denon's 2008-09 Receivers Announced' thread.

http://whathifi.com/Review/Denon-AVR-1909/

Not a particularly thorough or technical review, but something.

This is correct. The drawback of letting the TV do the upconverting is that (with my Directv HR21 DVR) the channel change time is nearly doubled. When I let the HR21 do the upconverting, the channel change time dropped from an interminable 7 seconds to a more reasonable 3 seconds. I guess it's something to do with the HDMI handshake. Geodon005, I'd be interested to know if you experience the same thing with your Tivo.

The HDMI handshake is a one time process. Once done the device knows all the characteristics of the display.

I noticed NO change or delay in channel-changing time via my TiVo through the 1909. Just for grins, later today I may connect the TiVo via component cables and see if I can tell any difference when the 1909 upconverts the picture.

You said you have a Mac mini with (sound only) ??? Is there a problem getting video and sound to the receiver from the mini.

Jeff

BigBassTurd - Did you use the 10%/12% coupon? If not, you can go over to slickdeals.net and search the forums to find the download link for the coupon (printable). Then, go back into your best buy and have customer service refund you the 12% (or 10% if you aren't a reward zone member, but its free to join). I just bought my 1909 from my local BB/magnolia yesterday, and it came out to $606.30 after tax, thanks to the 12% coupon which worked without a hitch. Worth looking into, it'll cut around $75 off your price!

mods: i know we're not supposed to discuss pricing on here, but BB is selling for the MSRP price of $649 and I figure people should know that there is a printable online coupon to save them money. Today is the LAST DAY the coupon is valid (though, they put one of these coupons out for a week almost every month haha)

I linked to this Best Buy 10-12% coupon in this thread here.

can anyone confirm this with the 1909:

Does it store and remember separate speakers level settings for EACH input?

when i change my receivers input to xbox (for playing music), my current Yammie has the same speaker level setting and I have to bring the sub up and lower the center channel every time, and then raise them when I watch a movie. Frustrating!

Just did the X&X deal with Jacque. Not in stock yet, he's hoping 2 weeks. He was very cordial and I didn't feel rushed. I asked if the 789 was coming and he didn't have it on the computer but said they did carry the 788 so the 789 is very likely. I figured it would be $50 cheaper BUT didn't want to chance it not having free shipping or possibly the 1909 was at a better preorder price and the 789 would end up the same price. For some reason, I just feel the 1909 is the 'standard' for being available at most stores and even though I'm planning to keep this unit for years, you never know and it might be easier to sell than the 789.
My question: he's offering a 5 year extended warranty for $60. Is this a worthwhile investment?
Thanks for any response.

I don't know of any ability on the 1909 to store separate speaker levels for each input, but I'll try to check that out as I spend more time with the unit. More likely would be the ability to remember manual eq vs. audyssey eq by input, but I'll have to see.

Last night's setup went very smoothly. I really couldn't care less that the on-screen display looks like a Commodore 64 -- it gets the job done and doesn't need to be part of my aesthetic enjoyment of this receiver going forward. Having read the tip on this thread that the left arrow button is sometimes used to select an item during auto-setup, I was well prepared and the process is easy (though it does take some time to go through all 6 mic positions). I did get a phase error message and ignored it at the time, but it's actually possible that my wiring is incorrect, so I'll check that tonight. (Manual says the error may pop up even if your wiring is correct, so not to worry about it.)

As for the results, I should warn you all that I'm probably very easily impressed. I'm coming off a junk Sony STR-DG600, where you can forget about any kind of auto eq -- that receiver wouldn't even let me _manually_ adjust the EQ for any channels except the front pair! So music always sounded thin and harsh on the surround channels, given that my slim speakers seem to need a bass boost to correct the eq. But with the Denon's auto setup, and HD audio, the difference was night and day. Say what you will about the merits of Immortal Beloved as a movie, but the opening choral number is a great showcase for Dolby TrueHD! Finally I'm getting the most out of my speakers, the sound was rich and full with great surround presence. So far the sound quality on this unit is everything I was hoping for.

No HDMI problems as of yet -- I've bistreamed multichannel PCM, TrueHD, and DTS-MA 7.1 (Pan's Labyrinth) without incident. Can't wait to tinker some more over the next few days.

I didn't buy the extended warranty. Denon provides a 2year warranty on these puppies. Since you purchased from an authorized dealer, Denon will honor your warranty claim should you have any. Furthermore, most credit cards tag on another year of warranty. That's 3 years for a receiver you paid $499.99.

Extended warranties are typically not useful for electronics since the rare occasion they break there are nicer things in the market at the time. My 5-6 yr old yammy is still working just fine. Now that I'm getting the 1909, I don't know what to do with it. Out of all the electronic eqp I own (which is a lot, as most ppl here on this forum) I have had an asus motherboard croak on me. The only time any electronics eqp failed. For some odd reason. Don't think I had a receipt and had not bought extended warranty, but they swapped it out for free. Also got a nice upgrade for free.

My vote - don't buy extended warranty.

I have an Oppo 983HD player connected to the 1909 and it plays DVD-Audio discs beautifully through the HDMI connection; however, I know that SACD discs will not play through HDMI, so I have the multichannel analog connections. How do I select the multichannel analog input? (currently, SACD discs are only playing in stereo)

read the manual! page 17, left side, on the bottom.

the multichannel inputs are not "assigned" to any specific source unless you do so in the setup. otherwise you have to activate them manually.

OK, I've been checking comparisons. I was waiting on the 1909, but found good deals on the 988 which appears to be a higher end unit (almost twice the retail price). I find it has 2 HDMI instead of the 3 on the 1909.

But other than that (I only need 2 and can always use a switch box when I need more), it seems the 988 beats the 1909 in other aspects (power, processing, flexability, etc).

Is there anything I'm missing here? Are there any other downsides to the 988 besides one less HDMI? Does it handle all the same codecs? (like trueHD and the non-lossy stuff? Does it handle multi channel PCM that would be coming out of my PS3?)

Can anyone provide any reason to not get the 988 over the 1909? (not that much more in price now).

This question has already has been answered numerous times. Here's a thread just on this topic.

There's actually a dedicated thread on 988 vs. 1909 (maybe you've read it). If you can find a 988 for the same price as the 1909 (they seem to be disappearing quickly), and you have top-notch speakers and consider yourself an audiophile, then it sounds like the 988 is probably the better deal. 988 has higher-end parts, but for me I really wanted the new dynamic eq on the 1909. I do plenty of listening below reference volume, and given all the positive comments on Audyssey's dynamic eq, I thought I'd notice a greater improvement in surround sound with that feature than I would with top-of-the-line parts. (My speakers are hardly audiophile-grade.) Both receivers decode all the latest codecs.

I was reading it. .. just not closely enough. But how DO you activate them manually (I want the default DVD output to be through HDMI, and only when I play SACD do I want to use the analog inputs).

I didnt see an answer to my newbie question

is it ok to play this receiver on 3ohm speakers?

I too just spent about 4 straight days agonizing over the decision between the 988 from the circuit city deal, and the 1909. I ended up buying the 1909.

Personally, I have never once in my life watched a movie at "reference", in fact, even -20 is almost unbearably loud on my current 45w/channel HK receiver.

I am excited to hook up the 1909 when my banana plugs get delivered tomorrow, and start putting DynamicVolume to good use

i highly doubt it, but im sure someone else can answer for sure.

My TV has a DVI input built in. In order to plug into the Denon I would need to use a DVI to HDMI adapter, which I didn't have. I will probably buy one in the future. I did try to plug it into the Denon using the yellow composite cable, but the resolution and quality of the video was not good, so I just went straight to the TV with it.