*Official* Denon AVR 1909/789 Thread - Page 253

Correct ... HDMI is passed through, while Component is upscaled. Although keep in mind that if you run 1080p (eg. Video on Demand) in via component, you must also go out component to the projector. It's certainly worth trying a component connection though, although as we've said many times here .... it's doubtful that the Denon will do a better job than either the Moto box or even what your Projector is already doing. The Faroudja video chip in the lower level Denon's is only a basic video chip which is why the newer 2010 models will have the ABT chip installed instead. Also, keep in mind that if you've got a 1080p projector, it already scales everything it receives to 1080p.

Roth, welcome. Phase=0. Use your Polk's "unfiltered"=LFE input which bypasses low pass filters in the sub. This connects to the 1909's sub preout via shielded RCA sub cable. Volume control on the sub should initially be set to about halfway.
Run the AVR autosetup for 1 pos, hit calculate and check the sub channel trim level. Adjust the Vol knob accordingly; if channel trim=-12 turn the sub down, if +12, turn it up.
Repeat that process until trim is within +/-11 (even closer to zero is desirable as it allows for more channel level adjustments if needed at a later point).

My cable box tops out at 720p/1080i - can that get upscaled from component via the HDMI? I thought it could, because I run XBMC via component and optical to the 1909, then out to the PJ via HDMI. (I will keep my Blu Ray player connected via HDMI and don't care about getting that audio outside.)

I guess the question is whether the Denon will route the analog inputs at the same time it is processing the digital input. I know the Moto box has all outputs activated simultaneously (I have the Moto box connected via Component + L/R to my HDTV with the Moto HDMI to the 1909 and can watch/hear the TV, Projector, and receiver at the same time).


Thanks, good to know. I only tune into this thread when I have questions - sorry for the repeats.



While my current projector is 720p and already scales everything like you mention, I will be going 1080p at some point. I wasn't thinking about the future, your post made me realize that.

Thanks again.

I get demerits too...sorry

Is there a way to permanently turn up the dialog for movies? I have played several movies and the dialog is very low for some reason.

You can find a lot of info if you read batpigs guide

He answers that question in his FAQ

Q: Can I change the volume of the speakers individually?

A: You can freely adjust channel levels "trims" for each speaker individually. For example, maybe you really like what Audyssey did but would like to bump up the center channel a little bit so I can hear the volume better. Or maybe you think the surrounds are too loud with Dynamic EQ engaged.

There are two ways to change the speaker level volumes:

1. to change the speaker levels GLOBALLY to something different than what Audyssey set, go into MANUAL SETUP > SPEAKER SETUP > CHANNEL LEVEL and cycle through the test tones and change whatever you wants. When you hit "OK/ENTER" at the end, this will now reset everything to these channel levels you have manually set up.

2. to change the speaker levels "on the fly" while watching program material, use the "CH SELECT/ENTER" button on the remote to cycle through the various speaker channels and then you can bump them up/down as needed. For example, if you find the dialogue is too low, you can just bump up the center a bit.

This 2nd method will not change it globally, but only for that SURROUND MODE. (If you look on pg 64 of the manual under "Personal Memory Plus" it explains which items are remembered by input, and which are remembered by surround mode). So, for example, if you are on the TV/CBL input watching television in "Dolby Digital" mode and bump up the center channel by 2dB, when you switch to the DVD input and watch a movie in Dolby Digital the center channel will still by up 2dB. However, it will not affect your speaker levels for 5 CH STEREO, DIRECT, MULTI CH IN, etc.

HELPFUL HINT: If you are using the QUICK SELECTS to change input sources, you will have to RE-MEMORIZE them in order to preserve any channel level changes you make! Instructions for re-memorizing your Quick Selects can be found in your manual.

JJ7,

Did you ever figure out why it was doing this? I'm having the same problem with the new LG390. When I bitstream it to the receiver, drops out occurred every 30 secs or so. (flight of the phoenix - also with DTS-HD)

Also thanks to twoshoes for the above answer.

Hello.
I just bought myself a center speaker (yay!), and I enjoy it. Anyhow, I'm wondering if there's an easy way to quickly simulate 3.0 (left, right, center) on a 2.0 source? I know there is Neo and Dolby Music/Cinema, but then I get the surround speakers as well.

I guess I could turn off the surround speakers every time I want to listen to music in 3.0, but that's sort of.. well, almost not worth it.
So, is there an easy way to play 3.0 on a 5.0 system from a 2.0 source?
I have Denon 1909, obviously.
Thanks.

Can this receiver matrix DTS-MA to 7.1??? My Yamaha 663 that I sold could not so I was hoping that maybe this receiver could. By the way I am bitstreaming from my BDP-S350.

It can. Look at the table on p. 78 of the 1909 Owner's Manual on the Denon website.

Hello fellow 1909ers!

I was hoping someone could help me with a major problem with my 1909. I've had it for about a year now and its a great receiver. However, my wife was trying to watch a standard def dvd on my Panny Blu-Ray player and for some reason the Dialogue Normalization adjusted itself from -4db to -31db on the D.D. Audio setting for the BLU-RAY input, thus no audio is heard. I can see the 1909 sensing the 5.1 signal. The cable tv D.D. is fine and sets to -4db. I've read through manuals etc, with no luck.

My setup is:

Panny is BDK-55 via HDMI to Denon 1909. I ran the Audyssey MultiEQ setup when I got it. My setting for the Blu-Ray player haven't changed and the wierd thing is when I play Body of Lies the Dolby True-HD is fine at -4db, but the D.D. track is the same -31db. Hoping someone can assist. I know there is a processor reset, but I didn't want to redo all the settings, I'm assuming they get wiped out with the reset.

Thanks all and hope someone has had the same issue!!!

Im just started having a problem, and I believe it might be with my 1909, which is fairly new.

I have a SA 8300 HD-DVR (not sure the specific model) hooked up to my 1909 via HDMI. And I have my 1909 hooked up to my TV via HDMI.

Recently a couple times its like I loose the signal somewhere down the line. I get no picture and no audio. Just "hdmi 1" in the upper left corner. If I switch to a dvd everything works fine. Originally it seemed to only do it on HD channels, but now I cant see any channels on my dvr.


Anyone have any ideas? I tried swapping hdmi cables, and no luck. Currently thats the only cables I have, so I cant try component or anything else.

time to start searching for the term "HDMI handshake". this is a common issue with cable boxes switched through receivers or other HDMI switches.

I've honestly never heard of that before, that is a WEIRD one! The DD offset value is an automatic thing that the receiver doesn't really have any control over, it is generally flagged in the source content. Which leads me to believe the problem is with your BDP, and not the receiver (especially since other sources are working fine).

Check that there are no weird settings in your BDP, any "Dialogue Lift" or something like that. You may also be able to do a "hard" reset on the BDP to restore it to factory defaults; I would try that before resetting the microprocessor on the Denon AVR.

Sorry, there is no surround mode that doesn't "upmix" up to your full 5.1 setup. If the receiver "knows" you have 5.1 speakers connected, when you direct it to any matrixing or DSP mode that mixes 2.0 > 5.1 it will go all the way, no way to stop it at just the center channel.

Here's a workaround that might work though, since channel levels are remembered by surround mode: try using the "5 CH STEREO" mode, and then simply lower the volume of the surrounds to the maximum "-12dB" so hopefully you won't notice them relative to the front 3 speakers. This way, you won't screw up the speaker volumes for your normal surround modes.

You could also try Dolby PLII Music mode, and adjust the "Dimension" parameter to fade the sound more towards an emphasis on the fronts.

Batbig: Yeah, I guess it could work. I'll try that, thanks!
Thank you for you FAQ as well, it sure have helped me a lot when playing around with this receiver.

Update: Yes indeed, it worked great. I lowered the surround to -12dB and the fronts to +12dB. And then made it a Quick Select, since the volume is around 13dB more than usual. Thanks!

As BP indicated, the dialog normalization is encoded into the DVD so I would suggest that you NOT Reset the Microprocessor (wow .. first time I've ever said that! ) as the only thing it will do is return all your settings to their factory default. A dialog normalization of -31db means the sound engineer turned OFF this feature on that particular disc. Sony is apparently doing this on their Dolby TrueHD BDs. AFAIK, when DN is turned OFF, it shouldn't reduce the audio at all, although I've personally never viewed a DVD/BD with DN turned OFF so do not have direct experience. Another option would be to select another English audio track if offered. What is the DVD title? Perhaps another owner can play it and provide us with the value their disc provides?


What you did was different than what BP actually suggested, which was to store those values under the "5-channel stereo mode" rather than using a Quick Select. Although you can certainly do it your way, you'll also need to use another Quick Select to return the surround values to their normal level.

Yet another option would be to use the FADER function (press CH Select/Enter) only for when you want empasize the FRONT speakers and then just return it back to it's original setting when not required.

Noisy Fan?

Had the unit for about a month now.
Is there a diy solution or do I contact denon?

I have narrowed my receiver choice to Denon 789, Yamaha 665 or Pioneer 1019. I am using mainly for TV or Blu-Ray, not for music. I am concerned about what I have read about the difficulty of the setup with the Denon. I like the Denon features but I don't have much experience other than my system that is about 13 or 14 years old. Should I avoid Denon or not? Thanks!

Yup, I know. At first I did store it under the 5CH Mode, but then when I changed back to for example a DTS Movie, the sound would be very low or vice versa. So I saved it as a Quick Select in order to have lower volume when listening to it (since the fronts are ~13dB louder than usual in that mode). And then, of course, another Quick Select for the normal listening volume/setting.

Ya know, doggone it, some people have trouble and some don't. If you skim this thread you will find many thankyous to batpig for his wonderful FAQ & step-by-step guide which makes the Denon about as easy to set up as any other new AVR. And, of course, just use "search this thread" for any problem you might have and if you don't find it, post your question. Obviously biased opinion here but I think you're sniffing in the right direction.

Glad it worked out -- just to clarify for myself... Quick Selects and 5CH STEREO mode are not in any way mutually exclusive, so in your finalized configuration did you end up using the 5CH STEREO surround mode or some other mode (like PLII Music)?

Thank you all for the help. I waited a couple hours before coming back to take a look and the -31db D.N. had corrected itself to -4db??? Again, the problem hadn't existed previously before yesterday. The first disc that it happened on was a P90x fitness DVD disc (I believe encoded with a 2 ch track). The next disc I tried was Body of Lies Blu-Ray. The TrueHD track was great @ -4db, but the Dolby Digital track was read as -31db. If the information is encoded on the disc at the engineer level, I'm guessing it has nothing to do with a sync issue. If the problem happens again, I'm going to reset the BDK-55 player.

Thanks again!

At first I used 5CH STEREO, which worked good. I still heard the Surround channels a little bit, bit not very noticeable. What I did notice was that the bass is somewhat lower than for example PLII Music. I've noticed this before using this little work around.

And now when you said it, I realized that I can actually try PLII as well, which should sound a bit better. Thanks for reminding me.

Update: On the other hand. I don't want it to save those settings for PLII, since sometimes I like using that mode for the surroundspeakers as well.

I just noticed a very odd thing. Posted a new post by the way, simply because this is unrelated to my previous one.

I have 5.0, no sub. And while playing a game I noticed the big difference in bass between the fronts and the center. Of course I understand why, there should be a difference, especially since the fronts are a bit closer to the wall (and the center is new, might have to play on it a bit more).
But still, the fronts aren't managing the center's bass! They should, since they're large, and the center is small with a crossover at ~120 hz (tried at 250 hz as well). Which results in good explosions when happening right or left, but very tiny and non-bassy in the center.

And I started thinking. I took a song which has a very loud bass in it. Sounds really awesome when playing with the fronts. I used Sony Vegas in order to mix the song to an ac3 Dolby Digital with ONLY the center enabled. So I played it and it worked as intended. But! There was almost no bass, well, I felt small vibrations from the center, but that's it. Even a high volume I couldn't hear ANY sound from the fronts. Since there's a crossover, shouldn't the receiver send over some bass to the fronts?

This is strange. Simply put:
- The center speaker sucks at bass management, nothing odd here.
- The fronts aren't receiving any bass from the center channel (crossover 120hz and even 250 hz).
- I do NOT have a sub, turned off in the settings.
- It's the same with the surround-speakers. They're receiving a bass-signal, but the fronts aren't outputting any of it.
- The fronts' bass is good when using them for 2.0, 5.1, etc.

Any idea? Did I misunderstand crossover frequency in some way?

Which is why I suggested the FADER function (p. 63) as it can be done on the fly just as channel volume can be handled.

I don't think I quite understand how the fader really works. I've changed it a couple of times, pretty much only choosing fronts. And how do I return it to the default? Since I can only choose back and front.

Hello all, I'm a new owner of an AVR-1909 as of last week, only had it set up or a few days and still figuring it out. Got it for a steal, under $300 after tax. Brand new unit that was a store demo, but never plugged in or turned on (plastic protector still on power prongs and power cord twist tied from factory). They blew out the new ones for $350 and the 2309ci's for $500.

I'm having this same DTS-MA audio drop when chapter skipping of FF/FR and have to toggle pause/play to get it back. My HDP is a Sammy 5K combo and shares firmware for BD with the sammy 2500 and possibly some others. I'm guessing that this is a bug introduced by Sammy in the latest firmware to avoid the famous DTS-MA "bomb". Just a theory. Either that or it is a problem with handshake between the Sammy's and Denon's?

I don't have every 30 sec. dropout problems while playing, you have to skip around to get it to cut out, but does it on every BD in by collection that I have tried (that is open that is) that has a DTS-MA track even the 7.1 ones. Have not tried many HD-DVDs, but my Cream disc has the audio skipping and is a known issue in some players.

I'm also having the audio drop problems with some select newish Sony titles that are in DDTHD. That one is much harder to get the audio back with. You have to actually FF/FR to get it back and it just randomly cuts out during the movie. I use player decode and PCM out on the player for those titles.

I am not experiencing drops with any other HD audio formats or with PCM multi-channel input to the Denon. Course I have not watched any DD+ or DTS-HD-HR yet. I need to check some L-PCM discs, but as far as I remember my initial boot up and test did not reveal any issues there and I would remember audio not being present after chapter skips ;-)

I'm curious as to how you can tell the FRONTs are not putting out those frequencies in your CC and surrounds below their crossover settings? What CC and surrounds are you using? As the CC manages 85% of the "dialog" it's not expected to managing any real bass, which is what your Fronts are set to do as well as receiving the LFE signal to boot.


The FADER function works to either "fade" (reduce the volume) of the FRONT speakers (FL, CC, FR) or the REAR speakers (SL, SR, SBL, SBR) and does nothing to the sub (although you don't have one so no issue there).

When using the Fader function, it's much easier if you write down the original channel settings first so you can more easily return to them. Without a video display of what you are changing it can be tough to know what you are changing. If you "fade" the REAR speakers one "click" at a time, you are actually changing their channel levels by -0.5db at a time. As you want to fade them completely, it's easier to just note their current channel levels ahead of time (to return to them) and then just hold the "right arrow" REAR fade button down a few seconds so the rear speaker channel levels all move to -12db. When finished, simply return the rear speaker channel levels to their noted defaults via the channel level settings.

Question about Dolby Digital music DVDs and subwoofer level.

I like cheesy 80s music (guilty pleasure), so I have the Dokken and Extreme music clip DVDs. Both have DD 5.1 tracks. When I play those disks the bass is wayyyy too distracting (too loud, too obvious).

I get the same effect when I play Fleetwood Mac "The Dance" DVD.
"The Dance" also has a stereo PCM track that sounds nice and balanced.
The Eagles "Hell Freezes Over" DTS track sounds fine to me.

So the Question is, "Is the Denon boosting the LFE track for Dolby Digital"? or "Is it crappy mastering on the DVDs"?

My gut tells me it is the latter (crappy mastering......to much LFE).

Side note, I did go into Parameters, LFE (-10DB)....but I couldn't hear much of a difference in removing the annoying boom.

Do I now have to live with crappy mastering as a problem or is there something I can do?

I do run with DynEq on.....which is fine for CDs.

My speakers are DefTech 8000s, 1000 center and Martin Logan Dynamo sub.

Dennis.

P.S. Too much bass is just as bad as too little