*Official* Denon AVR 1909/789 Thread - Page 4

OK, time to play everyone's favorite critical reasoning and reading comprehension game, "Decipher the Denon Manual!"

Hmmm, now that I read it more carefully I will retract that, I don't think it will touch a 480i HDMI signal at all.

On page 40, in the "i/p scaler" section, when it describes what turning the scaler on does, it states: "Use i/p scaler function for for analog video signal"

I guess that's pretty clear. I don't think it can touch an HDMI input at all. It's a little confusing because I don't see where they explicitly state that no video processing can be applied to an HDMI signal, but they do say that you can't go 720p->1080i or vice versa.... which implies that you CAN go 480i->480p... but I guess this is really just for analog inputs.

So, in conclusion, I take it back, the 1909 will do nothing to an HDMI video input signal.

Quick question: How many HD inputs does this receiver support? I notice that it has 3 HDMI inputs and 3 component inputs. Does that mean 6 total HD inputs, or are these inputs shared, such that you can either use HDMI1 or Comp1, etc? Also, how many digital audio inputs does this receiver have independent of the the above video connections?

My system has 3 DirecTV HD receivers, 1 Oppo DVD HDMI, 1 PS3, 1 Xbox 360, and 1 Wii that I need to connect into the system. How many of these devices will I be able to connect directly to the 1909/789?

Thanks!
Don

Does anyone know if this receiver suffers from the same ATi video card "audio over hdmi" issue that many hdmi 1.3 receivers seem to be exhibiting?

+1

I dont understand why audio over hdmi is such a big deal. It allows you to view a volume bar on the tv when you adjust the volume on the receiver? Do I have that right? Whats the big deal?

As I understand it you can only get "Dolby TrueHD" and "DTS-HD Master Audio" from blu-ray movies when connected via HDMI.

And only when the audio is carried over HDMI will you get the DTHD or DTSHDMA, does not work when audio carried over toslink, optical or whatever.

Dont know about the volume bizness.

If I connect my PC (dedicated HTPC) to the 1909 via HDMI, then out of the 1909 into my Samsung HLS6187 DLP TV, will the TV know the HDMI signal is coming from a PC? My problem is that the Samsung DLP will not accept a PC connected via HDMI/DVI ~ it only accepts a VGA connection. I'm looking for ways to get the video from my PC to the TV via HDMI, since VGA is not HDCP compatible for playing bluray. I'm hoping that the Denon will "mask" the original source.

I'm going to set it up now. They had them in at my local BB Magnolia store. I'll let you know how it goes.

Do you remember where you read this?

Right. So any receiver cable of DTS-MA, DD HD decoding, must accept audio via hdmi. Seems like a no-brainer here.

Very interested in your comparison of the 2.

Thanks in advance!

Brad

Seems like a no-brainer...correct. But until recently, a decent number of receivers would only accept video via HDMI.

Disclaimer: This is highly subjective, so please don't let my experience make your decision!

Overall I'm pretty happy with it.
I haven't messed with any up-conversion yet.

I had similar experiences to most with Audyssey. It seemed to lower the bass and give a hi-end curve for my speakers. The volume leveling works as advertised, seems pretty good! The EQ I'm not super hype on.. I'd rather make the decisions!

I absolutely can't stand the denon OSD/Setup..It's a real PITA! The pioneer OSD looks like a commodore 64, but it's 100 times easier for me to use/navigate. Compared to the new sony and H/K OSD gui's, both the denon and pioneer are such a joke..

The Denon definitely sounds good.
This would be "the" receiver for me if it had pre-outs.
I'm going to give it another day and see if it grows on me..
Overall I think either this or the Pioneer 1018 are the best choices for the $$, you can't go wrong with either IMHO. I was too afraid to go near the 606 & 254 due to the issues and the 663 just didn't cut it for my needs.

will pioneer be batter choice for thouse of us that want to have pre out ?

also looking on a back of the 1909 it has Zone 2 out can i use that to drive my front speakers 1909> 2ch.amp> front speakers ?

yes, unless you're willing to pay for a 2809!

no not really , its like chain here ,waiting for Pioneer 51Fd to come out and see how well it does over analog , if it does well i will stick to what i have now and buy 2ch. amp if not i get new HD avr and amp.

I would imagine that most BR players do a good enough job of upscaling SD-DVDs so that you wouldn't want the AV receiver to do it. I have a Phillips 7200 BR player that uses the same upscaler chip that the Pannys do. It does upscaling to 1080P extremely well through the Denon (and the Onkyo before it) so I leave its HDMI input on conversion off.

I received an email on 7/23 from Big River stating that they shipped the 1909 I had pre-ordered on 7/14 and it will arrive 7/25. Seems really odd that they still haven't restored the 1909 listing on their web site. I guess I'll believe it when/if it arrives on Friday.

I use my PS3 for all my BluRay's. I noticed that I had it set to PCM over HDMI. The front of the 1909 said "multi channel in". It sounded great but the disk was "DTS-HDMS. Shouldn't the front of the 1909 say "DTS-HD"? Should I be on PCM or bitstream on the PS3?

Here's the deal with the PS3....

The PS3 does not bitstream the new HD codecs, but you can set it to decode them and send as PCM over HDMI. Basically, your PS3 is already decoding the audio, and sending the output to the receiver. The receiver then plays the sound, but it can't know which compression source was originally used. So, your receiver only shows multi channel.

Don't worry though, most people agree that it shouldn't matter where the audio is decoded (DVD player or receiver). The only downside is that the cool little light won't shine on the our AVRs.

If the PS3 could bitstream these codecs, then you could send the compressed audio to the AVR, it would see it which codec it was...the corresponding DTSMA, DolbyTrueHD light would shine, and it would decode the audio.

Long story, short..... nothing is wrong with your setup, and that is how it works with the PS3 (and it is no worse than using bistream).

A lot of people use the 3808 as a preamp, so the price of the 2809 is no big deal when you consider someone might have several thousand dollars of external amplifiers in their home theater setup. Some people feel it is more unusual to use a top end receiver just as a pre-amp such as the 5308.

For those who have snagged one of these at BB...what was the price?

I picked one up this evening for $649 at BB. I am having problems setting it up.. not able to get the auto setup going... I hooked up the mic but nothing happens. Cant figure out from the manual what I am doing wrong.

If you push "display" on your PS3 remote, DTS-HD or DOLBY-HD will show on your TV screen so that you can confirm that you are hearing the HD audio soundtrack.

alright call me newbie or whatever.... While setting up the receiver I put my 1/4" headphone adapter without the headphones connected to it into the Denon. So I guess the receiver detected the plug and turned off the main speakers. In my previous receiver (pioneer) it would not turn off the speakers until it detected actual headphones connected to it.

I spent over an hour trying to debug this. I guess there should have been some sort of indicator on the display to let you know that the headphones are plugged in.

now its late and I am going to bed... will give you all an update tomorrow on how the rest of the setup worked out.

Are you saying the 1909 can be found at certain BBs? Pardon me if this has already been announced.