"Official" Denon AVR 2809CI/989 Thread - Page 85

I tried using several different HDMI cables and even changed the input on the receiver but still have the problem. Was watching Milk and at around 1:18:55 (loud street scene) it happened again. I was able to reproduce the shut off everytime I played at louder volume (around -15 or louder). When I played at lower volume eveything was fine. This is certainly not acceptable though. Does anyone have any other ideas or do I need to call Denon Tech Support or just return the receiver to BB and try again (afraid though I might have the same problem if this is unique to the 2809). I am starting to think it may be a HDMI input issue. I have my satellite box connected to the 2809 with component and optical audio and have never had a problem. Thanks.

Does the 3808 come with Audyssey MultEQ XT room set-up and mic? For some reason that feature is not checked on various spec pages I have seen.

absolutely, robusto.

This is not a general 2809 issue at all. To help narrow it down some, I'm curious- the cable source will not do this regardless of setting, -10, -5, 0, etc?
Do you have any of the various inputs' "Input source level" set above or below default=0? Are you running DynVol (especially midnight) on any source? Just how damn loud is it when it shuts off? Did you recheck your speaker wires as John suggested?

I would have thought a slight shorting condition also, but I'm more prone to believe the problem is in the BluRay player if this is the only source that causes the problem. Perhaps some form of low voltage transfer that causes the receiver to need to be overdriven to get the volume levels? Is that the case...do you need to crank up the volume to get an acceptable listening level when playing the BD player?

davekro; price is $1194.98 for both..will check out 6ave...

Input source level is default 0. Am running DynVol (evening). Volume is really not that loud when it shuts off the receiver. I will recheck the wiring one more time but find this hard to believe is the issue because of the random nature of the occurence. What specific should I be looking for at the amp and speaker connection end? Thanks.

You are looking for anything out of the ordinary, nice clean tight connection, most especially untidy little strands of wire which can touch anything other than the post they are meant to attach to. I had the impression that this was a reproducible (and therefore nonrandom) event. We are trying to narrow it down to the BDP; again, the cable source will not do this regardless of setting, -10, -5, 0, etc?
Also, you are running a sub, & speakers are set to Small?

Marantz 6003 was my first choice for a new AVR. But since the audyssey settings are bypassed when using HD codecs, I went with my second choice and purchased a Denon 2809CI.

Hey everyone:

First off thank you all for posting everything I needed to get things going ... tops go to batpig ...

I was wondering if I can get some expert opinion on the final Audyssey settings. I have posted before and have finally have set everything up & got my living room furniture. I am pretty sure I did everything okay and the system sounds very good. But to be honest I am new to all this A/V stuff and frankly my ears don't know how to listen for something odd or wrong.

Room Size: 12'wide, 14'long, height 10'8"

TV & front speakers are located on one of 12' walls ... couch on opposite side

Equipment
Denon 2809CI
FL/FR: B&W CM7
Center: B&W CMC
SW: SVS SB12-Plus
L/R Surr: Def Tech BP2X
TV: Samsung LN52A860

SW pre-setup:
Always on
Phase set to 0
Gain set to a tiny bit more then 1/3
EQ parameters turned off
Crossover setting bypassed
room compensator knob set to medium (which my room is)


Audyssey Settings after full setup:

Speaker configure:
Fronts: Large
Center: Large
SW: Yes
Surr: Small

Distance:
FL: 10.2ft
FR: 10.3ft
C: 10.5Ft
SW: 10.4ft
SL: 7.2ft
SR: 5.6ft

Level Check
FL -6.0db (left speaker adjoins an open archway & not a wall corner)
FR -3.5db (right speaker is more in the corner)
C -3.0db
SW -9.0db
SL -10.5db
SR -10.5db

Crossover Freq
F Large 40Hz
C Large 40Hz
Surr Small 90Hz
LFE 120Hz
SW Mode: LFE+Main
Night mode off

Sound is very sweet and deep. I think I might need to lower the gain on the SW and re-do things again ... this is where I would like to have a local buddy who knows what to listen for. So how do my numbers look? Any suggestions? I also had a question about something in the Audio Setup Menu: The EXT IN SW Level ... it's set to +15db? Do I need to play with this?

Volume can start to be heard at -70db ... at -32db music can be heard and felt though-out my apartment

Have a good weekend everyone ... that is what is left of it

Looks and sounds good. Great!
Suggestion:
Try resetting all the fronts to small and raise the crossovers to 60, listen to the bass and compare, raise to 80 and repeat. Listen to 2 ch CD music with stereo setting, bass and kickdrum. See if it's smooth, tight, punchy and localizes to the front soundstage.

Your sub "room" effect control should probably best be set to bypass before you run Auto Setup again, and left there. Audyssey takes care of all that. Yes you could turn the volume knob on the sub down a tab before you run Auto Setup again. That confusing EXT IN SW Level set to +15db has been covered many times here, it only applies to analog mult ch in so fogetabaudit.

I checked all my speaker connections and rewired my fronts which are bi-wired. I also addded banana connectors on the amp end (where 2 wires have to come together). All my amp connectors are now connected with banana jacks. All my speakers have always been set to small and I am running a SW. I tried Milk again at the point where it kept shutting off the receiver I set volume at -15, -12, -10 and -8 (much higher than I had run before). The recevier did NOT shutdown this time. Too early to say if it was the new front speaker connections but at least it is progress. Only time will tell with the next BD to see if the the problem is resolved. Thanks to all for the suggestions.

Thank you for your kind interest..
PM'd you for details..

I just purchased the Denon AVR-989 as an upgrade from my HK AVR 145. It wasn't an easy decision as I've read close to a hundred pages of threads across different brands of receivers. Ultimately I owe a huge thank you to everyone here who has posted their own questions and all of the thoughtful answers. Hopefully I will be as satisfied with my purchase when I receive it later this week as so many of you are with yours.

Cheers!

Thanks ...

I turned down the gain & bypassed the room effects ... the sw level is now -2.3db.
I also tried doing the other things but to me it sounds better leaving the fronts all large and leaving the crossover to 40hz.... I also found that if the room effects on the SW are switched on after the setup it sounds a bit better. Call me funny

I guess I am all set .... just waiting for the oppo blueray now ... I wonder if I should just get the panny 35

Anyone have a Music Server?

Wait for the Oppo like so many of us are doing, and then get into SACDs for multichannel music! Great stuff.

ON ORDER - WILL BE HERE SOON, I can't wait

While waiting, head over to the Audyssey thread and read the last 20 pages or so. Also, print out Batpig's setup guide, and read his Denon to English paper.

After playing a bit and really listening ... You were correct SoundofMind ... things sound better by setting the fronts & the center to small and crossovers to 60 & room effect off on the SW. I might switch the room effects for a little more punch ...

This is cool ... I thought it would take a long time to get things sounding great ...

Let me go pour myself a Sam Adams and be one with the music

Nice speakers+great AVR+a good source+a nice cold beer=that's what I'm talkin about!

I am having my new 2809ci set up on Tuesday by Geek Squad. I plan on running my TV though the HDMI out on the receiver and then my cable box and blu-ray into the HDMI in's.

My question is the following: I want connect my computer's audio into the receiver using a 3.5mm optical adapter into the computer and one of the optical slots on the receiver for audio. Will I be able to listen to music from the computer but also be able to watch TV with no volume on my TV at the same time? or, since the TV runs through the receiver will I lose video when switching to the optical slot to listen to music on my Macbook Pro?

Thanks for your help. I basically want to be able to listen to music and watch sports (without volume) at the same time on my 2809ci

Hi,

This 2809 is my first AVR/higher-end reciever. I am really pretty technical and all, rebuilt computers, connected my parents Sony AVR, etc., but this one has got me stumped. I recieved my 2809 about 10 days ago. I couldn't wait to hook it up, but had to wait until I got my speakers in. I got 2 Klipsch RF-62's, 1 RC-62, 2 RS-52s and a Synergy Sub-12 that I should get today. But, when I got everything but the subwoofer, I was eager to get it all set up and go. I connected the 2 RF-62's and the RC-62 and wanted to just watch a movie that way. I connected the copper wire to the + terminals and silver wire to the negative terminals. I left the straps in place on the RF-62s as the Klipsch manual indicated to do. I also connected the RF-62s to the FL and FR terminals in the A section on the AVR. I didn't want to spend the time to install the surrounds just yet. I have been working hard on this theater room for several weeks now and wanted to reward myself, lol. Anyway, I connected my Satellite box via an HDMI cable to the AVR into the SAT HDMI slot and then another HDMI cable from the Monitor HDMI slot on the AVR to my Samsung 63 inch plasma, into the same slot that I had previously gone directly from my satellite box to the TV. When I selected the input source on the AVR, I got no sound from my speakers and no signal on the TV. I checked the 3 speaker connections and made sure the AVR was selected for A, but still nothing. I then tried to assign an optical connection for my PS3 to Optical 2 (DVD) and split the audio and video signal with the PS3, sending the audio to the AVR. Selecting the DVD input source on the AVR, I still got nothing out of the speakers. I set the AVR on tuner and tuned in an FM station and still got no sound out of the speakers. The display said tuned. In each of these cases I turned the volume the full range I also tried to go to auto setup and when I pushed the left arrow on start, the display said Audessy MulitEQ 11....but didn't appear to do anything else. I didnt wait more than a minute or two, but it didn't seem to be doing anything.

Do you have any ideas why I can't seem to get anything out of the reciever?

Thanks,

Andy

Andy, welcome. I assume if this was an openbox/demo unit you would have mentioned it. If it is, do a microprocessor reset and start over. Actually, if you have not done any assigning or run autosetup you should just do the reset to have a clean start-you won't lose anything as you haven't put in anything.
First let's see if we can get internal test tones out of the speakers. Let's have you follow batpig's simple setup guide
http://batpigworld.com/
Use either the Manual Setup procedures to set up and "test" the speakers, or, alternately you could do an abbreviated version of autosetup, using just 1 mic position to save time (you'll have to rerun autosetup when you have your surrounds set up anyway). Either way you should hear test tones.
Then back to batpig's guide with attention to assigning inputs, to see if we can get audio/video going through.

Hi - careful about letting the Geek Squad get their grubby hands on your stuff... if you want to save a little cash and are the adventurous type, you can do it all yourself by following my setup guide and then utilizing the support group we have here for "recovering Denon manual readers". You will learn a lot more about how your unit functions and I think it will be a more rewarding experience in the end (teach a man to fish...)

The setup guide is linked in my sig. If you check out the FAQ at my site, there is a discussion of mixing video + audio from different sources maybe 4 or 5 questions in: http://batpigworld.com/fadq.html


The short answer is that there IS a function called "video select" which allows you to mix audio + video from different sources... but the catch is that it doesn't work with any HDMI sources.

However, there are a couple of simple workarounds available:

OPTION 1: If your computer is the only source you will be doing this with, the simplest thing is to plug it into a spare optical audio port, and then ASSIGN that optical input to the same "name" as your cable box.

For example, let's assume you use the "TV/CBL" source name for your cable box. The HDMI cable is connected to "HDMI-1" and the optical cable from your laptop is connected to "OPTICAL-1". What you would do is go into the INPUT SETUP menu and you can assign both of these inputs (HDMI-1 and OPT-1) to the "TV/CBL" name. Now, both inputs have been "mapped" to the same "name".

When you are done, switch to TV/CBL. When the input is on "auto", the Denon will automatically prioritize and take the HDMI audio + video (it won't mix the two inputs at the same time). But if you hit the "input mode" button and switch it to "Digital", it will now know to look for the audio on the digital (optical) input and you will hear audio from the computer + video from the cable box.

The limitation of this approach is that you can really only mix those two sources unless you want to go into the setup menus and reassign things.

OPTION 2: Run your cable box with component video + optical audio instead of HDMI. Then you can just use the VIDEO SELECT button. You will not give up anything in terms of video or audio quality. This is my preferred approach because I like to do the same thing (sports + music, makes the wife happier than listening to the play-by-play announcers ) so I leave my cable box hooked up with component. The advantage is that you avoid any possibility of HDMI "dropouts" or "handshake" problems, which are fairly common with cable boxes.

OPTION 3: Bypass the receiver for video from the cable box. Run the HDMI straight to the TV from the cable box for video, and then run an optical audio cable to the receiver for audio.

This is incredibly helpful. I plan on now having the geeks hook up my cable box through component and optical instead of HDMI.

I will now be able to return a hdmi cable which i am pumped about. I have an expensive Component cable that i am not using (bought it right before HDMI came out). I also have an extra digital coax cable. Will an optical cable sound better than a digital coax cable?

Good decision, component video + digital audio is the way to go for cable boxes IMO, saves a lot of potential hassle and frees up HDMI inputs for other stuff where it matters more.

BTW don't waste money on expensive cables!! Do not let those Best Buy drones talk you into some $50 HDMI cable garbage!! Visit forum sponsor monoprice and don't ever pay more the 10 bucks for a cable: http://monoprice.com

Digital coax vs. optical is identical, they both transmit the exact same digital data. So if your cable box has a digital coax output just use that and don't spend more money on an extra optical cable. Dirty little secret: digital coax is just a nice RCA cable, for the typical sub-10ft runs in a normal home setup you can use any old analog RCA you have lying around as a digital coax cable.

hey batpig,

This receiver claims to "upscale" my cable signal through HDMI ... i would lose that feature i assume. Does that actually work? I basically only watch the HD channels on my TV anway. Just curious!

actually, you would GAIN that feature. HDMI video is passed through, only much more expensive receivers have the ability to do video processing on digital video (i.e. HDMI). All Denons below the 3808CI are incapable of doing ANYTHING to the HDMI video signal.

The only scaling that these receiver can do is take analog video (i.e. component, s-video, composite) and scale it up to output over the HDMI cable. So if you have a 1080p TV and you plug the cable box in via component cables, the Denon will automatically scale everything to 1080p for output to the TV.

That being said, the video conversion on a mid-level receiver is no great shakes so don't expect anything miraculous. If you basically only watch HD channels anyway you likely won't notice a difference either way.

If you want some more info on video processing in receivers, here are some resources:

1. I discuss Denon AVR's capabilities more in-depth in the video/hdmi section of my FAQ:
http://batpigworld.com/fadq.html#section_03

2. The stickied AVR FAQ at the top of this forum has a more general discussion of the issue

3. An interesting article on video processing in receivers, and how most aren't really going to do much to improve the image: http://hometheatermag.com/receivers/608recfeat/

Thanks for your help. Your website is awesome as well. It sounds like people should always hook their cable box into the receiver via component cables then ... especially in my scenario needing to be able to listen to music and watch basketball at the same time.

Thanks, I plan on donating to your site!