The "Official" Onkyo TX-SR876 Owners Thread - Page 91

Thanks for the help, I'll give that a try when I get home this afternoon. Also, I just noticed that in the picture I attached previously, my center channel does not show up. Perhaps it is my center speaker that is the problem.

YEP. I was going to post that your center channel is missing but my internet went down until now. You may wish to check that FIRST!
Best,
Chris

So it seems that my DefTech CLR3000 center channel is causing the speaker detect error. I had an older speaker that I put in its place and the calibration completes without issue. In addition, I took the CLR3000 over to a friend's house who also has the Onkyo 876. Guess what? He gets the same speaker detect error when we connect the CLR3000 to his 876 and run through the calibration. I'll be calling DefTech today to see how best to get this resolved.

Is sound, other than the test tones, now being sent to the speakers, for example, sound from a DVD/Blu-Ray?

Thanks, Bill

For those thinking about upgrading their DSP & main firmwares...
Edit-> Upgrading from 1.01 to 1.04 main firmware does not wipe all the settings, but updating the DSP firmware does wipe all the settings (apart from the Audeyssey calibration info). (Thanks Bill)

So write those things down before you upgrade your DSP formware.

Did you do the DSP version update as well? When I upgraded the FW from 1.01 to 1.04 with my 886 I did not lose my settings. When I updated the DSP version on my 805 that is when I lost all my settings. I believe when upgrading the FW you should not lose your settings, only with the DSP upgrade.

Bill

I did not lose any settings either. (1.01>1.04)

OK so I've done my research and have downloaded the firmware files and am almost ready to go. Just a few questions. I have an Onkyo 876 (US Version).

Firmware versions show that DSPs are all okay, but firmware main is 1.01 on my unit. I'm interested in upgrading to 1.04 to get rid of the gamma bug that affects me, and to get additional discrete remote command functionality.

The 1.04 firmware I downloaded looks straightforward enough, but I see the files for the very latest (1.05) are called DH99, supposedly for the Integra 9.9 series??? Is Integra firmware okay for us in the US? Supposedly 1.05 is the same as 1.04 anyway, so why should I even bother? Perhaps I should just update to 1.04 and leave it at that?

Finally, I see that HDMI has an update. I've never encountered the opportunity to play music with the TV off so perhaps I don't know what I'm missing. Should HDMI be done before the main update or after?

Thanks in advance folks!

HDMI update? What? where? I don't have that...
I had 1.01 on mine and went to 1.05 and have had no issues at all.
Do I know the difference between 1.04 and 1.05? Yep, 1.05 is .01 better than 1.04, other than that beats the hell out of me? Where is this HDMI update you see?
Best,
Chris

Update 7/23: Just received a fan kit from Coolerguys.com (http://www.coolerguys.com/comcool.html). The fan is silent and after 4 hours my 876 has only gone up to 45C. For me this is the perfect solution. Since my glass open rack only has about 2" clearance above my 876 I thought it best to add some cooling. This is exactly what I was looking for.
RA

Guys, thanks for all your help. Your troubleshooting steps helped me isolate the issue to my center channel. After speaking to DefTech the problem is solved.

Thanks to Chris Volk at DefTech and Adam in DefTech tech support! A speaker wire connected internally to the binding post came disconnected during shipment. As a result, the tweeter in the center was not playing at all. After re-connecting the internal wire the center is working properly and I was able to successfully complete the Audyssey calibration with all speakers connected.

Here's the HDMI update 1.02: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...=#post16803821

Apparently it fixes an inability to play music while the connected TV is off, for instance if you use your Blu-ray player as a CD player, and then turn off your TV, no more sound is output?

That HDMI update is for the xx5 series... does it also apply to the xx6?

That is something I have been wondering myself. Anybody have any further information? I'm going to test the music thing with the TV off. If it's not an issue for me, I won't proceed any further.

If I turn my display off with any source... the receiver mutes for a second then comes right back on. If the display is off to start with, all works just fine right from the beginning.

Confirmed. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I might have really rogered myself up!

Well... with as little help as we get from Onkyo, we gotta cover each other's backs on this stuff!

I just went to Amazon, and my cart told me that the price went up from something like $740 to $1694 for this receiver. I never noticed that it had dropped in price so much, or I would have probably bought it. I've been waiting to see the specs of the newer model.

When are the newer ones coming out. The press release for the 876 was 9/24/08 so I wonder if in Sept the new ones will be announced.

Hey someone from Naperville here! (I work there at Nequa Valley)
Perry, that price at amazon was a boo boo. It was only at that price for a couple of hours. There is a whole thread on slick deals about it. If you don't know it Amazon has the screwiest pricing in the whole world. Stuff can change in MINUTES, (and often does) Next time you see an insane price like that, you should buy first then you always have the option to return it. By the time I had posted it in the "Great Found Deals" Section of the forum, it had gone up to $1100, then just became out of stock. MY only wish was that it would have been the 906(but I am greedy).
Best,
Chris

The Amazon price wasn't a boo boo. Amazon just has crazy deals that last for minutes or a few hours sometimes, and then the deals are gone, like you mentioned. Just can't take too long to decide, or the deals disappear.

Yes, I did update DSP#1 just before the main firmware. I guess that'll be what did it then. I am surprised that the main firmware doesn't wipe the settings, but the DSP does. Seems backwards...

Normally I would agree with you, but this time, no. It was most definitely a screw up with Amazon. The ONLY people that got these were Prime members and the very very few that opted for one or two day shipping. They flat out CANCELLED all of the other orders at that silly price. If it was a sale, they would have just kept those orders and filled them as more came in. A ton of people were upset because they were able to order and be billed at that crazy price and then...BAM...they pulled the rug out from under them. The only reason they did not cancel ours is because of the fast shipping methods used and that Amazon processes and ships stuff pretty darn fast!
Best,
Chris

I'm running a laptop with Windows XP Professional, SP3 (32-bit). It has a serial port and I am running a serial cable directly to the Onkyo 876. I'm trying to update to Main firmware 1.04, but when I launch the update.exe file, and then click Main Update, nothing happens.

I'm using the update.exe in the App_Updater_876 directory, and have installed the VB6 files. I am using COM1, and even tried a different laptop, but no joy. Could be the serial cable I guess, I'll have to see about getting a different one to try.

Is there anything else I can try? sounds like Larry might have had a similar problem, at least initially. How did you get around it?

I just updated my 906 and there are some quirks in the update software, but the first thing you might do is ensure that the PC serial port is on com 1.

I elected to use a USB to serial port cable from monoprice.com. I did that rather than get a serial cable just because only the oldest of my PCs has a serial port. The DB-9 male plug did not seem to insert fully in the 906 DB-9 jack. The internally threaded hold down nuts (like you would expect to find on a female jack) seemed to interfere. It was easy to remove them (permanently) with pliers. I should have been more alert.


The included mini-disk of drivers was not interesting to the elderly XP box I was using, but the downloaded drivers from Prolific Software worked fine.

The converter installed on com 3. The firmware Updater seemed to allow for a choice of Com 1, 2 or 3, but nothing happened when com 3 was selected.

I used Windows Device Manager to disable the serial port on com 1 and reassigned the usb converter from com 3 to com 1. When I restarted Update data appeared just as shown in the instructions. I elected to check the log box which also made an xxxxx/29500 progress counter visible. The port speed was the default 9600.

Installation was slow but certain taking perhaps 30 minutes + to complete. All settings seemed the same.

Chris, what are you doing with the three TX-SR876s you just bought?