*OFFICIAL* Denon AVR 1610/590 owner's thread - Page 3

Great! I would re-run Audyssey since you have been fiddling with the sub controls, and especially because you defeated the crossover. The electronic filter in the sub introduces some delay which causes Audyssey to compensate; a big element of Audyssey's calibration is the TIME alignment of your system.

So, once you have the sub controls tweaked to your liking (volume is solid, low-pass is defeated, phase at 0, etc) re-run Audyssey. You will probably have to re-tweak any changes to made e.g. to crossover frequency in the receiver.

In general, once you run Audyssey you shouldn't touch the controls on the sub, and instead do everything digitally in the receiver. If make any physical changes to the system (either repositioning the sub or playing with the dials) you should re-run Audyssey so the system is still calibrated.

Enjoy And all you other 1610/590 owners, please keep some reviews coming.

they all have the blue light. most people think it's cool because it makes them feel special that they are listening to HD audio.

If you set your Blu-ray player to decode first, and sent multichannel PCM, you don't get the blue light and it sounds exactly the same

sorry my man, I've never dealt with RF so I can't help you. I would definitely work with Harmony tech support, and also check out Harmony support forums (both here and at remotecentral). My guess is it's more of a Harmony issue than a Denon issue... good luck, and please report back if you find the cause! Someone else may be lurking and having a similar issue...

in terms of "sound fields" to use, unlike your Yamaha the Denon receivers are really focused on the "straight" decoding of sources and playing them accurately as recorded. Yamaha's will sometimes actually sound better using one of the proprietary sound fields, Yamaha really is focused on creating cool and usable surround fields with extra DSP processing.

On the other hand, Denon's DSP modes (accessed with the "SIMU" button) are pretty much horrible, and should generally be avoided.

For the vast majority of material, you will want the "Standard" decoding mode (accessed with the "STD" button at the bottom of your remote). The "Standard" mode will put your receiver in the default decoding mode for the input signal you are receiving.

For example, if you are receiving a 5.1 Dolby Digital signal, you will see "DOLBY DIGITAL". If you are getting DTS, it will say "DTS". If you are receiving TrueHD, it will say "DOLBY TrueHD", and so forth.

So, basically, for any MULTICHANNEL input just stick to the "Standard" mode and you are good to go. MultEQ + Dynamic EQ + Dynamic Volume will take care of the rest.

For any TWO CHANNEL input, you have your choice of listening to it in straight stereo or direct mode ("D/ST" button) or matrixing it to multichannel using the "Cinema" or "Music" buttons. I explain this stuff pretty well in the FAQ.

well there's the problem, you are watching Fox News!

In all seriousness though, that is just the way the audio is mixed. most HD stations broadcast in 5.1 DD but they don't always use all the channels, especially with something like the news where there isn't much "surround" sound needed. Sometimes you will find local news, commercials, etc where they broadcast in stereo even though the display is DD 5.1, and they just send "blank" channels for the others. So your receiver "thinks" it is getting Dolby Digital 5.1 but sound only comes out of 2 speakers.

If the input signal is Dolby Digital and the display reads "DOLBY DIGITAL" but sound isn't coming out of all the speakers, it is because of the source input. So in other words, you aren't doing anything wrong, it's the network's fault

On my cable system, the PBS-HD channel and the MLB network are the worst offenders. They are always broadcasting in 5.1 but are typically only playing 2.0 stereo.

No, I am talking about the Blu-Ray player decoding the soundtrack and then sending multichannel PCM over HDMI. Like what the PS3 does. It's effectively a "digital" version of multichannel analog cables, the advantage is (1) only one (HDMI) cable is needed and (2) you can apply digital post-processing such as Audyssey, bass management, etc.

The AVR FAQ at the top of this forum has a very good breakdown on "bitstream" versus "PCM", I suggest you check it out.



Yes, it's doing a WHOLE LOT more than just setting up your speaker levels/distances!!!

Read through this:
http://www.audyssey.com/technology/index.html

and this little "powerpoint" slideshow:
http://www.audyssey.com/technology/graphs/graph1.html

I assume everything else is working fine right?

hdmi on the denon is plug-and-play beyond assigning the inputs, so you have not messed up any settings. what you are experiencing is HDMI "handshake" problems which are extremely common with cable boxes especially. the fault is with the cheap Sci. Atl. cable box.

the common options for finding a solution are:

1. making sure the firmware of your cable box and TV are both up-to-date
2. checking with your cable company to see if they have a newer/better cable box (which will be more likely to have up-to-date HDMI EDID info)
3. experimenting with a different power-on ordering for your devices
4. setting your cable box to output at one fixed resolution (1080i)
5. check if there are any HDMI-CEC features enabled in the TV

I'm afraid to say that oftentimes things never end up working correctly -- this is always a potential issue with cable boxes and ANY hdmi switch.

If nothing fixes the problems, the surefire solutions are:

1. run your cable box straight to the TV w/ an HDMI cable, and run a digital audio cable from the cable box to the Denon AVR. having the HDMI bypass the receiver from your cable box will usually cure things. You can watch TV without powering on the receiver (and thus you can also leave the HDMI Control feature off and consume less power) and then fire up the Denon whenever you want surround sound.

2. run your cable box with component + digital audio cable to the Denon, which will remove it from the "handshake" sequence as the cable box won't be sending out HDMI video/audio. you can still run an HDMI cable to the TV.

that is how I run my cable box as well (component + digital audio). not only do I never have to worry about "handshake" problems, I also now have a spare HDMI input on my receiver.

And, as a side benefit, this allows me to use the "video select" function to mix music + TV (for example when I want tunes in the background while watching the game). The "video select" doesn't work with HDMI sources (another unfortunate HDMI limitation).

cable boxes unfortunately are generally garbage products and all the nonsense with HDMI handshaking makes it even worse.