The "Official" Denon AVR-4311CI/AVR-A100 thread [NO PRICE TALK] - Page 696

Surprised no one caught this. I believe the entire warranty is 3 years and this is used so likely, at best, MAYBE 2 years left...if that.

I have never used anything but the website. How did you get the newest version SW for a remote that has been discontinued for YEARS, literally? 7.7.0 is the latest version and available via website. What is "different looking"?

Anyway, when you 'learn' on the 550, the code gets installed on your drive and becomes a part of the SW (hence 'learning'). You have to use the advanced button setup in order to assign page 2, 3, 4 and so on.

The software has checked for updates since day one, and you are right, the remote is old, but I just bought another new one still in package on Amazon a few months back because I like it, no battery charging or battery contact problems. The batteries were shot though, LOL. The layout is different, hard to explain, possibly can do more from the website version. Thanks for explaining the page 2 thing. Like I said I don't want to sidetrack this thread, moving on.

Splicer -- the A100 as the special "anniversary edition" carried a 5-year warranty.

^And to carry that huge warranty they equipped it with special iron feet. I could never really make sense of those feet till now!

Oh man, I never did post back about that. So get this. Nothing I tried worked. Then I called Denon and they suggested I take it to a fried s house and try it. So beyond frustrated I took it to my parents house, where the have the same router I have and of course it updated and got the AirPlay upgrade first time without any issues. I still have no idea what caused the issue on my network as my 3312 and 2312 both updated without issue. I'm pretty sure there won't be any more updates for the 4311 for a long time if ever, so I'll be good for a while. Should one come out though, I guess it's back to mom and dads if I never figure out what this receiver doesnt like about my network.

Do you and your parents have the same provider? Even the same providers in different regions can treat traffic differently.

Did you use the Same cable and connection as the 3312 & 2312?

No, they are on Comcast and I have fiber through a little no name company that handles my whole community (just under 3000 homes).
I did try plugging the 4311 into the same connection that the 3312 used (the 4311 replaced the 3312) and that didnt work. Then I moved the 4311 to directly connected to the internal switch in the router and nothing there either. Tried a whole bunch of other stuff as well but nothing worked. Either way Im glad its updated now and thats over with!

I have a Denon 4311ci receiver and Oppo BDP-93 Blu-Ray player in a 7.1 setup. Having over 500 Cd's and 100's of Blu-Rays and DVD's is becoming cumbersome and I am looking to start burning these media to either a 3TB External Hard drive or a network server. Being new at this I have a few questions and would appreciate any input.

1) What software is best to burn the discs to hard drives?
2) What is difference between using a regular External drive vs a media server? I plan on just hooking up the External HDD via usb to either the receiver or the blu-ray player, dont think streaming thru wifi is important to me
3) What device is best to use for playback of the files? The Denon receiver or the Oppo?

Thanks again.

Youve got a lot of research to do on this matter as they do not make it easy or straight forward. In the end youll probably find as I did its better to just stick with discs.

Yeah, that topic is really out of scope for this thread. There is lots of info out there about setting up a media server if you want to get away from physical discs. I suggest you start googling and doing research.

I can tell you that if you just use an external drive, that means some device must be able to connect to the drive directly and read the data. A receiver like the 4311 should be able to "see" the music files but it will NOT play the video. Many Blu-ray players, game systems (like PS3) and dedicated devices (WDTV) can connect to the drive though and play your music and video files.

A media server on the other hand means that you are hosting the files on a computer somewhere on your network, with software that "serves" the media up to be accessed by other devices on the network. The same restrictions apply as above; a receiver will probably be able to "see" and access the music, but not the video. A BDP like the Oppo will be able to stream the video though.

Your solution for audio and video doesn't have to be the same though, you might decide to keep your Blu-rays as physical discs for convenience, but then rip all your music to a networked computer somewhere. If you have apple devices (e.g. iPhone, iPad) then I would strongly suggest ripping to iTunes and using that to serve the music, because then you get extraordinarily easy and well integrated control through Airplay to the receiver and the remote app.

Whether or not someone has Apple devices, I strongly recommend Asset uPNP with Windows as a media server instead of iTunes or the one built into Windows Media Player. It will transmit FLAC (including hi-rez) files without transcoding them into anything else (iTunes and Windows Media Player won't), in addition to mp and WAV files. You can use the free version indefinitely and then pay for the upgraded version (same media server, but adds PC Audio Card streaming and internet radio, along with other features) if you want:
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/asset-upnp-dlna.htm

This program works perfectly with my 4310 (and my networked BluRay player, too), and I'm sure it would work as well with a 4311.

The Cat test... funny

We have a cat that typically sleeps through anything we play. As long as he has a warm lap he's happy. That is, until I switch the 4311 to "full range mode" while playing BD movies.

Simply changing to DB offset 0 and no Volume mode will usually cause the cat to fly out the door, or at least jump down and cower while trying to isolate what disturbed him. Many times he has come back in the HT room only to immediately run out again. It is funny to watch. We don't confine him to the room, so it is his choice to stay or go. He never acts that way when any of the Volume modes (evening, day, etc) are engaged as those clip the range volumes.

My audible range is still pretty good, too good at times as any very high pitch capacitor leak sound drives me nuts. My wife can't hear half the extended range stuff I do. With the HT system at full range, I can clearly distinguish more audible highs & lows and it sounds absolutely great, but for the cat it must be hitting his expanded range a wee bit too much
Edited by coolplazma - 1/29/13 at 3:41pm

I didn't have any luck connecting 2TB Seagate GoFlex USB drives directly to the 4311. USB sticks are not a problem and same with networked media servers. As I recall, the 4311 docs state that directly connecting HDs is not supported.

Obviously, the networked media server route is not directly connected to the 4311. There are layers of underlying protocols which enable these components to see each other. For example, from the 4311 you can browse and play media server content (like from a HD) over your home network, or from some servers (like iTunes) you can "push" content to your 4311.

Many devices such as BD players and even TVs now include the ability to connect to media servers as sources. The 4311 menu interface is very primative, so you may find using your Oppo to be a superior experience. Another great device to use as your source controller is the PS2, as it has a pretty good UI.
Edited by coolplazma - 1/29/13 at 3:38pm

As suggested, confirm the dealer he purchased the unit from is an "authorized" dealer from Denon's website (that is if not purchased directly from Denon).

What does it mean if it blinks at 1/2 second intervals?

Hi, I just got a AVR-4311CI and so far I like it. I'm wondering if anyone is using IR in and out Capture.PNG 5k .PNG file . How does it work? Can I use my Niles MSU-140 and plug it directly in the receiver using a 3.5mm mono cable. This way I don't have to use the IR emitter glued on the front. Does anyone else use the OUT to connect to other Denon products (like BDP).

Thanks

Hello Shady02-go to the troubleshooting guide, page 135. in your 4311ci manual; you probably have stray strands of speaker wire touching both posts of a speaker outlet-shorting an amplifier output.

Yes, that is the intended function. Some IR repeaters though have compatibility issues so test it out.

Has anyone heard anything about progress on a firmware update to resolve the issue with Pandora where it switches to Internet radio GUI after a minute or two?

Thank you very much. I got it to work and I'm very excited to get rid of those IR emitters.
Does anyone else use IR out to connect the AVR-4311 to other devices. I'm thinking about buying a Denon DVD player and wonder if it works well.

The 4311 has DSD Direct when using HDMI so the DSD signal is not converted to PCM. I have done a number of DSD to PCM comparisons with my 4311 and Oppo 103. With DSD Direct there is no Audyssey and there is an issue with the LFE level being 10dB low. So I just leave the 103 set on PCM using HDMI (Bitstream) with XT32 and it sounds excellent .

Bill

Of course Denon players do work well. I don't know if there is some IR or control feature advantage but one big advantage of a Denon player for the 4311 is those hi-end Denon players that have DenonLink3 or 4. This yields an improvement in SQ of music due to jitter reduction. BUT the disadvantage of a Denon player is that they hobble the PCM output from SACD, sending it out @ 44.1. That makes the PCM work-around just mentioned by Bill a poor way to solve the problem Denon (and some other brands) of AVR have with decoding SACD in the AVR-it results in the SACD DSD bitstreamed .1 channel being 10 dB low. I myself simply crank up the subs for MC SACD discs, as I really like the SQ of DenonLink.

But for most folks, an Oppo player is a great choice for several reasons including features, price and CS.

OH REALLY?!?! So the 4311 is one of the few that can actually deal with DSD over HDMI huh? Well Ill have to try that out just for fun. Its all for experimenting anyway one my part, just so I can learn and come back with some experience when I talk to my several "home theater audiophile" co-workers.

^DSD decode capability has been present in several midrange models in the Denon line. My 2809 had it, as did the 4310. You can have the Denon convert it to PCM for Audyssey processing, or decode it directly to analog, as Bill mentioned. I've preferred the SQ of decoding in the AVR vs in the Oppo when I had one, but it was only a slight difference anyway.

It is definitely worth experimenting with. When listening to stereo SACDs in Direct using both the DSD and the PCM setting I could not hear any obvious SQ differences. Also when switching from DSD to PCM with the 103 the track you are listening to starts from the beginning. So it really is hard to do an actual A-B comparison. I guess I just don't have the golden ears that some do .

Bill

I just got my 4311 hooked up. It's a refurb from Accessories4Less. I hooked it up. It upgraded the firmware.It kept annoying me to upgrade Airplay, so I did that too. I used Audyssey to set up the 9.1 speaker system. Everything was great. Now, however, the network won't connect. It just says connecting, but it's not even lighting up the switch. I've plugged it into every input in the switch, and it just seems dead. I tried a new cable. Any ideas?

I tried a factory reset. No luck. Looks like I'm going to be boxing it up and sending it back. Man that sucks. I bought a 3311 from them, and it has worked fine for over a year.
Edited by thevolumnus - 1/31/13 at 8:50pm

Starting with Denon's release of the DBP-1611 and DBP-2012, I believe they addressed the "hobbled" PCM output from SACD issue (44.1) and offered 88.2 instead (like OPPO).You can bitstream DSD over HDMI as well. Of course neither player had Denon Link 3/4...the newer models DBT-1713 and DBT-3313 have dropped Mch analog outs (just 2ch) but do have 88.2 PCM over HDMI for SACD and/or DSD bitstream. The DBT-3313 has a new implementation of Denon Link "HD" which is not backward compatible w/DL 3/4 capable AVRs like the 4311 and only works w/the newer AVR-3313 and AVR-4520.
An OPPO would be a great choice, but if you want to give Denon Link 3/4 a try with the 4311, perhaps consider an used DL player. Sound of Mind inspired me to go with a DBP-A100 that I use with the 4311 and I have been very happy with it's SQ/PQ using DL. I also use a Marantz UD-5005 (very similar to Denon DBP-1611) that does SACD to 88.2 PCM over HDMI instead of the A100's 44.1 "hobbled" output.
Here's a link to Denon's product page for the DBP-A100 FWIW.
http://usa.denon.com/us/product/pages/productdetail.aspx?pcatid=avsolutions(denonna)&catid=bluerayplayers(denonna)&pid=dbpa100(denonna)
As always YMMV, an OPPO is a wise choice for all the reasons Sound of Mind mentioned, great quality, features, value and customer support.

No offense to owners of Denon universal players. But I really believe the Oppo 103 is the best value as far as the features and performace. I had considered the new Denon to have DL but when they went to DL HD I chose the 103. I'm very happy with the 103 for both music and movies.

Bill