Onkyo TX-NR818 "official" owner's thread discussion - Page 8

The 805 was truly a beast and will not be matched anytime soon in that price range. The 806 was where the power was reduced and there has not been much fluctuation in the 8 series since. Weather you will hear a difference or not depends on your speakers, listening habits and listening room. You have to double power to add 3 dbs of headroom so losing some power doesn't always hurt you. Onkyo is still very competitive when it comes to power so the 818 will do well for its price range if history is any indication. I would expect a receiver in this price range to put out anywhere form 80 to 90 watts all channels driven. You won't get 140 watts with 7 channels driven out of any of $1000 receivers anymore that I'm aware of. If you do have problems you could always add a 2 or 3 channel amp to your system and be good.

happy to report that moving the repeater has corrected the issue so far...Really got to dig into the 818 this weekend...really enjoying it as this is my first reciever since 2003 or so...old pio which is still kicking...Haven't preformed the auddyssey cal yet as i wanted a basis for comparison...

One question...what is the best option for extending the warranty on my new toy??

I hope this is an okay question to ask this thread. I currently have a Sherwood R-972 with the Trinnov system. I do love the 'stage' of the 972 - the speakers just seem to disappear when set correctly. Does anyone have any feel for the XT32 correction on the 818 versus the Trinnov on the 972? I'd hate to return the 972 to find that the sound stage isn't as good.
Also, has anyone released a real review yet for the 818 (i.e. not just regurgitating the specs like some sites do)? Thanks.

Kerry

An update on this: I did get a price match after-sale. So those of you that pre-ordered better start asking.

I will post my Review sometime tomorrow. Avs will be down so keep checking my site I guess.

Does anyone know what the 818's crossover slope is? 12db per octave? 24db per octave? It seems very shallow.

I am talking about the main speakers and surrounds crossover, not the active crossover feature.

Hi and my first post on AVSforum

Thank you for a much needed review of the TX-NR818!

What’s especially interesting to me is that you used the Sony BDP S790 in your review which is what I also plan to use with my 818 when it arrives. I have two questions though which I hope you can shed some light on:

1. Did you use the Onkyo or the Sony for up scaling of the video content in your review?

2. If you used the Onkyo; is there a way to disable the up scaling on the Sony as I assume that both shouldn’t be used simultaneously?

To all who bought the 818, do not update your firmware. Mine prompted me to update last night. I clicked ok and it said it would take 60 minutes. So I went upstairs for a hour or so and came back to a receiver powered off and clicking trying to turn it's self back on. I unplugged it and that didn't help.

I don't know what happened but I'll have to call Onkyo today.

I actually did not use the Sony for any pics. All pics were from DirecTV with the 818 sending out 1080p to my projector. The Sony 790 has dual HDMI outs so I only send sound to the 818 while the image goes directly to the projector. I am willing to bet the 818 would do a knock out job with 480i DVD though. Of course I hardly watch DVDs anymore so that would not be useful to us. Your welcome and thanks for reading.

I'll try that when I get home from work but I don't know if it will work if it won't turn on in the first place.

Thanks for the help.

Thanks will hold off on mine it will be here monday. Hopefully there be more news about whats going on by then.

Another trick is to unplug it. Then while you are plugging it back in have the power button pushed in. That has brought back to life some of their receivers in the past. Goodluck. Keep us posted.

And I didn't think there would be a firmware release for a couple more weeks. Hmmmmm

My Review is finished. To find it just follow the instructions in my signature. On the old avs my site was always blocked but not sure about the new avs yet otherwise I would provide a link to it.

I see. If I understand correctly, when watching blue rays no scaling is done at all and up scaling only happens when watching non HD material so which one would be best for up scaling for that kind of video, the Onkyo or the Sony? I ask this so I will know if I should use the same connecting as you did by using the both HDMI connections or if I should just use one and let all signals pass through the Onkyo to my TV. I’d like to use the best device of the two for image enhancing.

Thanks

Also remember to (dont know for sure on this unit this is from 80.2 integra) set HDMI Ctrl to off
•
Set the “HDMI Ctrl (RIHD)” setting to “Off”.
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Turn off the controller device connected via Ethernet cable.
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Turn off Zone 2.
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Stop playback of contents from Internet
•
Radio, iPod/iPhone, USB or servers, etc

For updating its firmware.

The best route is to use both hdmi outs on the 790. Nothing is more pure then going directly from source to display.

And that is tough for me to type as much as I love the 818's scaling.

Many thanks for your review of the 818 Joerod

Can you explain to me why i dont see any difference on my TV with upscaling on or off?. It looks the same, and i have tryed the Onkyo 1009(same video dac as 818), and the Pioneer LX85(SC57)

I saw the firmware update yesterday as well, mine went without a problem.

I only saw one change in the firmware so far: The commands to retrieve AirPlay playback status, Artist, Title, Album are now functional (as in they respond). The receiver itself does not show up as an AirPlay capable device, nor does the Airplay input mode command work (yet).

JoeRod: Can you provide a link? Your suggestion does not provide access. Thanks

What are you sending into your 818 (what resolution). Also is the overscan set to Off on your TV? There should be a noticeable difference especially if you are watching Directv or cable. Of course the larger the screen the more obvious it is.

It leads right to my Homepage. Then the 818 is in the middle down a little from the top. I will try a link but the last time I was served a warning for leading viewers away from here. Wish me luck. Hopefully new avs does not censor my site!

http://hstrial-jrodriguez996.homestead.com/ONKYO-TX-NR818-RECEIVER.html?_=1338941435891

I had the prompt yesterday to do the firmware upgrade.
I opted to wait till others tried.
When I powered up my unit today the firmware upgrade is no longer available?
I received an e-mail yesterday from Onkyo that a firmware upgrade was available.
I went to their site yesterday and the 818 showed no firware upgrades available?
My units running well as of now,so if it ain't broke I ain't gonna fix it:D
My current firmware is 1020-1100-0000-0000

Robert.. I'm confused..

The Onkyo's don't have Airplay.. did this add it?

If you don't turn HDMI Cntrl (RIHD) off you can easily brick your unit.

The firmware update was pulled from the stream by Onkyo - because it fixed nothing!

I have a TX-NR616 with the power problem (will not switch back on with the remote) and performed the update as soon as I got home last night. After over an hour of watching little percentages on the display, nothing had changed except I had to redo the initial setup!

I've only had the 616 for about 10 days so I'm well within my 30-day window to return it. I think it's time to go Denon, Yamaha or even Pioneer. Sad, because for the price, there's nothing that comares feature-wise, but I'll gladly pay more for reliability and support!

Hi Joe,

I read your review last night and have become even more 'amped' about the 818 and anxiously await Friday, when hopefully, the big brown truck pulls up in front of the house.

I'm upgrading primarily because of XT32 (from MultEQ in a 707) but the 818 offers so much more and you described many of these features very well.

I noticed that you have opted for HEIGHTS over WIDES but I was wondering if you have ever tried them, as Chris K/Audyssey believes that they bring the largest sonic improvement to the mix.

I value your reviews because they have an honest hands-on perspective.

Thank you.

Onkyo docs for developers (protocol spec) specifically say that there are AirPlay enabled 515, 616, and 818 models - those are different model numbers than the currently released models (TX-NR818 vs. TX-NR818AE). There's another document showing an AirPlay-enabled dock for Integras, and a handful of commands to retrieve song info and set the receiver input to "Airplay".

How they plan to do this is still a mystery. Paid firmware update (like Denon did), free firmware update, external box, or mid-year model refresh? This I don't know.

Bluetooth streaming is also coming with an add-on USB dongle.

Onkyo also just recently released an AirPlay-enabled tuner too:

http://www.eu.onkyo.com/en/features/airplay-58083.html