The *Official* Onkyo TX-NR414/515/616 Problems Thread - Page 13

Wish I could tell you. Once I hooked up the second HDMI out to another TV all of my HDMI problems started. Then I returned the 616 and picked up a Pioneer.

In my experience the 400 version of the firmware did not fix the HDMI issues. I upgraded to 400 right out of the box before I hooked up anything except for power. A week later I couldn't get a picture. Returned the unit and got a Pioneer instead.

i just got my TX-NR515 from AMAZON i love Amazon it came well packaged double boxed no damage and delivery was on schedule. I unpacked it I HAD already read the manual because i downloaded it from ONKYO and printed it out.I watched the firmware update on you tube that ONKYO Did so i was ready.
It came with firmware 100 before i hooked all the speakers to it i hooked it up to my tv and wired ethernet. it said please update i said ok and i hit enter and it took about a 1/2 hour, after it said completed, i turned it off using the receiver. then i updated to 300 still by ethernet that took about 45 min after it said completed i turned it off using the receiver. then i updated to 400 using my thumb drive with firmware update i downloaded from ONKYO, that took about an hour. after i checked the firmware version and it said it was up to date with firmware version 400. then it took me a good 45 min to swap out receivers. my next step I set up speakers using speaker setup micraphone all 7.1 Channels work flawlessly saved my setting it sounds great. then I checked 3d both from blu-ray and directv both WORKED perfect. Then i checked the apps on my tv like netflix vudu hulu NO SOUND i paniced, grabbed the manual and READ IT AGAIN looking for ARC section. I read for the ARC to work you need (RIHD) on, I turned it on now everything works thank god. So if you get this receiver be patient and go step by step, there are no short cuts in life, so do your Research.

one thing that i think is very important Make Sure You Are Using the Latest HighSpeed HDMI cables, spend the extra $$$... Amazon has great cables! if you use old ones you may have issues.

Now i think i'm good for now with my setup.....Samsung PN60E8000 3D tv, Panasonic 3D Blu-ray player, and Genie Directv and my new TX-N515 powering them, all hard wired AND networked .... i hate wireless call me old school, cat6 for me.
Edited by bargervais - 1/31/13 at 3:36am

The passthrough is mapped to the HDMI input you assign it to (or last used, which is what I have it assigned to). It works on both the main and secondary HMDI outputs.

On a side note the replacement 616 I received from the Big River is working flawlessly so far (knock on wood). With the exception of the slight delay in HDMI switching from time to time I'm quite pleased with it. Sound in general is an improvement over the yammy 471 it replaced.

The video worked but not the audio when I tried but this was me trying before updating to the latest firmware.

Hello all,

two weeks ago my now 13 year old surround receiver (Sony STR-DB940) was developing problems with its relays and I summized, that it was just time to move on. Modernize, HDMI, Networking, NAS - cool.

Yesterday I see an ad for a TX-NR515 in the local advertisements of our paper (I live in Germany) at a more than decent price. So I get over to the "Media Markt" store and have a look. A sales clerk is readily available and we look at the specs of the 515 vs. the 616. For 100 Euros more I decide on the 616 - THX certification and 165 Watts per channel (these advertised values are usually way beyond what's actually coming out of the unit).

I arrive home and unpack the unit. Where's the manual? There is none. Checked the web, 100 pages ready for download and print. Excuse me? This is not really a self-explanatory gadget where documentation is "optional". This sucks. Bigtime.

So, I swap out receivers, disconnect 3 of my 4 HDMI inputs from the 55 incher LG along with the optical output (yes it does have ARC) and rewire the back of my furnishings. Everything's tucked away now - nice and neat - time to start the new toy. Switched on, it brags with its smarts and wants to set itself up. Great! It finds my satellite receiver, my Bluray player, and my little XOTAC Windows 7 / XBMC system.

Latter is the bar for my picture quality assessment, so this is where I start. Well I do not, 'cause about 3/4 off the way through the setup process the system wants to update its firmware. O.K. - go ahead. Download goes quick enough, the update itself is right around 45 minutes (forty-five!) Find the responsible engineer and can him. Really. This is unbearable. "Completed" - it says in the display - screen dark. So I turn it off and back on, only to find that ALL settings are lost - I start from scratch. Better yet, a few screens later, I'm supposed to do another update. "Not now" is the answer here - I move on.

Ahhhh, a picture of my Windows 7 screen. But it looks odd. Really odd. I start my XBMC media server and fire up my Bluray version of Battleship (2012). What a sorry sight. Washed out colors, breakups in motion, overexposed whites and overall way too dark. Great detail loss - no, that's not what I bargained for.

Before some folks get on the bandwagon again with "...just leave your HDMI hooked up directly" - button it. I replaced 13-year-old technology with a unit featuring 8 HDMI inputs, 2 HDMI outputs for a number of reasons. Less cabling is one of those reasons. So I swapped HDMI cables (all cables are very high quality cables) - to no avail. Toyed with every setting on the receiver and TV side. Nothing. Bypassed the receiver - picture perfect.

And now: The return of the "Update please" message. But now it will not react to any buttons of the remote, I cannot get into the setup. Power off, power on - same difference. Cut the power completely, power up - still screwed.

At this point I have reached my level of self abuse and I stop this madness.

The unit is all packed up again and it's going back to the store tomorrow. After reading many of the reviews here, I am certain, that this is not a fluke. These Onkyo receivers are J-U-N-K. Do not get one. Don't even go near one. After this experience - you could not give me one of those for free. Am I mad? Yes. 5 hours of my personal time WASTED.

Before I fell for the lure of the low price, I was looking at a Marantz 5007 and Denon alternatives. So be it.

Hi All,

Well I got it setup and it does pass thru to both Main and Sub out but there are a couple of things that may make me switch to another receiver.

I want the video to simply pass thru with out scaling or conversion rather it's on or not. You can select Main or Sub out with "Through" but when you select both
it selects "Auto". What this does is then sends the picture out of Main up scaled to 1080P and out of Sub without up scaling which is what I want out of both. I want my TV to do any conversion. I switched cables to verify this. I.E., the signal was a 720p into receiver and the second TV was getting a 720p signal from the Sub out but the TV on the Main out was getting a1080P. After switching the cables it was reversed so it's up scaling the Main to 1080P. I think even in through mode it introduces a layer of noise that I didn't see in my old Harman Kardon. The second thing is when it's on, It only outputs the Cab/Sat Hdmi to both TV's. When I switch to Blu-Ray or Game, the Main is this only one going out. This is the only reason I bought this over the Denon 1913 was dual outs. But if it will only work with the one input then I'm not going to keep it I believe. I still believe the "direct" picture which is simply suppose to pass thru unchanged is downgrading the picture a bit. I want all video from HDMi simply passed thru to Tv without any change and this doesn't seem to do it.

Thoughts

Thx

My thoughts are that you're lucky it worked after using both HDMI outs at the same time.

I totally agree with you about up scaling all i want out of a receiver is to send a picture from the source to the TV without doing anything to it, all i want a receiver to do is sound. I already have my TV calibrated to where i like it. but it looks like all these new receivers want to sell you on the upscale crap. upscaling to me is taking a 480 crappy picture and up scaling making it 1080 crappy picture. garbage in garbage out. i set my directv to original format and thats what i want to see on my TV.

when i got my TX-NR515 in the box was a red slip that said very important UPDATE FIRMWARE BEFORE HOOKING this receiver up! i have noticed some posts in this forum of people hooking it up then updating some of the firmware and then they have problems. I really think that ONKYO should send these out already updated and tested. There would be alot more of us being happy campers.
Edited by bargervais - 2/1/13 at 11:31am

One never knows how long a particular box has been in the distribution chain so it's wise with any new item to check for and perform any firmware upgrades before hookup. This is true of BD players, receivers, game consoles, tvs, whatever. Returning an item prematurely without doing this is or even bothering to properly set it up is kinda counterproductive. Like it or not the days when you bought a piece of electronics and "what you see is what you get" are over--it ain't just plug and play anymore. If this is your goal, stick to plastic box HTIBs.

Anyone who's done any research or even read a single page of this thread knows these receivers aren't going to work to thier optimum level without doing all the updates, and these Onkyos are far from being the only devices to which this applies.

What really sucks though is that they don't work even when you do the update before you do anything else. I plugged in only the power on my 616 before doing the update to 400 via the front screen. A week later it wouldn't display anything via HDMI.

It truly is a roll of the dice on these units.
After reading all the horror stories...i dove in anyway. Decided to buy a refurb directly from Onkyo. Found some codes on Slickdeals and got a 616 for $250 shipped to my door.
Well....it worked for 10 seconds. Turned in on, loud pop and smoke just boiled out of it. Onkyo customer service sent out a prepaid shipping label and offered to exchange or refund.
I took a second chance and this one has been a keeper. No issues, it came with latest firmware already installed. For 250.....it was a no brainer. If it were 350+ i would have chose another brand i think.

i totally agree. ithink i have everything working the way i expect a receiver to function. i did all the updateing prior to hooking it up and glad i did. i got this tx-nr515 from amazon used like new from warehouse deals for under $250 this came in and it looks brand new
so i'm very pleased and it works great.

That's great but doing the update before hooking anything else up does not guarantee that your unit will be free from errors or that it will continue to be.

yes noting in life is guarenteed i hope you wrong, THIS receiver seems very stable. The only thing i don't like is the up scaling.

Just hooked up my TX-NR414 receiver and have a couple of issues that I did not see addressed anywhere else in this thread. Hopefully someone can help.

1. Whenever I turn on the TV and receiver,, I have to toggle the volume rocker on my remote before I can actually hear sound through my speakers. Is this normal behavior? I should note that it does this regardless of which HDMI input I use.

2. On the display of the receiver, it shows me what input is being used. With my old Yamaha receiver, I am used to the listening mode being shown instead. I can show the mode briefly by pressing the "Display" button but then it defaults back to the input label. Is there a way to show the listening mode permanently rather than the input? Also, on my old Yamaha receiver I liked the fact that there was always an icon on the display that showed which speakers in my system were being used for a particular listening mode. I don't see this feature on the Onkyo and I assume it's not available (maybe not on any receivers other than the Yamahas?) but thought I would make sure I'm not missing something.

Not sure either of these are deal breakers in the scheme of things but the volume issue is pretty annoying.

i have a 515 when i turn it back on if i was watching input source say cable/sat HDMI 2 WHEN I TURN IT BACK ON IT does go back to HDMI 2. on the other hand on my TX-NR509 in my den it never goes back to the cable/sat but TV/CD then i have to switch it which buggs me

as for the listening mode on the 515 it always displays the CABLE/SAT to see mode i have to hit the receiver botton then display to see modes then it goes right back to CABLE/SAT not sure how to change that i looked through the manual i'll keep looking.

It would be helpful if they'd go back to printed manuals.

I miss the printed manual, but a PDF IS easy to navigate through using the bookmaks easilly gets you to sections your looking for

It's been a couple of weeks and all seems to be working fine.

I think some of the issues posted are user error (not reading instructions) but appreciate that a consumer product such as this should not require so much work and Onkyo's translation is a little iffy, for example when updating via USB you should just unplug the network cable. Saying that I think the 616 is a great sounding receiver and now there are so many discounts (seemingly because of this issue) you can pick one up for half the recommended price.
I don’t know of any manufacturer that hasn't had issues with a particular product at some time (Toyota, Microsoft etc.) The choice is yours at the end of the day. I am happy with mine and I have had Denon, Yamaha as well as Onkyo in the past, all great in their time, the 616 does what I want now and I paid half the recommended price for it... Bargain!

I am in pretty much the exact same boat. I was originally looking at the Denon 2113 and 2313 but with the current deals you can get on the Onkyo 616 I had a hard time justifying either of those receivers. For what I could get the 616 for, I would have had to go down below even the 1913 in Denon's line, which in my opinion is far less receiver than what you get in the 616.

I had an Onkyo 604 prior to this receiver which I thought was a good receiver, but all of the issues that I read about regarding the current Onkyo's scared me away initially. But with the great deals on them, and a resonable return period from where I bought it, I went for it.

So far, not a single issue, and I am happy with the performance.

I just installed a 515 yesterday before the game, it was a little confusing and did not work the way it was set up, then I saw the magic words, in a little box on page 63, after changing the settings of the HDMI control RIHD, HDMI through or audio return channel turn off all the connected equipment and then on again. After that every thing I wanted it to do is working. Thats what happens when I do not read every word. I would like a printed manual to, but I got away with just printing out 4 pages 61 to 64. With the new equipment I find that it helps to think computer not TV/stereo/surounds, and when all ells fails, reset. As for the pass through function it actives on the input source selected at time of setting the AVR to standby mode. I sure hope that is the input being used at setup and not every time the thing is turned off. I want it to start up in the cable/sat input and then switched to another input as wanted. AS for the HDMI sub out, does that serve as a splitter for a 2nd set ?

Hi,

Well I did do the update first. The only hookup was HDMI out to TV to see what was going on. As I posted earlier, The Sub out was only working with one of the HDMI's.
Next day it worked with all of them but it cuts in and out often. Guess doing the update first doesn't always work either. Trying to decide now if I want to try a second one on move on to another brand?

Later

i just noticed on my ONKYO TX-NR515 the back right channel post cuts out. Do you think i'm tighten it too tight, thats when it cuts out, if i tighten it just a little bit it works fine, can the post itself need tightening or is it loose inside ????

i,m returning my TX-NR515 Because the rear right channel keeps cutting out when i wiggle the post a tiny bit it works i contacted ONKYO but i have not heard back i have a 30 day return policy so i'll be return it and i,m getting a TX-NR616. THE posts on the 515 look loose.

Update 2/13/13

I got my new TX-NR 616 it came with firmware 400 very happy. I hooked everything up ran airways everything is working great. CAN'T WAIT FOR MY my new sub IT will be here tomorrow, It WILL replace my twelve year old sub. I'll redo the audessy to see how much the bass will improve.
The only reason for four stars and not five is the hassle for setting up a defective receiver and returning it.
I love this receiver sound great for the price. I'll be upgrading my main receiver when the price comes down I really want the TX-NR 818 but I won't spend a grand right now. It's a little too rich for my blood right now.

I highly recommend this receiver and that you get it through Amazon because of Amazon's great customer service.
Edited by bargervais - 2/15/13 at 2:32pm

Good luck!

I have the TX-nr616 and can not get my panasonic tv to output through my speakers. I have ARC HDMI as main but to output sound from tv need to use Optical cable not ideal.

I also have the Onkyo Ipod dock DS-A5 and this will not show iphone OSD on my tv but will output video.

Hi,

I'm on my second NR616 and it is exhibiting the more or less the same issue as the first. I did the firmware update
on both via USB before anything other than main out to TV to start it. Spent many hours on both trying everything I read or could think of in every combination of settings. Very frustrated.

1. I set both up with dual out and it works perfectly on SAT/Cab(Directv DVR) input as well as pass thru to both TV's but switching to BD(PS3 blu ray) or Game(Xbox) it works less than half the time and when it does, the second TV has noise and white lines across the screen that are not there on Sat/Cab either when on or in pass thru. Tried different cables ect. and no difference. I read about turning off deep color on PS3 and made no difference and it's doing the same with Xbox.

I read to turn off deep color on Receiver but I can't get it off on the receiver at least that I can tell. I tried holding Game/Standby per instructions and "Dock" comes up. I then tried STR/DVD/Standby and "DeepColorOn never changes. I don't really want to try a third one unless I know it will work. Is it worse on the 616 than other models?
It seems to be based on research.

2.I ran speaker calibration(Full) on both units twice to compare each one. The first unit gave me exactly the same both times but it seemed a bit confusing. The second unit was different each time. I was alone in a quiet room all 4 times. See settings below.

Keep in mind the 3 Front and Center speakers are the same as each other.
and the 4 Surround and Back Surround are the same as each other but different than Fronts and Center of course.

First Unit Both Times.
It set Fronts to 120hz and Center to 90hz. Weird.

Surround and Surround Back are all 4 the same speakers.
It set Surround to 90hz and Surround back to 60hz. Also seems Weird.

It set Sub to 120hz.

The Second unit gave me different settings each time.

First time
Fronts were 100hz and Center was 90hz.
Surround were 90hz.
Surround Back were 50hz.
Sub was 120hz.

Second time
Fronts were 100hz and Center was 100hz. also
Surround were 90hz.
Surround Back were 60hz.
Sub was 120hz.

On both units the distance seem to be the same all around.
I think the levels were also but I didn't worry that much about it.
I think the first unit sounded better from the front and center but it could be my imagination. But it seemed like the dialog was louder and clearer.
I guess I'm looking for advice if I keep second unit.


Sorry for the long post but very frustrating all the time I've spent with little solved.

Thanks
Edited by 1956msg - 2/11/13 at 6:38am

Well I already ordered the energy takes from mono and was pretty much settled on getting the 515 for a small second home theater but this thread is making me scared to do it.