Denon AVR 685 clips off only on DVD playback

Hey all,

Here's what I've got going on.

I just moved and didn't change out any of my gear, so this didn't happen until I plugged in my system at the new house.

Denon AVR 685
Sony Blueray player
Comcast DVR
Klipsch speakers all around.

I checked all the wires in the back (straight wire to unit, no plugs) and don't see any crossing or touching each other, I've had that happen in the past. When we watch TV or play with the PS3, all works just fine. However, once we play a DVD or BR, it clips out in seconds to minutes.

I'm not even playing anything at loud stressful volumes. For example, we watched tv at -15, played PS3 at -25, and when I played a basic episode of Chuck or Breaking Bad in which it's just dialogue, it clips out right away.

Any thoughts?

I've ordered some banana plugs to make sure that the wires are truly contained, so maybe that fixes the problem.

Everything is running off one surge protector. Could that be an issue?

Just throwing darts at a dart board and hoping something sticks.

Thanks for your help.

Harley

I'm playing my DVDs from the Sony BR player. I'll try checking the center speaker tonight when I get home from work, but dialogue works when watching cable TV. Only with the DVD does this happen.

So here's tonight's results.

Again TV and PS3 were fine.

Moved DVD to different outlet. Same problem, shorted after a couple minutes. Removed optical and HDMI from DVD and secured the connection and so far this seems to be working. I let it play for five minutes or so (was done watching for the night) and it worked. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see if it'll make it an entire episode.

Could loose connections really be the issue? Or is that fools gold?

Ok, so it shut down again tonight when watching Stargate. It happened twice at the exact same scene even after I removed and replaced the optical wire and HDMI.

I moved the DVD into my PS3 to play the same scene to see what would happen and it made it right through the trouble spot without a problem.

My HDMI for the DVD goes from TV to DVD
Optical goes from DVD to receiver.

Knowing this, is it most likely that replacing my optical cord would do the job, seeing as how the HDMI doesn't run through the receiver? My other thought is that maybe it's pinched at too sharp an angle from the tight space.

I appreciate any thoughts.

jdsmoothie, what do you mean "should never be used in conjunction"? Do you mean that it's a possibility that the sharp angle of the connection is possibly a problem, or that I inserted some sort of urban dictionary usage to the wires that would offend the AVmasses?

Whovous, thanks for those suggestions. I'll try them today some time. Don't know why I didn't think of that swap - great idea. I'll run that scene again and see what happens.

Ok, so I swapped the wires and it's not the wire because it still shut down when I played the scene on the DVD player with the PS3 wire. I'm guessing that I'll have to try switching the inputs on the receiver setup to make sure that it's the receiver OPT1 input and not the DVD player. That should tell me, because if it plays through just fine when the DVD is set to opt2 and it works, then I'm looking at a receiver problem, but if it still shuts down with the DVD running opt2, then it's time for a new DVD player.

Sound about right?

So my final test tonight was this:

Took the two optical cords and switched places. Changed the settings so that opt1 was now PS3 and opt2 is now DVD. Played the DVD and it shut down. Played the PS3 and it made it through.

Sounds to me like the problem is actually on the DVD end of the optical input right?

Switching the cords earlier didn't matter and changing the outputs on the receiver didn't matter.

Time for a new DVD player?

Whovous mentioned using HDMI only. Right now the HDMI on the DVD goes from DVD to TV, using the optical for audio. How would I run it so that I could use HDMI for all both audio and video? Thanks for your patience with this dumb question.

I also appreciate everyone's suggestions for nailing this down to what I think might be the actual problem.

After I asked the question I went downstairs to look at the back - no HDMI. All the more reason to look into a new receiver, but if I can hold off on spending that money, then I'm a happy camper.

PS3 - that's what I'm going to do. The video always seems to have a yellowish tint to it on my PS3, but I'm sure I can tweak that. It just seems like a dedicated BR player is the real way to go, but I can ask for one for Christmas.

Again, thanks to you guys for your help.

I'm starting to think maybe I've got a power issue.

I played an older DVD and the sound is bad, so when I turned up the volume to -12db or so, it shut down during a basic conversation scene. Prior to this, the PS3 had been perfect.

Same thing happened while watching a TV show. Again, TV had been perfect as a source.

I'm thinking it's time for a new receiver.

I've had this one for about seven years. Does this happen with older receivers at all? I guess the last thing I can try is reconnecting my center using the banana plugs that showed up - maybe they're touching. However, this only happens on my other sources when I go to -14db or louder.

Thoughts? Receiver time?

Test tone is my friend.

I ran "test tone" through the speakers and it shut down at the center speaker each time.

I tried fixing the connection at the receiver. Nope. Still failed. Then I banana plugged the connection at the speaker and split the wires a little more. It survived the test.

Watched a movie on louder volumes and had success.

So if all stands to reason, the fix of the center speaker connection should do the job.

That's the good news. Bad news.... no new receiver for me.

Thanks, everyone for your continued help.