Yamaha rx-a720 "official" owner's thread - Page 2

I have iPad and iPhone....the Yamaha App is OUTSTANDING! Especially on the iPad.............

I have had this receiver (A-720) for a week and I am very satisfied with my purchase and would recommend this to anyone in the "looking for a new receiver" category............

Have had my box for I guess a month now and working fine, but a question:

My wife is back in town from duties with her Mom and has trouble with new RX-A720. I had the Harmony programmed for my old RX-3800 and it went directly to Internet Radio.

Seems this box wants to go, when you start on "Net", to "Airplay". I can then move it to radio by hitting the "Net" button on the receiver. This is a bit much to ask her.

Does anyone have a way around this so that it starts out directly on "Net Radio"????

Thanks for any help!

This is kind of obvious.

Am I the only one w/RX-V673 chip inside A720?

It was a tough decision between the Denon 2313C and Yamaha RX-A720 but after listening to both of them at Best Buy, I decided the Denon had a better sound. It seemed more "smooth" than the Yamaha which had a deep booming sound which I know many people love about the Yamaha but I didn't (personal preference).

I just finished hooking it up, doing the Audessey and programing and it was super easy. If you must know, I'm a stay-at-home mom who knows very little about this stuff until I started researching for our new receiver. If I can set this up, anyone can do it!

By the way, Best Buy will price match with online stores now. I printed out a price of $616 and took it to my Best Buy. When the store manager refused to price match it, I went to another store nearby and that store manager immediately priced matched it with NO problems at all. I saved almost $300 of their regular price!

First you are telling me that my A720 most probably is not new because some sort of dealer told you so, now you are telling us that you prefer Denon to Yamaha.

Good for you, now relocate to the Denon thread. We are not interested in your Denon adventures.

You need to re-program the Harmony. There are IR codes that bring you directly to the input you want. They might not be on the factory remote but Yamaha makes them available to installers. I would think Harmony would have them. You might have to go to their level 2 or 3 tech support if it is not in their database already.

I figured it out by adding a second "NET" button press to my Harmony Sequence. Still have not figured this out for the server, but I have the principle.

PS There is something funny about the Yamaha IR commands. I had to "learn" the "NET" command, but it does not work when I use it independently. I have seem similar funny things with buttons on the Harmony 880... a friend had to get a newer Harmony for it to work properly on his system. I want this to work with my Yamaha since my wife is used to the Harmony....

OK, figured it out by rereading the manual.

There are 4 Programmable "Scene" buttons on the Yamaha remote. BD TV Net and Radio. You get what you want with the Yamaha remote then hold down one of these buttons to remember the settings. You can call these Scene button in the Harmony.... Way neat!
Edited by jerryyyyy - 10/21/12 at 4:10pm

New Questions:

Can anyone stream WAV files from a media server. Mine show up as MP3, and the info screen does not show bit-rate....

Having a hard time getting the AirPlay to work? Is there a sequence you have to follow? Manuel rather vague. Had it work once....

Thx

You can control your A720 from the laptop/PC as well, although it is "basic" controls, not like Android or iOS app.

Double-click on the A720 icon in your Network devices, it will install Yamaha driver and open a Web-based application.

I'm having trouble with Airplay too. Can't get any device to see the receiver. I can see the receiver jut fine on the router. The web app and iPad app work fine - just can't see airplay! Any thoughts?

Finally hooked up the A720 I got last week from EE...$389 shipped. Incredible deal. So far it is fantastic. Is anyone having sporadic on screen display for volume control not working. Approx 50% of the time it shows on the screen fine.

There also seems to be some disturbance and/or loss of signal for a second when i run airplay or net radio. The sound is fine but the screen will go blank for a couple seconds and come back on then go blank again. When the screen is displaying it has some distortion lines running through it

http://download.yamaha.com/search/detail/?category_id1=16445&category_id2=16622&product_id=1663302&asset_file_language=EN&asset_id=57817&language=en&site=usa.yamaha.com

Yamaha is pleased to offer the following firmware update to ensure the best possible performance and latest features for your AV receiver.

This firmware includes the following improvements.
1. Adds network music streaming services* *Music service availability varies by region.
PANDORA (USA only)
SiriusXM Internet Radio (USA/Canada only)
Rhapsody (USA only)
Napster (Europe Only)
2. Improves network connectivity with NAS drives
3. Improves operation stability

---

Already updated. Update process consist of 5 steps and takes about 20 minutes.

Thanks Yamaha!
Edited by galileo2000 - 10/30/12 at 11:23am

updated my A720 after a bit of struggle. Updating via network failed with Invalid ROM (and ERROR 2000). I panicked. But then there was way to reload it...

Download the firmware (zip file), and extract the bin file. Put in in a thumbdrive (make sure it is properly formatted, and does not have any other files/directories in it). Power off the receiver, plug in the thumbdrive.
Now, while pressing "pure direct" button, plug the receiver. It should say "USB".. it will then pick up the firmware from the USB device and complete the upgrade.

I updated from my laptop over wifi, using Yamaha Web-based app and "Update Firmware" menu item there.
Worked like a charm, no need to bother w/USB


Edited by galileo2000 - 11/1/12 at 6:33pm

My installed version was 1.22. Does it ship with 1.22 ?

what is the normal volume that most people use it at ? (say for movies ?)

For music I have to keep it at -33 db... is that normal ?
Edited by rampras - 12/18/12 at 10:04am

Hello owners, I have a few questions about this receiver:

1. Can you use Airplay in Zone2?
2. Assuming the above is "yes", can you also use Airplay in Zone2 while simultaneously another source in the main Zone? In other words could I be watching a movie in 5.1 and someone simultaenously Airplay to the outdoor speakers (Zone2)?
3. Is anyone using the YWA-10 (Wi-Fi link) with this receiver? Apparently it gets it's power from a USB port, does the rx-a720 have a rear USB port (I cannot find anything indicating that it does)?

Thank you

Hello All......

I just checked for firmware update and there is no new update for the RX-A720. My current version is 1.22. I use the iPad app which is outstanding!! I can do and control everything from the device. If you have an iPad I highly recommend the Yamaha App........

There is an update beyond 1.22. My iPad said the same thing but the update is online. It will give you Sirius pandora rhapsody and some added stability. I got the rom error when downloading directly so had to do it via USB.

There is un update now, 1.64.

I have the YWZ 10, hooked up. Can get all network features ot work except Net Radio. Error says "No Content"

The RXA 720 shows up on my home network, I can get Airplay to work, and the Yamaha Apple Remote App works too. Just not Net Radio.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

Have you tried to go to the Yamaha vtuner radio guide and add stations to your play list?

I have an android, I'll give the app a try, but first I need to finish the setup for my new A720.

My home theater:

A720
TiVo DVR on Comcast
PS3
Panasonic 60ST50
Bose Acoustimass 6.1 (I run it as 5.1)

Home Network:

Desktop PC1
Desktop PC2
Network Printer
Wireless Capability

I also have a cheapy laptop that I would like to incorporate into my home theater. Not sure of the best way to do that yet. I can see where it would be very useful to use my laptop to play movies or other stuff. I know that my PS3 can be used to play dvds or blueray or even thumb drives but a real computer like my laptop, has much more capability to play media then does my PS3.

I took the time yesterday to buy a new switch so I could run a cable between it and my router. Now I have hard connected the TiVo, Pansasonic, PS3, and A720. I ran HDMI out from PS3 and TiVo into A720 and out from my A720 into the Panasonic.

I ran into the "ERROR 2000" issue when trying to update firmware. I kicked and screamed but nothing happened. Then I found the online update instructions using thumb drive and wiped my tears away after a successful load. And that is where I'm at right now.

Any advice is most welcome. I am particuarly interested in making sure that customize my A720 in the right order so that I minimize any issues.

What I've already noticed is that my network sees my Panasonic but not my TiVo, PS3 or A720. Should these devices show up on my network?

Bump

Anyone?

FYI
I hit "on screen" button remote prompted me to update firmware. Said yes 10-12 minutes later ...done

I'm connected via Ethernet to an airport express

I went ahead and purchased an rx-a720. My speakers and connectors arrive today. I should have it all installed and setup by the weekend. I will be sure to do some testing to answer my own questions, and post the results for anyone else who is curious.

I was having problems updating the firmware on my RX-A720. Network update failed. Resorted to USB update. I tried multiple USB attempts with the USB formatted FAT32, FAT16, etc. I then tried to the last resort method using a USB where you unplug the power cord and reinsert it while holding the pure direct button. No matter what I tried, nothing worked and all the updates would fail shortly after starting with "DEVICE ERROR" displayed on the screen. I remembered that I was having some network issues when I tried using Net Radio, so I went back and reset my network settings to use DHCP and then tried the network update again and it magically worked! Obviously you need the network to do a network update, but it seems like you also need the network even to do a USB update!? At any rate, when you do the firmware update, my advice would be to do the network update as the USB update probably needs the network anyway. Hope this helps somebody stuck at DEVICE ERROR.

Network upgrade failed for me too...it seemed to go well until the very end, and then got the "Error: 2000" error, and rebooting the receiver said "ROM error". I put the firmware on a USB drive and did it that way and it worked.

Another thing I have found, Airplay apparently does not work if the unit is hard-wired. Mine is plugged into the same switch as one of my PCs, and yet that PC's iTunes does not get the airplay option, even though I can ping the IP address of the receiver. From all my googling apparently Airplay only works if the airplay device (no matter what it is) is connected directly to the router (if hardwired, no switches or other routers in between). In my case my WiFi is built into my router, and an apple airport that I have works fine.

I assume the receiver will too once I use the YWA-10 wireless adapter that I now had to order. It dismays me though, because I went through a lot of effort to install a hard-wired connection near the receiver just so that I would not have to use a WiFi connection (plus I have other devices like my media player that needs high-bandwidth network access). Due to my network configuration, it is not feasible to run a dedicated cable from my receiver all the way to my router.

I could always just use the apple airport I have and plug it into the audio input, but one of the main reasons I chose this receiver and paid so much for it was because it had Airplay built in, so using an apple airport for airplay and having to switch to its audio input just defeats the whole purpose of the purchase. Hopefully the YWA-10 solves that, but it's an extra $100 I had to blow just for fully working Airplay support

I will post again once I receive and install the YWA-10 and let know if it solved my issue.