Yamaha rx-a720 "official" owner's thread - Page 3

Okay I installed the YWA-10BL and that indeed did fix my Airplay issue.

I can now answer my own questions.

1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. Yes, there is a USB port on the back that powers the YWA-10BL, and using the YWA-10BL enables AirPlay to work properly (for some reason Airplay does not work if hardwired and not connected DIRECTLY to the router).

In regards to playing AirPlay on 2nd zone, yes you can and you already answered that yourself. However, in regards to your question about whether you can do AirPlay in zone 2 and something else in zone 1 simultaneiously, the answer is yes but it depends on the sources. Like you found, I can do 5.1 video source on the main and AirPlay on the 2nd zone, but I had issues when I tried to do something like Pandora on the main and AirPlay on zone 2. Seems like you can only be doing one streaming audio source at a time.

Just turned on receiver after returning from vacation and the new firmware update came up automatically. Updated via Ethernet and all is good I did have to change the IP address on my iPad for the Yamaha app. So I have had the unit for about 2months and I'm starting to think this was a great choice in receivers.

Ditto

I've only just hooked up my a720. First Yamaha I've had. I previously used an Onkyo HT-RC180, but just like every other 180 and NR806, the HDMI board failed. Zero response after repeated attempts to reach their customer service and NO help fixing a unit that burned out a month after mfr warranty ended means no more Onkyo for me EVER.

First impressions of the 720: It looks great and sounds great. I'm mixed on the GUI. It's simple to use but a little non-intuitive for a couple of functions. In other ways, it seems too simplified. Physically, this has a smaller footprint than the Onkyo, is much lighter, and seems to put out NO heat. I will miss the fold-down metal cover from the RC180, but the a720 is still an attractive unit, and after I found the dimmer control for the front panel, it's less imposing.

I haven't upgraded to 3D TV and bluray player yet, so I don't know anything about ARC and such, and I'm not using HDMI passthru. I have a Westinghouse monitor from which I've removed the speakers and do all my audio through the receiver. The Westinghouse only has DVI (but with full HDCP) inputs, so I have a HDMI-DVI cable to it, and the a720 appears to recognize that and has no problem.

The firmware update went smoothly and took about 15-20 minutes over the network. I'm using a wifi game adapter plugged into the ethernet jack.

I LOVE the iPhone app. Compared to Onkyo remote app it is SO much smoother and fuller-featured. I'm sitting at my desk in a different room controlling the receiver with my iPhone selecting different net radio stations. This is great!

Only two difficulties so far, so if you've read this far and can help me out it would be much appreciated:
1) I have an old Game Cube hooked up with the composite cable, but there doesn't seem to be a way to feed composite video to it and analog audio. The AV1&2 inputs only have digital audio in. Any workaround??
[edit]I figured this one out myself finally. On the input menu, You can select a video input source then up-arrow to get settings and choose the audio source. Great!![/edit]

2) I have the latest HD Roku hooked to HDMI 4, and it's set for 1080p, but for some reason it's not outputting to my TV full screen. The information says I'm only getting 480p no matter how I set the Roku. Is this a negotiation error between the Roku and the a720? Afraid I'm going to have to call support to fix this one, but I'm going to try a different HDMI cable first.

Except for the problem with the Roku, I'm very pleased with this selection. It came down to a choice between this and a Denon 2313 for $50 less, but I took a chance on the Yamaha based on all the positive reviews. So far, so good!

I'm using a wired connection to a wifi game adapter, and AirPlay from my iPhone worked perfectly. The AirPlay icon, however, is not showing up in iTunes on my Win7 PC. Not sure if that's indicative of your problem or if it's just not available for Windows.

For the Roku try setting monitor check to skip in the advance menu and see if that solves the problem.

I have upgraded to the newest firmware, and yes I went through the "ERROR 2000" and re-load using the USB memory problem. Now I am enjoying Pandora. I have also joined Rhapsody on 2-week approval. It looks like quite a large catalog, but I am having a problem with the "browse "screens on the TV, from the A720 while using the Rhapsody app. To wit- they are blank! The user manual for Rhapsody shows the first browse screen with four lines in it: 1) Rhapsody Music Guide, 2) Rhapsody Radio, 3) Search, 4) My Library. My same screen has no entries. However, those functions are available, and the app does produce music. The lower-level browse screens below the top level are also selectively blank, and the manual doesn't tell what they are supposed to be. Some of the lower screens are fully functional, such as the third-level searches. The second level browse screen for search is also blank, although I have figured out it is supposed to say "Artist", "Album" , and "Track", because that's what the third-level search screens do.

What is everybody else seeing here in the Rhapsody app?

PS: The iPad app has the same problem.
Edited by gsmollin - 11/25/12 at 8:45am

Question on RX-A720 remote.......

Can I program the remote so that it controls my TV and DVD player or do I have to go to a universal remote solution? Would really like to get down to one remote.

]Page 99 of the users guide explains how to do this.

Hi, just a note saying am happy with my receiver. Have the latest firmware update and am able to use my iPhone or my windows 7 PCs to control it. It is hardwired, but uses a switch. No wiFi.

I have it programmed through my Harmony 880.

Have little to complain about, except might be nice for the net radio statiobns to start up on last station used. My 3800 did this and my wife liked it.

Cheers:D

PS Just thought of one thing to complain about, has anyone gotten WAV files to stream? Can get little information from the INFO page..... My good library is all WAV files.

I wonder how to do AirPlay in Zone 2? For zone 1 it's pretty straight forward. I just select the name of the A720 on the Ipad and it goes to the main zone. How do I get it to play in Zone 2? I tried playing around with the receiver and also the Yamaha app, but it just always goes to zone 1?

.wav files stream very well for me. My entire library is .wav files. I don't remember that being a problem.

First select "zone" at the bottom of the screen, and then select zone 2. Then turn "on" the zone 2. Then select "input" at the bottom of the screen, and "airplay", or the airplay symbol should be in the list.

Thanks

not sure if this is a receiver, tv or harmony one issue but looking for where to start.

i've the 720 yamaha and am having issues getting the harmony remote to work with everything properly.

i've a dune hd d1 and a roku hooked to the receiver along with a blu ray player and cable.

for some reason, the dune and roku are both input HDMI 1 on the TV to display, but are hdmi 2 and 3 on the receiver. everything is attached to the receiver with only it connected to the TV VIA hdmi (NON ARC)

any ideas?

so far I'm not very impressed with the receiver, but some of that is because I was told it had pre-outs (best buy) so i could put a powerful 2 channel amp in the mix for the right and left tower speakers. it's my parents receiver and I doubt I'll get them to return it simply because my amp can't be used as they think it powers the mirage omd-28 adequately.

airplay seems buggy. i find it difficult for the imac on the network to connect to the receiver, but once it does start working it's fine. Usuually I need to go to the computer to connect and start playing as it doesn't seem to work on 'network standby' with activation via the itunes remote app.

I also had the zone 2/airplay issue with no sound but will try the solution posted above and see if that works.

Thanks. I subsequently realized that in order to AirPlay in zone 2 I have to do what you said in the Yamaha app, and then select the playlist from within the Yamaha app. What I did before was I play the music directly in Ipad and select A720 in the Airplay icon, this will default to play in main zone. Anyhow, got it to work now and I'm happy. Thanks.
Edited by d2etc - 11/26/12 at 8:11pm

I have got the A720 for $515 + tax (Canadian) for a few weeks. I'm loving it very much so far. I got the following setup:

* 2 speakers in zone 1 (living room, to be expanded to 5.1 or 7.1)
* 2 ceiling speakers in zone 2 (kitchen/dining room)

* Cable box (HDMI)
* Panny 52' TV (HDMI)
* PS3 (HDMI)
* CD player
* Old dvd-player with component video + optical audio
* Networked to my main router through a home power-line network
* Ipad
* Android

Everything worked flawlessly. I am thrilled to be able to control the receiver from my android tablet and my ipad. Plus I can stream music from both my Ipad or Anroid wirelessly. It is just awesome. I am researching what speakers to use for my 5.1/7.1. So acoustic-wise I still have a lot of tuning to do. But I love every bit of the A720 so far. I can't recommend this receiver enough. Connection was super easy. I'm savvy but no expert and I have no trouble getting things to work.

I am eager to connect Wii soon. Also to try using my Windows 7 pc as media server.

Remember you need to play from within the yamaha app if you want to AirPlay to zone 2. If you goto your Ipad playlist and select Airplay to the A720 in the device list it'll always goto zone 1.

a few weeks ago I posted about not getting airplay to zone 2. it turns out nothing goes to zone 2. Tried FM radio and pandora.

confirmed speaker wire is properly attached. Speakers tested OK.

any suggestions? think it's something wrong with the yamaha?

Is anyone using a USB drive to play music? Cannot get it to work. Have reformatter to exFAT- MS default. Cannot seem to get it to do FAT32.

Bump...

any help ?

I think the -33 is ok. Mine runs -15 to. -35. I think this can be normalized during calibration somehow to center at zero.

On the USB and fat32.... I was able to format my 1tb USB drive in fat32 using partedmagic. Now the whole drive can be used. Also will play some cut not all wav files.

ok gurus, been lurking for several weeks on the various forums ahead of investing in some HT equipment/speakers etc for the very first time.
I am leaning toward the yamaha and the B&W line of speakers.
Limited budget (<$3k) for all of it
i was originally thinking a820 + b&W CM5s + CMC2 + sub.
over the last several weeks of researching on the forums and doing the math, looks like the way to go is
an a720 + B&W CM9s + CMC2s + sub (tbd).
Wanted to know if you folks had any others cons to consider ahead of me getting the A720.
Not seeking advise on the speakers (I am set on the B&W line, just not certain which one yet.)
Appreciate any input and your expert debates/comments/suggestions etc.
avsforum truly is an great place for rookies (like me) to learn about HT.

To recap, looking for any additional "show stoppers" for the A720 that you have discovered that should make me look elsewhere (A820/denon 2313CI etc.)
doing 80% Video 20% music on this setup.
cheers!

I have been transcribing some old VCR tapes to digital. Does anyone have any idea of how to stream such files to the A720?

I have bought Yamaha RX-A720 receiver and Mirage OmniSat OS3 speakers 5.1 with S10 subwoofer.

I'm not able to get more bass in music. I have set the sub level to 3/4 and not able to get the punch in bass music.

Is there any settings that I'm missing or the receiver is not so good for more bass.

Please advise...

There should be a cross-over setting... the point at which the sub-woofer takes over for the speakers... I would mess with that. Usual default is 80 but maybe was set to something crazy like 20... then you get a hole in your base between 20 and the bottom range of your main speakers... I am not a pro at this but know it makes a difference.

Thanks Jerry. I still need to do some calibration on the receiver. As per your previous response on volume, mine also gets louder sound around -35db. Is this normal for this receiver? I thought when you increase the volume, it should raise the volume too but it has to go from -80db to -35db to hear it. Please advise...

I also had a similar experience - and can verify that the unit does connect to the network while updating. I was about ready to give up on the update after trying multiple times via USB recovery, when I took a chance and tried the FRONT USB (where you would normally connect an iPod) instead of the one in the back. It worked. I have no idea why this was the case, but the same file/USB I tried multiple times in the back USB magically worked in the front. Hopefully this helps someone else!