I'm done with Denon!

RBreak
RBreak Posts: 31
edited January 2003 in Electronics
Hello all, I'm sad to say (actually more like extremely pissed) things got ugly with the Denon 2802 tonight. Maybe two months ago (some of you may remember me posting questions about this) I rented a DVD (Harts War) from blockbuster and the only audio I could get from it was Dolby PLII. I tried everything with no luck. Finally I turned the DVD over to the widescreen side and DD started working, I thought it was a fluke or something, either way I was happy because my receiver was working again. I have watched several DVD's since then with no problems.
Until tonight. I got the "Band of Brothers" DVD set for christmas (and had already watched the first three episodes at my parents house on their cheapo Aiwa---DD worked fine there!!), I was hoping to watch the fourth episode tonight on my "good" system. After trying everything, I cannot get DD or DTS to work. I have all the stupid DSP modes, I have stereo and some Neo 6 channel something-or-other ****, but no DD or DTS. So, I started trying every other DVD I have (about 20) and it was the same with them, no DD or DTS. I even tried the DTS Demo disc I got from the DTS website, and has always worked for demos when I had friends over. Again, I have changed nothing, it worked before, and now it doesn't. I tried unplugging the unit, and doing what the manual calls resetting the processer, that didn't work. I have tried every setting this thing has. I have tried using a coaxial digital audio cable, and a optical digital audio cable. No luck. I think I've had it. When I want to sit down and relax and enjoy a movie, I dont want to have to deal with this ****, if it weren't for several shots of Captain Morgan, I would have already introduced the receiver to my garage floor in a very impactful way (trying to remember my anger managment courses!! not easy for me).
Anyway, if anybody has any ideas or suggestions, I would appreciate them. Also, can anyone recommend a good receiver that they have had for a while and are very happy with? (I have only had this damn Denon for 9 months.....F**k**g $600 peice of...ooops, anger management again, sorry). Thanks again for reading and any responses or info. --Rob
Post edited by RBreak on

Comments

  • RBreak
    RBreak Posts: 31
    edited January 2003
    Update: The unit is now working, and I have no idea why. I kept trying different DVD's for the hell of it, and when I tried "We Were Soldiers", all of a sudden DD popped up and it started working again. I have not changed anything since when it was not working. I have no freaking clue what is causing this. I went ahead and tried several other DVD's they are working now, even with DTS. Again, I don't know why, all I know is this receiver is messing with me hard. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It has screwed with me twice now, I'll give it one more chance, if it quits working again it's gone, I figure 3 strikes and it's out. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Sometimes DD and DTS works, sometimes it doesn't, with no changes to the system. At this point I could not recommend Denon to anyone, not with this crap happening. I don't feel confidant with the receiver, putting a DVD in is like a gamble, to see if it's going to work or not. Not fun.
  • shack
    shack Posts: 11,154
    edited January 2003
    Sorry you are having these problems. I have had my 1802 for almost a year now with 0 problems. Have you contacted Denon? You should have a 2 year warranty and as I recall the 2802 model is not 2 years old yet.
    "Just because you’re offended doesn’t mean you’re right." - Ricky Gervais

    "For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible." - Stuart Chase

    "Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago." - Bernard Berenson
  • wolves10
    wolves10 Posts: 71
    edited January 2003
    ..never experienced anything like that.. but I'd recommend checking your digital outputs/inputs.. also, it might be a good idea to check the cables that connect your DVD player to your reciever..
    You might also want to try connecting your digital cable to another input in your reciever.. maybe its the plug or something.

    Also, I'm not sure if your player has this, but I've ran into a couple that do.. they can turn off the digital output completely.. that might be it.

    oh, and before your reciever meets your garage floor in a very impactful way (:D).. you might want to try a different device that has DD or DTS output.. maybe borrow a friends DVD player?.. It could actually be your player thats messing things up for you.
    Theres a lot of things that it could be.. just try anything.. reciever settings, cables, player settings...

    hit me back, and let me know how things turn out.
    -wolves10
    www.apogeetek.com
  • HBombToo
    HBombToo Posts: 5,256
    edited January 2003
    Originally posted by wolves10
    ... you might want to try a different device that has DD or DTS output.. maybe borrow a friends DVD player?.. It could actually be your player thats messing things up for you.

    I would agree. Sounds like a transport problem here...

    HBomb
    ***WAREMTAE***
  • Steve@3dai
    Steve@3dai Posts: 983
    edited January 2003
    I dunno, my friends' Denon just stopped working one day. It would go through it's "boot up" process and then shut off. Pretty whacked out. He did get it fixed though, like 30 bucks.
    LSi 9/C/FX
    Arcam AVR-200
  • RBreak
    RBreak Posts: 31
    edited January 2003
    Thanks for all the replies guys. As of right now it is working fine, but every time I put in a DVD now, it's like I'm holding my breath to see if the decoder is going to work and pull up DD or DTS. I was wondering if it could be something with the decoder not "seeing" or picking up the signal coming from the DVD player every time, sort of like a loose connection type of thing where only every now and then something is not making contact with something that it should be? You would think that would be a cable connection, but I have double and triple checked all of them, they are at least tight in their connectors. If it happens again, I will try the suggestion of swapping with another DVD player to make sure it's not the signal source being inconsistent, I was thinking about that last night also. I made sure the DVD player was outputting “bitstream” which is what has always worked before. It really is strange, last week I watched “Spy Games” in DD and everything worked fine. With no changes to anything since then, I had those problems last night. Weird.
    As for introducing the receiver to the garage floor, geez that sounds extreme now that I’m calm. I should really learn to wait a while before I post! I figure you guys are the most likely to understand what it’s like to actually care if your system is working right and your getting DD/DTS or not getting it, most “regular” folks would probably just say play it in stereo mode or some DSP and not worry too much about it (not that there’s anything wrong with that-don’t want to offend any regular folks). Anyway, I was very frustrated last night, thank God for Captain Morgan or I probably would have never got to sleep. Oh well.
    Thanks again for all the responses, if I have more problems I’ll post about it (although I’ll try to calm down first next time!!)
    --Rob
  • mantis
    mantis Posts: 17,032
    edited January 2003
    RBreak,
    I assume your selecting Dolby Digital or DTS in the DVD's menu before you watch????Most movies don't default to DD or DTS,you gotta set up the audio first.

    Here's a cool little thing I use.....it works.....
    Before watching any DVD,set up the audio first

    using the 4 way arrow keys and the enter or select/Ok button.

    You will commonly have 3 choices in the main menu
    1.Audio
    2.setup
    3.Languages
    select the one that your movie has then
    select one of the following depending what the movie has to offer
    1.DTS
    2.Dolby Digital
    3 English or English 5.1

    This is standard.Some movies will default.I'm thinking this is your problem and your gear is fine.
    Dan
    My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
  • rodneyat
    rodneyat Posts: 67
    edited January 2003
    I had a similar problem a while back that I thought was with my Yamaha RX-V1200. As it turns out, it was with the Yamaha DVD Player that I had at the time. In this case, since one vendor made both I had one neck to choke when the problem arose. I called up Yamaha and explained the issue and they told me it was a firmware problem on my DVD player. They upgraded the firmware, at no charge, and it all worked great. I recently handed down the Yamaha DVD player to my brother and now have a Toshiba and still have not experience any problems.
    Polk RT 800i mains, CS 400i center, FX 500i surrounds, RT 35i rear centers, Definitive Supercube II, Yamaha RX-V3800, Samsung PN58C8000
  • mantis
    mantis Posts: 17,032
    edited January 2003
    Yamaha players are Panasonic players.
    Dan
    My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
  • RBreak
    RBreak Posts: 31
    edited January 2003
    Hello again, and thanks again for the responses. I was choosing DTS from the DVD audio menu at first, when that wasn't working I went back and chose DD (on the DVD's that had both options, I was trying several different DVD's that night).
    I normally watch regular cable TV in stereo mode through the receiver (TV/DBS mode). When everything works right and I put in a DVD, I switch the receiver to the DVD mode and normally hear a clicking noise (and the format auto detect light comes on), and it defaults to PLII. Then after I choose the audio setting I want from the DVD menu (DD, or DTS, or English 5.1, etc.) I will hear another clicking noise and the receiver then switches to DD or DTS or whatever I chose. When that happens everything works fine.
    When it doesn't work, what seems to be happening is the receiver is never switching from the stereo mode it was in from when I was watching regular cable TV, It's like it gets stuck in stereo mode even though I have switched over to DVD mode and it should be using its format auto detection and defaulting to PLII. I never hear the clicking noise it makes when it switches modes, and the display continues to say "stereo". It doesn't help either to use the dolby/dts button on the remote or the receiver faceplate.
    Like I said, I'm clueless here. When it works, I put in a DVD, switch the receiver to DVD mode, it defaults to PLII, I choose a format from the DVD audio menu (DD, or DTS), it switches to that format, and life is good.
    When it doesn't work, I put in a DVD, switch the receiver to DVD mode, and it stays in "stereo". I try choosing a format from the DVD menu (DD, or DTS), and the receiver ignores me and stays in stereo. My blood pressure then rises significantly, and I run for the Capt. Morgan!!
    Anyway, last night I watched some more of the "Band of Brothers" series in DTS and it worked fine. I'm going to try watching some more tonight (fingers crossed) and see what happens. Thanks again, --Rob
  • brettw22
    brettw22 Posts: 7,621
    edited January 2003
    Originally posted by RBreak
    My blood pressure then rises significantly, and I run for the Capt. Morgan!!

    Alcoholics Anonymous calling? :lol:
    Originally posted by RBreak
    I'm going to try watching some more tonight (fingers crossed) and see what happens.

    You're a glutton for punishment.........I can tell....... :D

    In all seriousness, I hope all works for ya. I've gotta replace my receiver pretty soon, and have been thinking about the Integra line....we'll see.
    comment comment comment comment. bitchy.