Help Wanted: Will pay for pro advice on how to connect Denon AVR-3806, DVD-2910 & TV

[bananadan]

I am a newbie and just purchased a Denon AVR-3806 CD/DVD/SACD player, Denon DVD-2910 receiver and SONY LCD (with HDMI connection). The instructions in the manuals are a bit overwhelming for me. If you have experience connecting these specific devices together and can direct me how to connect them together, and adjust the settings, I would be happy to pay you for your time and expertise. Please contact me directly at dg@coolbananas.com. Thanks, Dan G.

 

[MDS]

Advice here is free...

I would suggest reading thru the manuals and then asking specific questions on the things you don't understand. Start simple - one component at a time.

 

[rolyasm]

Hey Dan,
The beauty of these forums is that you don't have to pay for advice. We all have at one point received advice and most are willing to give back what they know. Now I am not an "expert" but I know a bit about hooking stuff up. Unfortunately I don't think the DVD 2910 has D-link, so you will have more audio to setup, but not bad. Lets start with audio: You have an optical Audio connection on your DVD in the "Digital Out" box. Connect a wire from there to your Receiver's Optical "in" spot. It doesn't matter what optical you use, just start with one so you remember where it is. This connection is right above the 2 yellow "coax" connections bottom left on reciever. Next, the lower red and white connections on your DVD have to be connected if you want to listen do SACD or DVDA signals. Simply connect white to white and red to red from your DVD to your receivers inputs. Your receivers connections say "Ext In" and are on the mid-left section of your receiver. Your audio is done.
Video: Since your source (DVD) has HDMI as well as your television, simply connect a HDMI cable from your DVD to TV. Buy the shortest length you can that will reach. There is no need to go through your receiver and you may get a better signal bypassing the receiver.
You should now have picture and sound. Your receiver has "auto-setup" so get the mic, plug it in, and let the receiver do the setup. This is done under your receiver's setup menu. It should be close enough for your needs. You will probably have to enter your receiver's setup and tell it what singnals to use from the DVD. For example, you probably will have to select "optical 1" as the input from the DVD. Play around a bit, you will understand it quickly and you can always reset something if you mess it up. Hope that helps.
Roly

 

[bananadan]

Roly: Thank you very much for your advice. I spoke to Denon a few days ago and they recommended hooking the SONY LCD to the AVR-3806 via a HDMI cable and also hooking the DVD-2910 to the AVR-3806 via another HDMI cable. This did not allow me to hear any audio when I played a CD (maybe I simply didn't press one of the correct buttons or did not use the setup utility correctly). So I looked at my manual for the DVD-2910 and decided to use their configuration for "connecting a basic 5.1 channel surround system". I think that this is pretty much what you had described. I was able to hear CDs out of my two bookshelf speakers and SACDs in 5.1 surround sound. Part of my confusion was based upon thinking that the HDMI cable to the receiver would have allowed me to listen to CDs and SACDs. I guess that this was wrong?

So if I use the 6 cable connection for 5.1 channel surround sound, should I still hook up the HDMI cable to the receiver?

Would hooking up the DVD-2910 to the AVR-3806 and the AVR-3806 to the LCD via HDMI cables offer me any advantages/features as opposed to only hooking up the DVD-2910 to the LCD via a HDMI cable?

Thank you very much for any additional advice/suggestions that you can lend.
Dan G.

 

[mnnc]

Roly: Thank you very much for your advice. I spoke to Denon a few days ago and they recommended hooking the SONY LCD to the AVR-3806 via a HDMI cable and also hooking the DVD-2910 to the AVR-3806 via another HDMI cable. This did not allow me to hear any audio when I played a CD (maybe I simply didn't press one of the correct buttons or did not use the setup utility correctly). So I looked at my manual for the DVD-2910 and decided to use their configuration for "connecting a basic 5.1 channel surround system". I think that this is pretty much what you had described. I was able to hear CDs out of my two bookshelf speakers and SACDs in 5.1 surround sound. Part of my confusion was based upon thinking that the HDMI cable to the receiver would have allowed me to listen to CDs and SACDs. I guess that this was wrong?

So if I use the 6 cable connection for 5.1 channel surround sound, should I still hook up the HDMI cable to the receiver?

Would hooking up the DVD-2910 to the AVR-3806 and the AVR-3806 to the LCD via HDMI cables offer me any advantages/features as opposed to only hooking up the DVD-2910 to the LCD via a HDMI cable?

Thank you very much for any additional advice/suggestions that you can lend.
Dan G.

The hdmi hookup from dvd to recv'r is good for movies. Connect it to the dvd/hdmi in on recv'r. Connect six seperate rca's from dvd to the six color coded inputs on recv'r. This is for sacd/dvd audio playback. Connect an optical or coax digital cable from dvd to recv'r cd digital in. This will be used for stereo playback of 2 channel recordings. Or you could use left/right rca's to cd in on recv'r. Run a hdmi cable from recv'r to tv (monitor out from recv'r to monitor in on tv) Don't get confused with listening to a 2 ch recording through all your speakers via receivers setting like prologicII or 5/7 channel stereo.. That is simply sending 2 channels of full signal to all spkr's. Sacd on the other hand is recorded/mixed with specific signals/channels designated to be sent to certain speakers. Sacd and dvd-audio are 5.1 recordings rather than regular 2 ch recordings. This setup should cover everything you throw at it. You should end up with everything hooked to recv'r and a single cable coming from recv'r to tv. Simple. Advantage of going through recv'r vs going to tv. Recv'r should up sample signal for you. Either way...you should have hdmi going to recv'r or directly to tv whether it goes into recv'r and then to tv...or from dvd straight to tv. You see...as far as video signals are concerned whatever you put in to recv'r you must send out of recv'r to send to tv by using monitor out (whether it be s video, composite' avoid', component, or in your case the hdmi). Now mind you, not all hdmi connections provide the best picture so you may want to try component cables(the red, blue, and green). Keep in mind that component is video only...no audio. Whereas the hdmi is video and audio all together in one cable. That is a big selling point in the technology as well. Less is sometimes better. Pretty nice items ...what spkr's you have/plan on getting?

 

[rolyasm]

Your assumption that HDMI should provide sound was correct. It is an "all-in-one" cable for Audio and Video. I apologize, but I totally forgot about your HDMI connection with my first response. It should really simplify the connection. One HDMI from DVD to Denon, then one HDMI to LCD. Most HDMI supports DVD-A, but perhaps not SACD. As MNNC stated, also connect the RCA's to the DVD and Receiver. However, you should get sound from DVD's without the RCA. IF you are not, you need to make sure your DVD and Receiver are set to accept the HDMI cable. Check your setup and play around until you get sound from the HDMI. You don't really the the upconversion of the receiver for the video, but since you already are running the HDMI from the DVD to the Denon, it is just as easy to run the HDMI from the receiver to the TV. I doubt you will have any noticeable decrease in quality by going through the receiver. Some purists suggest bypassing the receiver since often times the more you change the signal or add in-between components, the more chance of signal degredation.
Roly

 

[Thunder18]

HDMI 1.1 will in fact support DVD-A, but WILL NOT support SACD.

 

[rolyasm]

Hey Thunder,
Looked at your setup. How long have you had your Polks and what do you think of them. Have you listened to other comparable speakers?
Roly

 

[WHALER]

AVR-3806 / 2910 vs AVR-4306 / 3910

My connections should be the same as BANANADAN? What does DENON LINK (3rd) feature provide in my setup? Thanks / Happy Holidays.

 

[RMK!]

My connections should be the same as BANANADAN? What does DENON LINK (3rd) feature provide in my setup? Thanks / Happy Holidays.

Whaler,
Denon Link will give you single a cable connection from your 3910 to your 4806 for all digital audio formats (2ch, SACD and DVD-A). I use DL3 from my 3910 to my 3805 and it (DL3) is one of the reasons I purchased the 3910.

By the way, nice component/speaker choices!

 

[rolyasm]

So this seems a little redundant to me. Let say you have HDMI and Denon III. The only thing your Denon link is doing is playing SACD, correct? What is the cost on a Denon Link Cable? Using HDMI and RCA connections basically makes Denon Link Obsolete, or at least that is how it appears. Anyone else see this differently?

 

[bananadan]

Can anyone tell me where I can obtain a Denon link cable? It was not included with my Denon DVD/CD player or receiver. Thank you. Dan G.

 

[bananadan]

Thank you very much for all this info. To answer your question, I ended up purchasing AXIOM speakers:
1 EP350 Powered Subwoofer
1 Pair Millennia M3ti Bookshelves
1 Pair QS4 Surrounds
1 VP150 Center
I had owned a couple of Polk audio towers that worked great and wanted to purchase a surround sound system that allowed me to use bookshelf speakers and also looked really nice (of course they had to sound great as well). I never heard of AXIOM but really liked the way they got back to me on all my questions and also liked the 30 day return policy. For the price, I don't know if I could have done better, but I am very happy with the speakers. Now that I know about this Web site and all the great comments that people leave, when I decide to buy my next speakers, I will definitely visit this site and ask you guys for your opinions.

Any opinions on AXIOM???

The hdmi hookup from dvd to recv'r is good for movies. Connect it to the dvd/hdmi in on recv'r. Connect six seperate rca's from dvd to the six color coded inputs on recv'r. This is for sacd/dvd audio playback. Connect an optical or coax digital cable from dvd to recv'r cd digital in. This will be used for stereo playback of 2 channel recordings. Or you could use left/right rca's to cd in on recv'r. Run a hdmi cable from recv'r to tv (monitor out from recv'r to monitor in on tv) Don't get confused with listening to a 2 ch recording through all your speakers via receivers setting like prologicII or 5/7 channel stereo.. That is simply sending 2 channels of full signal to all spkr's. Sacd on the other hand is recorded/mixed with specific signals/channels designated to be sent to certain speakers. Sacd and dvd-audio are 5.1 recordings rather than regular 2 ch recordings. This setup should cover everything you throw at it. You should end up with everything hooked to recv'r and a single cable coming from recv'r to tv. Simple. Advantage of going through recv'r vs going to tv. Recv'r should up sample signal for you. Either way...you should have hdmi going to recv'r or directly to tv whether it goes into recv'r and then to tv...or from dvd straight to tv. You see...as far as video signals are concerned whatever you put in to recv'r you must send out of recv'r to send to tv by using monitor out (whether it be s video, composite' avoid', component, or in your case the hdmi). Now mind you, not all hdmi connections provide the best picture so you may want to try component cables(the red, blue, and green). Keep in mind that component is video only...no audio. Whereas the hdmi is video and audio all together in one cable. That is a big selling point in the technology as well. Less is sometimes better. Pretty nice items ...what spkr's you have/plan on getting?