Advice on Denon X4500H (1 Viewer)

[noobieJuser]

I just upgraded from an Onkyo 7.2/1080p system to a Denon system that is 9.2/4k capable.
Should have been a _really_ nice bump in performance.... except....

We have an Amazon FireTV Cube and a DirectTV receiver. That's all we really use.
Even the old Onkyo you could pick up the Amazon remote, hit a buttton and the receiver lights up, the TV goes on and away you go.
Power off the TV, the receiver goes off, wife is happy.
Pick up the DirectTV remote, hit the power button, the DirectTV receiver powers up, the receiver powers, the TV powers up, wife is happy.
Power off on the DirectTV, and same thing. Wife is happy.

Plug in the Denon -- Add two new height speakers and the sound is good, but christ almighty.... it takes 20 minutes of fiddling with the remotes and sometimes with the DirectTV we just give up and listen to audio from the TV because the receiver just WILL NOT STAY ON.

I have called Denon support line and they have been ... let's just say less than helpful.
That is probably the nices thing I can say about my experience so far.

I have run through the setup wizards, and fiddled with power and HDMI settings manually, and none of it seems to work.

I'm a day or two away from just boxing it up and sending ti back.
I would have already if it weren't for the impressive audio and finally getting to see my 4k TV at 4K.

Are there any suggestions or routes to take to get to Denon support that doesn't just make fun of you?

 

[JohnRice]

To be honest, I'm wondering how you got the old system to work that way to begin with. Integration like that doesn't happen all on its own.

I know that CEC (universal integration) is supposed to work that way, but I've never heard of it actually happening.

 

[JohnRice]

Oh yeah, the fact the receiver won't stay on indicates there may be stray wires to a speaker somewhere that are touching, causing the receiver to shut down into protection mode.

 

[noobieJuser]

It stays on with the Amazon FIreTV.
The Audysey speaker setup runs and reports the speakers are good, otherwise I would think something along those lines too.

And it's not all the time. Sometimes after turning the DirectTV on and off, turning the receiver on and off -- enough to really annoy me and make the wife leave the room, you can sometimes get the receiver to work the DirectTV.
No idea what the magic combination is.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I would suggest getting a universal remote control. A decent one will replace all the remotes on your coffee table, and no more fiddling to try to get every component to work together. The Harmony 665 can be purchased refurbished for under $35. I have the older Harmony 650 model, and all the OEM remotes for my equipment are stored away with the batteries removed -- that's a Denon X3300W receiver, Vizio 70-inch 4K display, Comcast Xfinity cable box, Apple TV 4K streaming box, Roku Ultra streaming box, Panasonic UHD player, Sony UHD player, and Oppo DVD player being controlled with a single remote.

The Harmony remotes are very wife-friendly once programmed properly, and they are not very difficult to setup. In my setup, a single press of the button "Watch TV" turns on the display, receiver and cable box, and sets everything to the proper input. Then a single press of the "Watch a Movie" button turns off the cable box, turns on the Panasonic UHD player, and switches the receiver to the proper input. A single press of the power button turns off everything that is still on -- the remote keeps track of which devices are on/off and what input the receiver and display are set to.

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

I would suggest getting a universal remote control. A decent one will replace all the remotes on your coffee table, and no more fiddling to try to get every component to work together. The Harmony 665 can be purchased refurbished for under $35. I have the older Harmony 650 model, and all the OEM remotes for my equipment are stored away with the batteries removed -- that's a Denon X3300W receiver, Vizio 70-inch 4K display, Comcast Xfinity cable box, Apple TV 4K streaming box, Roku Ultra streaming box, Panasonic UHD player, Sony UHD player, and Oppo DVD player being controlled with a single remote.

The Harmony remotes are very wife-friendly once programmed properly, and they are not very difficult to setup. In my setup, a single press of the button "Watch TV" turns on the display, receiver and cable box, and sets everything to the proper input. Then a single press of the "Watch a Movie" button turns off the cable box, turns on the Panasonic UHD player, and switches the receiver to the proper input. A single press of the power button turns off everything that is still on -- the remote keeps track of which devices are on/off and what input the receiver and display are set to.

Thanks to this posting, I just carted a Harmony 700 remote (renewed) on Amazon. This remote should tide me on our main HT setup until I get Christmas funds and get a Harmony Elite. The 700 would then move to the master BR.

I’d be controlling:
Vizio P75-F1 4K TV
Vizio 38” 2.1 Sound Bar with separate subwoofer.
Denon X4400
Sony X700 UHD Blu-ray (Region Free for Blu-ray)
Sony BP-7200 Blu-ray (Region Free)
Sony DVP SR510 DVD player
Roku Ultra 4K
JVC VHS Player

You can imagine the problem with our basket full of remotes.

On the OP tack, I have the Denon X4400 and kinda drool a little over the X4500. Sound to me it’s like one person mentioned that some speaker wire might be shorting.

Now this is where I give the OP some serious advice. Thanks to wife’s insistence, we have Spectrum cable & internet. But the cable box is not connected to the AVR as I have it separately connected directly to the TV in what I call The Simple Setup ( TV, sound bar, cable box). Wife and her mom know how to use Spectrum remote so that entire simple setup comes on when she turns on TV.
Everything else is connected to AVR in my Home Theater Setup.

 

[YANG]

Comparing the Japanese designed internals...

...to Canadian designed internals...

...It seems that the Canadians put in some thoughts in design to reflect their daily life,
living in "open" air than the Japanese to cram themselves in tight space.

It's both the Denon x4500H vs NAD T758 v3 which closely priced to one another.​

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Now this is where I give the OP some serious advice. Thanks to wife’s insistence, we have Spectrum cable & internet. But the cable box is not connected to the AVR as I have it separately connected directly to the TV in what I call The Simple Setup ( TV, sound bar, cable box). Wife and her mom know how to use Spectrum remote so that entire simple setup comes on when she turns on TV.
Everything else is connected to AVR in my Home Theater Setup.

With that new Harmony 700 remote, this really shouldn't be necessary anymore, Brad. With our main home theater setup, all my wife has to do is press the "Watch TV" button and remember to keep the remote pointed at the TV until everything comes on. Heck, with an older model Harmony I used to own, I came home from work one day to find my parents watching TV on the main system (they live in northern Michigan and stay with us when in town). I had not explained the new remote to my technically-challenged dad, so I asked him how he figured it out. He said "I saw a button labelled Watch TV, so I pressed it".