Denon 3900h - setup issues - is this just borked?

[Tre2023]

I guess those of us with lesser TVs and devices will just have to take your word for it. It is not a dragon I am particularly interested in chasing at the moment. But, I am very tempted to get an X3900H as it comes closer to fulfilling my particular needs more than any other AVP/AVR on the market at a comparable price.

 

[Koldur]

I guess those of us with lesser TVs and devices will just have to take your word for it. It is not a dragon I am particularly interested in chasing at the moment. But, I am very tempted to get an X3900H as it comes closer to fulfilling my particular needs more than any other AVP/AVR on the market at a comparable price.

Sound is definitely more important to me too and the 3900 does that well and great to finally have two Audyssey profiles.

 

[Pinkynator]

Hey everyone, I wanted to provide a final update on the HDMI blackout and handshake dropouts I've been experiencing with my setup.

Considering the entire text was written by "AI"... I'm not sure what to think. Is anything real? Is it an "AI" hallucination? Are you human? Or did a bot just randomly register to ASR and started hallucinating problems that may not even exist in reality?

 

[Burnsy1]

Yes, Amir has my 3900h until the review goes up!

Pretty anxious here to see the review. Have you heard from him at all? Wondering how much longer it will be.

 

[EWL5]

Pretty anxious here to see the review. Have you heard from him at all? Wondering how much longer it will be.

Unless you don't have an AVR, the 3900 pricing seems to be holding steady at MSRP all over. It's highly unlikely that the Cirrus DAC SINAD will be worse than the 3800 or better than the 3700 (before the fire). I would purchase based on this belief.

 

[Burnsy1]

@doodlebro Any word from Amir on when your 3900 will be on the bench? Seems like it's been a couple months now since you sent it in.

 

[Miker 1102]

@doodlebro Any word from Amir on when your 3900 will be on the bench? Seems like it's been a couple months now since you sent it in.

So somebdy did send one. I have one in a box here that I was thinking about sending. I am curious but wikl probably set it up next week.I sent Amir a message but I will leave him alone if he has one. I am sure he will get to it.

 

[doodlebro]

@doodlebro Any word from Amir on when your 3900 will be on the bench? Seems like it's been a couple months now since you sent it in.

Nope, nothing yet! I know his other half signed for it, so it's definitely there.

May have been bad timing this year, but I trust he will get to it as soon as he can. Have patience my fellow audio nerds!

 

[Burnsy1]

Nope, nothing yet! I know his other half signed for it, so it's definitely there.

May have been bad timing this year, but I trust he will get to it as soon as he can. Have patience my fellow audio nerds!

I can't imagine buying a new receiver and being without it for months .... Thank you for your sacrifice.

 

[peng]

Unless you don't have an AVR, the 3900 pricing seems to be holding steady at MSRP all over. It's highly unlikely that the Cirrus DAC SINAD will be worse than the 3800 or better than the 3700 (before the fire). I would purchase based on this belief.

We do know on paper its SINAD spec is better than the 3700’s AK4458 though not by much.

 

[Bright77]

Afternoon all,

I've read somewhere that a buyer couldn't play DV movies. After trying to solve this with the Denon helpdesk it still did not work and the unit got replaced. That was al info about this problem.

I have a X3900H in a stereo setup. No hdmi connected. I will check my unit this weekend on hdr playback. It is placed in a closet now, cables and stuff..

Hello, that was me, more than likely, back in May of this year. I was vocal about it on AVS, Reddit and 4k Discord but nothing corrected the issue. After I replaced it and didn't connect the unit to the internet, it worked. There was a lot of troubleshooting back then, but a lot has transpired since May with the home theater and health. So I just finished everything at the end of last month. I got roughly a week's use out of it before the issue showed its ugly head yet again and worse. It's back to being an expensive paperweight! I finally finished my theater room, but the AVR said it had better things to do than its sole purpose...

Now, instead of doing this with just the Shield Pro, it does it with the Blu-ray player too! Doesn't matter the port, cable, zone, anything - same thing happens, but when you go TV HDMI directly to device, it works flawlessly.

I was able to calibrate (Gsonic Immersion & Evo32) the AVR recently and watch a few films over the past week, but here we are yet again. I'm livid and have ZERO clue, as Denon was useless before and I've already replaced this damn unit since it was released.

Just a recap for those that weren't along on the first journey:

• Audio Equipment:
  • KEF Q750s
  • KEF Q650
  • RSL C34E MKII x4
  • KEF Ci160.2CL x4
  • Denon AVR-X3900H
  • Buckeye NCx252MP
  • HSU VTF-N1
• Visual:
  • Nvidia Shield Pro
  • PS5
  • Panasonic 820
  • 77G5

First go-around - The 1st 3900H would do everything but DV via Shield Pro - it would flash the Shield homepage, then go back, flash back and forth a few times, then go to a fully black screen with pink static randomly on the right edge. Then the TV would go "No Signal". After going HDMI directly to the Shield Pro, I was able to uncheck DV and the unit would work fine. Well, I'm a huge DV fella, so this wasn't acceptable, and I contacted Denon, who had zero solutions or help besides just returning it. Well, the 2nd unit I swapped out via Amazon did the same thing, but this time I reset it again and didn't connect to the internet, and it worked. Don't ask me what would/could have changed but that was my experience.


Then all this happened again on this 2nd one, now that I connected the internet to the AVR so I could use my phone as the remote (the IR blaster wasn't working with the Sewell unit, as my stuff is all in a closet) So currently, no matter what HDMI cable, HDMI slot, Zone 1/2, HDMI slot 1-3 vs 4-6 or product is connected it just goes black screen to no signal or only no signal. Yet when you run the HDMI directly from the source, it works fine. I have an optical HDMI behind the wall from the TV to the AVR and tried multiple different HDMI cables from the AVR to the equipment, but the same issue. I've had it up to the sky with this expensive brick.

 

[Burnsy1]

Afternoon all,

Hello, that was me, more than likely, back in May of this year. I was vocal about it on AVS, Reddit and 4k Discord but nothing corrected the issue. After I replaced it and didn't connect the unit to the internet, it worked. There was a lot of troubleshooting back then, but a lot has transpired since May with the home theater and health. So I just finished everything at the end of last month. I got roughly a week's use out of it before the issue showed its ugly head yet again and worse. It's back to being an expensive paperweight! I finally finished my theater room, but the AVR said it had better things to do than its sole purpose...

Now, instead of doing this with just the Shield Pro, it does it with the Blu-ray player too! Doesn't matter the port, cable, zone, anything - same thing happens, but when you go TV HDMI directly to device, it works flawlessly.

I was able to calibrate (Gsonic Immersion & Evo32) the AVR recently and watch a few films over the past week, but here we are yet again. I'm livid and have ZERO clue, as Denon was useless before and I've already replaced this damn unit since it was released.

Just a recap for those that weren't along on the first journey:

• Audio Equipment:
  • KEF Q750s
  • KEF Q650
  • RSL C34E MKII x4
  • KEF Ci160.2CL x4
  • Denon AVR-X3900H
  • Buckeye NCx252MP
  • HSU VTF-N1
• Visual:
  • Nvidia Shield Pro
  • PS5
  • Panasonic 820
  • 77G5

First go-around - The 1st 3900H would do everything but DV via Shield Pro - it would flash the Shield homepage, then go back, flash back and forth a few times, then go to a fully black screen with pink static randomly on the right edge. Then the TV would go "No Signal". After going HDMI directly to the Shield Pro, I was able to uncheck DV and the unit would work fine. Well, I'm a huge DV fella, so this wasn't acceptable, and I contacted Denon, who had zero solutions or help besides just returning it. Well, the 2nd unit I swapped out via Amazon did the same thing, but this time I reset it again and didn't connect to the internet, and it worked. Don't ask me what would/could have changed but that was my experience.


Then all this happened again on this 2nd one, now that I connected the internet to the AVR so I could use my phone as the remote (the IR blaster wasn't working with the Sewell unit, as my stuff is all in a closet) So currently, no matter what HDMI cable, HDMI slot, Zone 1/2, HDMI slot 1-3 vs 4-6 or product is connected it just goes black screen to no signal or only no signal. Yet when you run the HDMI directly from the source, it works fine. I have an optical HDMI behind the wall from the TV to the AVR and tried multiple different HDMI cables from the AVR to the equipment, but the same issue. I've had it up to the sky with this expensive brick.

Is the firmware updating when you connect it to the internet? If so we'd know something... otherwise it's hard to imagine how just being connected to the internet would cause the issue.

Sorry you're having this problem I know it's got to be hella frustrating.

 

[Ruediger]

It would update on first connection, but prompt before flashing. Otherwise internet has nothing to do with the problems.

It all still sounds like a mix of firmware problems and maybe the HDMI board. But no reason to expect it can't be fixed in software.

Another slim chance is that he got bad luck twice. Two bugged units.

 

[EWL5]

It would update on first connection, but prompt before flashing. Otherwise internet has nothing to do with the problems.

It all still sounds like a mix of firmware problems and maybe the HDMI board. But no reason to expect it can't be fixed in software.

Another slim chance is that he got bad luck twice. Two bugged units.

Too many red flags:

1) 2 bad units in a row?
2) blames internet?!!
3) no one else has described similar issues?

Sounds more like user error to me.

 

[Buckster]

most eagerly awaited review ....

my future upgrade is stuck between a 3900h (if measures well) or a discounted A10H

sounds a weird mix but the 4800 doesn't seem a huge step up, and once you get to the 6800 its not that much more for the A10H

so if 3900h measures well its an excellent option

 

[Bright77]

Too many red flags:

1) 2 bad units in a row?
2) blames internet?!!
3) no one else has described similar issues?

Sounds more like user error to me.

I'm simply telling you how it went and every single difference. You're telling me it makes zero sense; I'm living it.

On the first unit, I immediately updated the firmware and had the issue. The second unit I did not update the firmware and it worked for awhile until it didn't and the same issue as the 1st one is present. It would be good to track the firmware version for folks having this issue. (Whether it's Shield Pro connection or not)

If you think there is something I'm missing, feel free to leave a constructive comment =)

 

[EWL5]

I'm simply telling you how it went and every single difference. You're telling me it makes zero sense; I'm living it.

On the first unit, I immediately updated the firmware and had the issue. The second unit I did not update the firmware and it worked for awhile until it didn't and the same issue as the 1st one is present. It would be good to track the firmware version for folks having this issue. (Whether it's Shield Pro connection or not)

If you think there is something I'm missing, feel free to leave a constructive comment =)

It's already well established that the Shield doesn't play nice w/a variety of AVRs, not just Denon models. Many posts from folks w/similar issues have them considering alternatives to the Shield. I suggest you do the same.

 

[Bright77]

It's already well established that the Shield doesn't play nice w/a variety of AVRs, not just Denon models. Many posts from folks w/similar issues have them considering alternatives to the Shield. I suggest you do the same.

I think you overlooked the part where I said that this is happening not just to the Shield now. "Now, instead of doing this with just the Shield Pro, it does it with the Blu-ray player too! Doesn't matter the port, cable, zone, anything - same thing happens, but when you go TV HDMI directly to device, it works flawlessly."

I'll be the first to admit if it's user error but no one has been able to solve it, not even Denon.

Do with that what you will.

 

[EWL5]

I think you overlooked the part where I said that this is happening not just to the Shield now. "Now, instead of doing this with just the Shield Pro, it does it with the Blu-ray player too! Doesn't matter the port, cable, zone, anything - same thing happens, but when you go TV HDMI directly to device, it works flawlessly."

I'll be the first to admit if it's user error but no one has been able to solve it, not even Denon.

Do with that what you will.

Did you go to your BD player-specific thread for help? There's not much we can do because there are just too many combos of devices in the world...

Do you have your HDMI setting on "Standard", "Enhanced", or 8k Enhanced?

4K/8K Signal Format AVR-X3900H

manuals.denon.com

 

[Bright77]

It would update on first connection, but prompt before flashing. Otherwise internet has nothing to do with the problems.

It all still sounds like a mix of firmware problems and maybe the HDMI board. But no reason to expect it can't be fixed in software.

Another slim chance is that he got bad luck twice. Two bugged units.

I just went to check and, unfortunately, confirmed my fear... auto-update is enabled; it never occurred to me to disable it since I didn't set up the internet on it/hardwire it. I googled for the firmware version to see what it shipped with vs what it is now but hard to find.