Denon AVR-X6800H now released.

[Tanquen]

Has anyone else been able to test and see if they also experience audio dropouts through eARC or the random dead video out until power cycle?

 

[EWL5]

Has anyone else been able to test and see if they also experience audio dropouts through eARC or the random dead video out until power cycle?

Not sure if the 6800 has a different HDMI board from the lower class AVRs but over at AVS, it has been noted that Denon has officially started to look into this!

 

[-Matt-]

Has anyone else been able to test and see if they also experience audio dropouts through eARC or the random dead video out until power cycle?

You might like to take a look in this thread:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/noisy-digital-audio-on-lg-tvs.38421/

Not saying for sure that it is the same issue but it possibly could be. (Possible incompatibility between TV digital output and devices with ESS DACs).

Not sure if the 6800 has a different HDMI board from the lower class AVRs but over at AVS, it has been noted that Denon has officially started to look into this!

In the Audioholics/Masimo interview I think it was claimed to be the same HDMI board as the A1H and AV10.

 

[ZolaIII]

@-Matt- that's for optical input ESS asynchronous IC and with aggressive resync settings, nothing to do with HDMI. Future more it's tied to pore implementation of optical output on Korean TV's (both LG and Samsung).

 

[-Matt-]

@-Matt- that's for optical input ESS asynchronous IC and with aggressive resync settings, nothing to do with HDMI. Future more it's tied to pore implementation of optical output on Korean TV's (both LG and Samsung).

That seems to have been the assumption, by some people, so far. However, others have reported that the problem can also occur over HDMI ARC. If the problem is the DAC having to resync, why would it matter if the badly formatted digital audio came from optical or from HDMI?

The problem wouldn't actually be with the HDMI board but rather with the digital audio processing (which might require reclocking due to badunsupported TV implementation). This could potentially cause audio dropouts like those that @Tanquen is seeing?

 

[ZolaIII]

@-Matt- usually the bus protocols are backwards compatible and can be relaxed. Meaning asynchronous can use synchronous and can also be relaxed. It's not assumption, it's been fixed regarding responsible vendors and OEM's relaxing the settings by firmware update. Rest is assumption by you which I quite frankly don't have any interest digging into personally to get to the bottom of it. Not really interested in AVR's and as I usually say buy a Panasonic TV.

 

[-Matt-]

@-Matt- usually the bus protocols are backwards compatible and can be relaxed. Meaning asynchronous can use synchronous and can also be relaxed. It's not assumption, it's been fixed regarding responsible vendors and OEM's relaxing the settings by firmware update. Rest is assumption by you which I quite frankly don't have any interest digging into personally to get to the bottom of it. Not really interested in AVR's and as I usually say buy a Panasonic TV.

Probably someone who has just paid £3k for an AVR is gonna be a bit less "relaxed" when something that is "usually" "backwards compatible" turns out not to work properly.

 

[ZolaIII]

Probably someone who has just paid £3k for an AVR is gonna be a bit less "relaxed" when something that is "usually" "backwards compatible" turns out not to work properly.

Yes but you all are barking on the wrong tree. It's not ESS or manufacturers of DAC's/AVR's but already called out TV one's. And back to a proving that it has anything to do with HDMI ARC and eARC inputs for you.

 

[-Matt-]

How about this scenario...

LG implements newest, latest, greatest feature from the S/PDIF digital audio standard (perhaps via an update). The ESS DAC was designed long before that feature was part of the standard. So now the LG TV and the device with ESS DAC are incompatible.

Who needs to update?

As a consumer you don't care - you just want a solution to make it work properly.

 

[Tanquen]

Probably someone who has just paid £3k for an AVR is gonna be a bit less "relaxed" when something that is "usually" "backwards compatible" turns out not to work properly.

It's not just the eARC audio dropouts its the video stopping until powering the X6800H off/on and the fact that the X6500H never did either. Someone said Denon now knows about the eARC after almost a year and says a firmware update may come someday. Others were told it's your cable, it's the TVs and I was told to send it it for repair. I was just hoping others with the X6800H can take a look. I'm thinking I should just return it until Denon does something about it.

 

[ZolaIII]

How about this scenario...
LG implements newest, latest, greatest feature from the S/PDIF digital audio standard. ESS DAC was designed long before that feature was part of the standard. So now the LG TV and the device with ESS DAC are incompatible. Who needs to update? As a consumer you don't care - you just want a solution to make it work properly.

S/PDIF is practically dead for 20 years regarding changes/upgrades but don't worry you will get that from Dolby Labs as always. That's why I am not interested in property crapware in the first place. They will seel you a good commercial for a lot of money.

 

[-Matt-]

S/PDIF is practically dead for 20 years regarding changes/upgrades but don't worry you will get that from Dolby Labs as always. That's why I am not interested in property crapware in the first place. They will seel you a good commercial for a lot of money.

IEC 60958 describes both SPDIF and AES/EBU it seems to have a lot of updates recently:

Other changes are included in IEC 61937 which describes encapsulation methods for sending multi-channel audio over SPDIF:

Maybe not such a dead standard!

 

[ZolaIII]

@-Matt- meta data related changes not really standard defining changes and I ment Toslink. Fiber optics did see a lot of progress but not in audio. Have a nice life.

 

[-Matt-]

If (for example) the TV is trying to encode multichannel audio and other metadata on the digital stream (which could be fully compliant with the latest standard) it is obviously going to cause issues if the AVR DAC doesn't know what to do with this data.

 

[ZolaIII]

If (for example) the TV is trying to encode multichannel audio and other metadata on the digital stream (which could be fully compliant with the latest standard) it is obviously going to cause issues if the AVR DAC doesn't know what to do with this data.

Welcome to the beautifully world of Dolby Atmos!

 

[tjcinnamon]

I’m getting my x6800 this weekend. I’m coming from a x4700. The reason I’m getting it is for front wides and Dirac. I can run it side by side with MQX. I’m very pleased with MQX and am hoping ART will be available eventually.

 

[Tanquen]

I’m getting my x6800 this weekend. I’m coming from a x4700. The reason I’m getting it is for front wides and Dirac. I can run it side by side with MQX. I’m very pleased with MQX and am hoping ART will be available eventually.

Be sure to look for eARC issues and dead video out that requires a power cycle to fix every day or so.

 

[tjcinnamon]

Be sure to look for eARC issues and dead video out that requires a power cycle to fix every day or so.

Are these two independent issues?

 

[Tanquen]

Are these two independent issues?

Not sure. They are using a new HDMI board and chip set. They removed QMS support and that was to help with black screens when devices are changing refresh rates. But they had issues getting it to work so removed support but the stuck blackouts happen when switching inputs, as they do with most HDMI AVRs like my old X6500H but with the X6800H it randomly will not come back until you power the AVR off and back on.

The eARC it seems to also be new to the 800 series as folks with X4800H AVRs have been dealing with it for almost a year. Someone on AVS posted that Denon support finally says they know about it and may have a fix in a future firmware.

All I know is, I'm not the only one, swapping cables don't help, and reconnecting the X6500H fixes both issues. My Denon support person has been giving me the runaround saying nothing can be the AVRs fault and then telling me to send it in for service and will not respond to requests about known issues.

So you have no info on what Denon support has told others about the 800 series and eARC audio issues?

I provided the information in my previous reply.
Here is the full link to the information on EDID Issues and possible resolutions.

https://support.denon.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/14793

Kind regards,

 

[tjcinnamon]

Not sure. They are using a new HDMI board and chip set. They removed QMS support and that was to help with black screens when devices are changing refresh rates. But they had issues getting it to work so removed support but the stuck blackouts happen when switching inputs, as they do with most HDMI AVRs like my old X6500H but with the X6800H it randomly will not come back until you power the AVR off and back on.

The eARC it seems to also be new to the 800 series as folks with X4800H AVRs have been dealing with it for almost a year. Someone on AVS posted that Denon support finally says they know about it and may have a fix in a future firmware.

All I know is, I'm not the only one, swapping cables don't help, and reconnecting the X6500H fixes both issues. My Denon support person has been giving me the runaround saying nothing can be the AVRs fault and then telling me to send it in for service and will not respond to requests about known issues.

So you have no info on what Denon support has told others about the 800 series and eARC audio issues?

I provided the information in my previous reply.
Here is the full link to the information on EDID Issues and possible resolutions.

https://support.denon.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/14793

Kind regards,

Luckily, I'm getting this through Best Buy with Total Tech support. If that issue is happening, I'll just return it. I have 60 days to return it.