The "Official" RX-V3800 Issues & Observations thread

[L.J.]

Rich, I think you mentioned before you would rather have a SA BR player vs PS3. Why?

[GMichael]

Rich, I think you mentioned before you would rather have a SA BR player vs PS3. Why?

I think he's just anti-PS3.

[Rich-n-Texas]

I think he's just anti-PS3.

That too.

I'd just prefer a player that sits comfortably in my audio cabinet, is feature rich and can be controlled by my remote. There's no place on the floor or in the TV stand where a PS3 would fit. The back wall where I've moved everything is now full. Wooch mentioned that the newer players are (Iforget what he called it...) up to the BDA's latest standards, and since I won't be ready until the fall timeframe anyway there should be reasonably priced SA players by then.

[L.J.]

That too.

I'd just prefer a player that sits comfortably in my audio cabinet, is feature rich and can be controlled by my remote. There's no place on the floor or in the TV stand where a PS3 would fit. The back wall where I've moved everything is now full. Wooch mentioned that the newer players are (Iforget what he called it...) up to the BDA's latest standards, and since I won't be ready until the fall timeframe anyway there should be reasonably priced SA players by then.

I don't know...I guess I see the PS3 as such a great machine I expect others to as well. I get plenty of use beyond BR/DVD/SACD/CD playback. Streaming music ripped in flac, having my entire photo/video albums just a click away. Surfing the web when I'm too lazy to get off the couch. And lastly, I enjoy a game of Madden or something with my kid sometimes. I mostly do sport games, not really into the FPS stuff.

Now don't get me started on BR playback which is absolutely freakin' fantastic

Gonna be hard to beat for the price.

[Rich-n-Texas]

I had the day off today so I got back to speaker placement. I lined them up equadistant then ran the room EQ again. It never seems to work right on the first pass, but the second time around was the charm. Polarity was correct and distances were accurate, which to me is most important. One thing that bothers me is the volume for the left front. It's at -1dB with the right front at 4dB. It may very well be due to the clock on the left wall ticking, as well as the TV fan/color wheel sound level working in concert (Pun!)to skew the results.

So now I'm working at trying to get music on my PC out over the network and to the receiver. Good news: The router sees the receiver (I can ping it from the router) and I was even able to rename it from within the router's s/w. Bad news: I can't ping it from my computer. I followed the instructions that Windows Media Player describes for sharing music files over the home network, but when I tried to enable file sharing to the device (receiver) WMP didn't list it. Classic MS complication (Like I said, I have a love/hate relationship with Windows ) I turned off my firewall, turned on sharing of my music folder but no luck. No biggie for now though. I'll deal with that aggravation later on after a few Maragritas.

[bobsticks]

Rich, I think you mentioned before you would rather have a SA BR player vs PS3. Why?

Because the PS3's appearance clashes with that of the IKEA pressedwood rollcart...hehehe

[Rich-n-Texas]

That dolly has more usefulness than a PS3 buster, and it isn't pressed wood, it's Maple smarty pants.

HEY! What did you do with Pix?

[bobsticks]

Easy there killer. Commawn now I'm just playin'. Remember you're typing at the guy who once published pictures of his TV perched on phone books. All in good fun, eh...

...and I don't know what happened to your Snuggy-Poo. Last I heard he slipped out of the electronic ankle teather thatcha had on 'im and was roaming the streets looking for Klipsch coupons.

[Rich-n-Texas]

Easy there killer. Commawn now I'm just playin'. Remember you're typing at the guy who once published pictures of his TV perched on phone books. All in good fun, eh...

Of course. = Don't take R-n-T too seriously. That was for my bud L.J.

...and I don't know what happened to your Snuggy-Poo. Last I heard he slipped out of the electronic ankle teather thatcha had on 'im and was roaming the streets looking for Klipsch coupons.

Maybe this is a sign. Maybe it's a sign that Resident Loser is on his way back.

[pixelthis]

That dolly has more usefulness than a PS3 buster, and it isn't pressed wood, it's Maple smarty pants.

HEY! What did you do with Pix?

Been playing with a pair of two year old axiom m80s' that I snared.
Posting a thread in the speaker section.
Speaking of speakers, when ARE you gonna give up on YPAO and just use the friggin meter? I have NEVER seen this rube goldberg crap work.
As for "upconversion" you wont see any big improvement, if any.
And good luck with the router, does your receiver have a MAC number?
I can pull one up in the menu with mine but have never given it to the cable company.
And kudos on your PS3 comments.
A standalone is way more versatile, and the reason god gave us the PC IS games, net ,
and porn.
USING A GAMING CONSOLE for computer functions is like riding the rapids with a 10 speed bike

[captjamo]

There should be no issues. If set to bitstream, your Elite would get a standard DD or DTS signal while playing BR. If set to PCM, then your Elite would just be getting a MC PCM signal via HDMI and should be able to handle that as well.[/QUOTE]

Hey L.J., Do you know how I would know I'm on bitstream? I have setting called "HDMI auto sense signal" or something like that. I can tell either the 92TXH or the PS3 is decoding DTS-HD though-it sounds great. Do I still get to use DSP modes? I confess I'm confused on which settings I should be using for Cable TV component connection vs PS3 HDMI.

[Rich-n-Texas]

Been playing with a pair of two year old axiom m80s' that I snared.
Posting a thread in the speaker section.
Speaking of speakers, when ARE you gonna give up on YPAO and just use the friggin meter? I have NEVER seen this rube goldberg crap work.

It gets me in the ballpark... most of the time. I'll further tweak with the meter soon.

As for "upconversion" you wont see any big improvement, if any.

True, but movies now fill the entire screen. BTW, I rented Michael Clayton on VOD last night. Standard def PQ sucked. When will I be able to see VOD in HD?

And good luck with the router, does your receiver have a MAC number?
I can pull one up in the menu with mine but have never given it to the cable company.

Yes, I can see the MAC at the receiver's setup menu as well as at the router. The problem exists in the Windows networking system. I can ping it at my PC, but WMP still doesn't find it in the "Share Media" dialog. And of course XP's support topics aren't much help.

And kudos on your PS3 comments.

Don't say that! L.J.'ll stop liking me if he thinks we agree! I have more remote setup questions to ask him.

A standalone is way more versatile, and the reason god gave us the PC IS games, net ,
and porn.
USING A GAMING CONSOLE for computer functions is like riding the rapids with a 10 speed bike

Y'all didn't hear that from me.

[L.J.]

Hey L.J., Do you know how I would know I'm on bitstream? I have setting called "HDMI auto sense signal" or something like that. I can tell either the 92TXH or the PS3 is decoding DTS-HD though-it sounds great.

The auto sensing sets your resolution output to match your display but you have to go into the audio settings to set your PS3 to either bitstream or PCM. I leave my PS3 set to bitstream(you can leave it on PCM though) except when watching a BR with TrueHD and I'll explain why. The PS3 cannot bitstream any HD audio signals but it can bitstream standard DD & DTS signals like any DVD player can. My AVR does the decoding and I see either a "DD" or "DTS" displayed on my AVR. When watching a BR with a MC PCM track, the PS3 will automatically switch to PCM and play the uncompressed track and switch back to bitstream when your done. When watching a BR with PCM your AVR will display "MC PCM" or something similar to that.

Now when watching a BR with TrueHD, you have to go in and set audio output on the PS3 from bitstream to PCM. You can do this while the movie is playing though. Just hit triangle, go to audio settings and switch bitstream to PCM. Your AVR will display "MC PCM". Hitting display on your PS3 remote will show that the PS3 is decoding the TrueHD. This only has to be done with TrueHD. Why it doesn't switch over automatically like it does with PCM or SACD is beyond me. What was Sony thinking with that one. Word is this will be fixed with a firmware update eventually and the PS3 will switch over to PCM automatically for HD audio tracks.

There is no way to listen to DTSMA with the PS3 but that's gonna change soon. At the moment, when viewing a BR with DTSMA your only getting the "core" DTS 1.5 mbps track. Your AVR display should read "DTS".

Now that I've confused you even more, you can simply leave your PS3 set to PCM and it will decode everything and you will always see "MC PCM" displayed on your AVR.

Do I still get to use DSP modes?

My Yammie can apply post processing to MC PCM signals via HDMI. I use my DSP's with my PS3 all the time. Not all AVR's will allow this though, but I think most current ones will.

I confess I'm confused on which settings I should be using for Cable TV component connection vs PS3 HDMI.

Are you refering to the bitstream question here or something else?

[bobsticks]

As usual, L.J. you're a pioneer and a teacher. Gracias.

[Rich-n-Texas]

I need some tutoring on getting Windows Media Player to see my receiver. I can ping it and the right ports are open at the firewall, but still not seen. I wonder if WINAMP has the ability to share media over a network.

[pixelthis]

I need some tutoring on getting Windows Media Player to see my receiver. I can ping it and the right ports are open at the firewall, but still not seen. I wonder if WINAMP has the ability to share media over a network.

What I was about to suggest.
I use AMP for playing my flac flies, the latest version has a really cool interface.
Dont know about a network but my winamp works fine with my USB drive, which has all of my media files.
I gave up on the network idea because my receiver only works with MP3 and wma.
An external soundcard or USB DA is much preferable to me at least.
THE receiver gets its stuff over a toslink , whether DD or PCM, etc.
I just click on something on AMP and go, sounds great
And if LJ thinks we "agree" that just means you're learning something.
NOW I HAVE TO GO RIDE MY BIKE...

[Rich-n-Texas]

I searched the entire RX-V1800/3800 thread on the AVS forums and as far as I could tell only one person there was having a problem similar to mine. His post count was two. He was never heard from again. Probably drowned in an ocean of text. I digress.

I got some suggestions from an engineer here at work that involves looking at the ports that are supposed to be opened to WMP so I'll sniff around there. I think Feanor or Mr. Peabody uses WINAMP so I'll get their take on it too. This ability to listen to the music that resides on my computer on my main unit was one of the selling points so I want to get this working ASAP. I don't own a flash drive... yet.

[L.J.]

I searched the entire RX-V1800/3800 thread on the AVS forums and as far as I could tell only one person there was having a problem similar to mine. His post count was two. He was never heard from again. Probably drowned in an ocean of text. I digress.

Check the 2700 thread. There were tips there on getting connected. Are you using the latest version of WMP? I read that WINAMP will not work with the 2700. Only WMP or Windows Media Connect, which I believe is integrated into WMP11.

Have you tried to manually configure the settings on your Yammie? Reboot your router?

And as Pix said, I believe your limited to MP3 and WMA files...no flac.

I had no issues....up and running in a few minutes.

This ability to listen to the music that resides on my computer on my main unit was one of the selling points so I want to get this working ASAP. I don't own a flash drive... yet.

Nice feature but the interface sucks. Very limited in what you can do. I found the internet radio station OK, but didn't like that you couldn't see who the artist were. Another reason to get a PS3 if you ask me.

[Rich-n-Texas]

Check the 2700 thread. There were tips there on getting connected. Are you using the latest version of WMP? I read that WINAMP will not work with the 2700. Only WMP or Windows Media Connect, which I believe is integrated into WMP11.

I'll look at the 2700 thread. Their thread search tool works fairly well. Yes, I'm running WMP11, and yes, Media Connect is integrated.

Have you tried to manually configure the settings on your Yammie? Reboot your router?

I didn't manually set the IP & MAC addresses at the receiver because they were correct when I looked at the info screen as well as at the router s/w. I pinged it with it on; packets were transfered okay, and then when I turned the receiver off, I got packet transfer timeouts which is what I expected.

And as Pix said, I believe your limited to MP3 and WMA files...no flac.

I had no issues....up and running in a few minutes.

I don't know anything about how to play flac and such on my computer; I assume a particular codec is needed?

My entire life is an issue!

Nice feature but the interface sucks. Very limited in what you can do. I found the internet radio station OK, but didn't like that you couldn't see who the artist were. Another reason to get a PS3 if you ask me.

That's about the same thing they were saying on AVS. Again, it seems like it would be a nice convenience to have though.

[Rich-n-Texas]

Another reason to get a PS3 if you ask me.

Does it come with popcorn? A LOT of popcorn?

[L.J.]

Does it come with popcorn? A LOT of popcorn?

This will be available on the next firmware update

[Rich-n-Texas]

What firmware rev is it up to? 100.100.10.10?

[L.J.]

What firmware rev is it up to? 100.100.10.10?

HA very funny....it's up to 2.0. Sony has stated there will be less updates and they will focus more on large quarterly updates. Something about quality over quantity. My main 2 concerns, BR playback & flac streaming are covered so everything else is a bonus.

I was reading and it seems like alot of people were having issues with the networking. Yamaha released a firmware update for the 2700 to take care of the problem with WMP11.

Some reinstalled WMP to get things working. Someone found that Twonky media server would work(never heard of it).

Is your DHCP turned on? maybe you can clear the manual settings on the Yammie, turn the DHCP on, reinstall WMP11 and see if that works.

You can call Yamaha but I bet their gonna blame it on your firewall settings

[Rich-n-Texas]

...I was reading and it seems like alot of people were having issues with the networking. Yamaha released a firmware update for the 2700 to take care of the problem with WMP11.

I would hope that update was incorporated into the 3800's as well.

Some reinstalled WMP to get things working. Someone found that Twonky media server would work(never heard of it).

Yup, I reinstalled as well but no help. I've never heard of Twonky either, but I get a little squeamish when I see these cutesie named media servers and P2P groups. Just don't feel comfortable installing such s/w or communicating with them.

Is your DHCP turned on? maybe you can clear the manual settings on the Yammie, turn the DHCP on, reinstall WMP11 and see if that works.

DHCP is on by default at the receiver, and it's always on at the PC. The fact that I can see it's IP address when it's on, but pinging it fails when it's off tells me it's not a network protocal issue. Feanor also gave me an idea in the thread I started in Computer Audio about using WINAMP. I'll bet your PS3 it's a Windows/WMP roadblock.

You can call Yamaha but I bet their gonna blame it on your firewall settings

I'm sure they would. Maybe a call to MS is on the horizon.

[f0rge]

here's some words of advice: windows networking sucks

i've tried several solutions for getting my mp3s to my stereo, external pc usb audio cards, streaming to my xbox60, streaming to my ps3 etc

i found that all of it sounded terrible.

in the end i wound up using an apple airport express with the optical output, it's nice cause it's wireless too. out of what i've tried i think it's had the best results.