Denon AVR-1912: A Newbie's Dilemma

Man, I am NO expert here at all.  I really don't have any answers... only more questions. 

 

I think that everything should work as you had imagined, using your AVR as a hub.

 

Does your cable box have HDMI output?

 

It seems that if your TV is 720, you should set your cable box and Oppo to 720 but I don't know for sure.  I think that may be why you are getting "mode not supported" messages, because you are sending 1080 to a 720 TV... but I don't know.

 

Well, you have a nice receiver and a fantastic BD player... maybe you should upgrade your TV!  I would. 

 

 

You should be able to hook everything up with hdmi cables.

 

Be sure to press the "Amp" button on the remote control to operate the receiver. Press the Menu button to access the setup menu.

 

I'd set both the cable box and OPPO to output 720. Try and figure out how to set the receiver to "pass-through" the video signal without any processing otherwise it will probably convert the 720 signal back to 1080 (which your display will have to convert back to 720.

 

I also hate Denon/Marantz manuals.

 

Fellow member David Willow found this Denon to English Dictionary from BatPigWorld.com.

Page 7of the manual says:

Video signals are not output if the input video signals do not match the monitor’s resolution. In this case,

switch the Blu-ray Disc/DVD player’s resolution to a resolution with which the monitor is compatible.

 

gene c is correct about the HDMI connections. The amp button may need to be pressed constantly to make sure you are controlling the receiver and not a source device.

 

The Samsung and the cable box should be fine as long as the cable box is HD.

 

This your site for Denon for dummies

#4 You can definitely connect both through the AVR with HDMI cables, but there are reasons not to connect the cable box that way. First, you lose the ability to watch TV while also listening to music through your AVR, since the AVR must be in "standby" mode to pass the signal to your TV. Likewise, if you ever get a TV that streams Netflix or some other service, you won't be able to listen to that source through your AVR. You can fix both of these problems by hooking up an HDMI cable directly from your cable box to TV, and then run an optical from TV to AVR (or cable box to AVR if you aren't concerned about Netflix or other streaming services).

That's not necessarily true.  IF your cable box has component video outputs and they are live at the same time as the HDMI, you could also run those thru the AVR (on the same input as the HDMI, [like TV 1 or whatever])and when a digital signal is not present it'll output the analog one (I presume that 1 it has component inputs and 2. that it cross-converts component to HDMI out).  That's how I have my Dish Network box hooked up and have no issues watching TV while listening to music, without changing inputs on the TV.  Now if the TV does the streaming of Netflix or something like that, then just run an Optical cable to an input of the AVR to get the sound when that is on, since it doesn't depend on the AVR for a video signal during that. If your using the Oppo to stream it's no different than watching a Blu-ray.

What do you mean by "when a digital signal is not present"? Isn't the signal from a cable/sat box always digital?

If it has component cables, those are analog, which run thru the AVR and should be able to be converted to HDMI which is digital.  So if you run the compontent to TV-1 and the HDMI also to TV-1, if you change the input to CD (for example) the HDMI input signal is dropped and the AVR should default to the analog component input, and (if the AVR has the capability to) convert the component IN to HDMI out, so you still get a picture from the cable box while listening to a CD (or whatever audio only input).  So as long as you have component outputs on the cable box (and they are "live" at the same time as HDMI out is) and your reciever has component inputs and can convert to HDMI, then you can watch TV while listening to something else.  Now if one or the other has only HDMI then it won't work, or if the cable box can only output either/or HDMI/component but not at the same time...it all falls apart and becomes a real pain.

 

I hope that was what you were asking....

I just bought this AVR a few mos ago and am fairly tech savvy. The GUI is very easy to figure out and if you know things about diff cables its not too diff either. There are Component, HDMI and RCA as well as Optical, Google all to see what they look like and do. As far as Cable Box, it uses Component, huge monster of a thing w/5 inputs. The Denon handles them, put in the red and white in audio in proper section for CBL SAT, they break things down in back for different components and make sure when directing RCA cables to speakers that you also route through either L&R, Center or Sub, etc. As far as Cable resolution goes, all broadcasts are still in 720p or 1080i which = same thing. Only bluray is in 1080p, highest res currently on tv.

Ive got the component cabled to the back of AVR and the back of the Cable box. Ive got speakers in a Stereo 2.1 setup right now, havent gotten a Center yet so taking my time for the 5.1. Getting sound to function was a bit tricky at first as the AVR 1912 defaults to 5.1 sound and must be manually set in its Audio setup to Other and select 2.1. The paper manual they give is pretty basic and not as detailed as id like especially w/setting up the Remote for example which is going to be a thread i will start next, its a PITA.

I hope this helps you as sometimes when we overthing things we miss the easy plug-ins right before us. So I have a Samsung Series 6 TOC HDMI to main slot Output (only one out to a tv). Everything else is Input and that's got my Panasonic BD65 bluray HDMI'd in. You have to hit AMP to get Menu and Setup to come up. Its an extra step and dont know why you must hit it but this is my first AVR. Once you go into Setup initially and go into alpha ordered brand names, it provides codes but i honestly dont know that all things get recognized as i cant get the remote to make an association and turn things on, i must turn on bluray manually and then it will switch back and forth through CBL/SAT for tv and BD for the bluray. You pretty much have to put the detailed CD in to a laptop to read finer details. Its fairly easy if youre just plugging in BD and any HDMI components, no cable box. Most Cable boxes from cable co dont offer up HDMI inputs or cables, id get one otherwise. There may be options however that you buy w/such an input.

Welcome Phebe!