4K with AVR-X3000 (1 Viewer)

[autoengineer_70]

I’m Looking to get into 4K here soon starting with a new TV. I looked to see if my old Denon AVR-X3000 receiver could handle the 4K pass through and it does say on the Denon website...

• Support 4K video to enjoy 4 times higher resolution videos than current HD on larger displays and screens (upscaling, pass through and GUI overlay)
• Analogue and digital video upscaling up to 4k

. However then I read this in the specs on the Crutchfield website....”

• This receiver is not HDCP 2.2-compliant and will not support copy-protected 4K video content.”

This is a deal breaker as far as 4K over DVD’s and cable TV, correct? I’ll need a new receiver?

Which isnt a bad thing, I just need to prepare my plan to get this past my wife!

 

[Dave Upton]

There are ways to work around this, like the HD Fury, however those are probably a little expensive.

The unfortunate truth is that none of this year’s receivers are fully compliant with the upcoming HDMI standards, so you’d be better off using an external HDMI switch for a short period while you wait for next year’s batch of receivers

 

[Mike Up]

This is a month old but I'll respond. The HD Fury is very expensive and I found better ways. I connect all my Streaming media either into a HDMI 4K 60P/HDR compliant switch box, then the box to the TV or to the TV directly. Then I connect the digital optical output from the TV to the receiver. This would yield you all Dolby Digital content derived from Dolby Digital Plus that most Streaming Media use. The only format that uses DTS-Master HD or DD True HD is Blu-ray. What I did for Blu-ray was get a player that had 2 HDMI outputs, one for audio only and one normal HDMI output. The HDMI audio only output goes directly to the receiver while the other HDMI can go either to the switch box or directly to the TV. BTW, Dolby Digital Plus on most streaming content is said not to yield much better resolution than standard Dolby Digital and most content is only 5.1, not 7.1. Dolby Digital IIx when added to the rear channels of a Dolby Digital 5.1 signal, will make the back surround channels. This at least can be done on Denon receivers.

With this work around, you do lose your onscreen displays from the receiver but most of that can be done on the front panel and adjustments and setup can be seen by switching the box or TV to the receiver output.

With 8K coming up, all the current 4K receivers will be obsolete shortly.

 

[autoengineer_70]

This is a month old but I'll respond. The HD Fury is very expensive and I found better ways. I connect all my Streaming media either into a HDMI 4K 60P/HDR compliant switch box, then the box to the TV or to the TV directly. Then I connect the digital optical output from the TV to the receiver. This would yield you all Dolby Digital content derived from Dolby Digital Plus that most Streaming Media use. The only format that uses DTS-Master HD or DD True HD is Blu-ray. What I did for Blu-ray was get a player that had 2 HDMI outputs, one for audio only and one normal HDMI output. The HDMI audio only output goes directly to the receiver while the other HDMI can go either to the switch box or directly to the TV. BTW, Dolby Digital Plus on most streaming content is said not to yield much better resolution than standard Dolby Digital and most content is only 5.1, not 7.1. Dolby Digital IIx when added to the rear channels of a Dolby Digital 5.1 signal, will make the back surround channels. This at least can be done on Denon receivers.

With this work around, you do lose your onscreen displays from the receiver but most of that can be done on the front panel and adjustments and setup can be seen by switching the box or TV to the receiver output.

With 8K coming up, all the current 4K receivers will be obsolete shortly.

What about using the ARC? If I bypass the receiver and put the 4k HDMI signal to the TV first, can I use the ARC to play the audio?

 

[Mike Up]

ARC never worked for me. It requires HDMI control which always puts my gear into the wrong setting so I gave up on it. There's really no benefit to standard ARC over digital optical except for one less cable. eARC isn't supported on older receiver so it's a mute point.

You can use ARC if it works for you, it just didn't work for me.

 

[autoengineer_70]

This is a month old but I'll respond. The HD Fury is very expensive and I found better ways. I connect all my Streaming media either into a HDMI 4K 60P/HDR compliant switch box, then the box to the TV or to the TV directly. Then I connect the digital optical output from the TV to the receiver. This would yield you all Dolby Digital content derived from Dolby Digital Plus that most Streaming Media use. The only format that uses DTS-Master HD or DD True HD is Blu-ray. What I did for Blu-ray was get a player that had 2 HDMI outputs, one for audio only and one normal HDMI output. The HDMI audio only output goes directly to the receiver while the other HDMI can go either to the switch box or directly to the TV. BTW, Dolby Digital Plus on most streaming content is said not to yield much better resolution than standard Dolby Digital and most content is only 5.1, not 7.1. Dolby Digital IIx when added to the rear channels of a Dolby Digital 5.1 signal, will make the back surround channels. This at least can be done on Denon receivers.

With this work around, you do lose your onscreen displays from the receiver but most of that can be done on the front panel and adjustments and setup can be seen by switching the box or TV to the receiver output.

With 8K coming up, all the current 4K receivers will be obsolete shortly.

I wanted to comment on your mention of 8k receivers. Isn’t my current problem really an argument though against early adaptation of newer technologies? When I bought my receiver I’m sure I was thinking it was great it had 4K....I‘ll be ready. But here I am...ready to go 4K ....and I‘m going to need to upgrade Because the tech wasn’t ”settled”. I’m not saying that’s whats going to happen with 8k stuff, but you have too see why I chuckled a little when I read that comment.

BTW, my Sony x900H 85” is being delivered friday. Probably will be a little while before I upgrade the receiver though so I’ll be looking at the 2021 models for sure.

 

[DaveF]

I bought a new 4K TV last Fall. But all my sources (TiVo, AppleTV HD, etc) are all HD and my receiver is too old for ARC or 4K passthrough. So I'm waiting. The TV is great with HD material. I'll buy a new receiver sometime this year -- availability is low and pricing is high so far. And then upgrade my streaming plans and streaming box to 4K.

I didn't go with an intermediate HDMI splitter or anything. And the features 2020 / 2021 receivers don't yet support don't matter to me -- 8K and VRR.

 

[autoengineer_70]

I've decided on picking up the Sony X700 4k blu ray this weekend. I did some research into it and it has 2 HDMI outputs. Seems like they expected people like me to have this problem with old receivers not passing 4k thru. One HDMI output is normal A/V but the 2nd one is just audio only. So what I can do is run the AV HDMI directly to the TV and the audio only one to the receiver. Problem solved at least for the blu ray player. My Xbox isn't 4k so no issue there. Just need to decide what to do then about the cable box which I still need to contact Xfinity to get the upgraded 4k box....and the CHromecast too.

 

[autoengineer_70]

ARC never worked for me. It requires HDMI control which always puts my gear into the wrong setting so I gave up on it. There's really no benefit to standard ARC over digital optical except for one less cable. eARC isn't supported on older receiver so it's a mute point.

You can use ARC if it works for you, it just didn't work for me.

So I've setup Arc and its flaky for sure. I'll turn the TV on and it will often say "No signal" even though the cable box is on. I have to turn on the receiver on and then turn it off again for the cable TV to come up. Seems like the TV and/or receiver get confused on what that ARC channel should be doing.