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September 18, 2007 - 9:04am
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Denon 3910 2-Channel Question
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Having owned the 2900 I know of no method to set up the player for two channel playback without the aid of a monitor. You can, however, do the set up in a room with a monitor and then move the unit to your two channel room. The player will retain the settings performed in the first room.
Thanks Jan - but I dunno. I brought in a TV and S-video'd it to the Denon in order to select the 2CH program from a Talking Heads Dual Disc. No problem. But when I attempted to play the disc days later w/o the aid of the TV the default playback mode was MultiChannel and no logical (or illogical) sequence of button pushes could get me back to 2CH.
Here's my solution. I bought a 5" LCD monitor off eBay and use it for format/menu etc. on the players that are in the main system, the one without a big monitor. Cost me $65 and well worth it for the convenience.
Another solution is to get one of those small portable DVD players as long as it has a video input.
Kal
Thanks Kal. Was hoping to avoid it - but it seems a cheapo mini-monitor might be necessary.
I don't believe "selecting" two channel will suffice. Did you go into the set up menu and make two channel the default operation? I no longer have the 2900 so I can't check what options you have available but that was how I had to set up my player for strictly two channel output.
You can set the 3910 to output in 2 channel only by going to the audio setup menu, selecting audio, and changing the default multichannel setting to 2CH(SRS OFF), however I don't believe this has anything to do with the unit selecting the 2 channel Hi res layer from a DVD-A or the 2 channel Lo or HI res layer from a hybrid SACD.
Obviously you will only be outputing 2 channels. No different than the way you are connected at the moment.
I have never had mine setup or connected this way and I use the DLINK connection which has different settings or otherwise I would test it for you.
Give it a try, perhaps Jan knows something we don't.
I question if one would not in fact be getting some type of downmix if the proper layer on the disc is not selected.
RG
Well, here's where part of the confusion of the hi-rez formats gets in the way. Most SACD's and, I believe, DVD-A's have separate tracks for the two channel mix (usually Redbook CD) and the hi-rez multichannel tracks. From what I understand some SACD's may have hi-rez two channel tracks which offer a separate mix distinct from the multichannel mix. Getting the Denon to always default to the hi-rez tracks while outputting only two channel sound was, if I remember correctly, a pain.
I'm not sure about the 2900, but I believe the 3910 may have been the first Denon to include a button on the front panel and remote that allows the user to toggle between the redbook, Hi-Res 2 channel and Hi-Res Multi channel layers of hybrid SACDs, thereby taking the pain out of that format.
Why they and others haven't figured out a way to handle DVD-A similiarly is beyond me.
And yes, the two channel and multi-channel mixes are different.
RG
This is correct and the rub, RG. Simply Selecting 2CH in the Audio set-up does not 'trickle down' to selecting the 2CH Stereo (vs 5.1MC) Layer on the DVD-A. And although SACD layers are easy to select via buttons on the front panel, as mentioned, it seems the ONLY way to select the 2CH layer of a DVD-A is via a monitor. Happily, I found a solution: Elgato's EyeTV Hybrid . This little gizmo allows me to input the 3910's S-Video output to my PowerBook via USB. Works like a charm.
Thank you all for your thoughtful input!