Got my Denon 3800 at last

installer09

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Been waiting for it to come in for 6 weeks, have had it upgraded to multiregion and pal prog with official denon software disk. Just tried it on my pioneer 433 mxe which came on monday ,it plays every disk ive tried including rce titles , pal progresive works well picture quality is excellent ( upgraded from a 36" phillips and pioneer 717)
 
Excellent - guess you are well happy!!! ;-)

Where did you get it from in the end and how much??

JJ
 
Good news!

You don't fancy letting us know what software version you have?

(Press PLAY and OPEN/CLOSE whilst powering on the machine and then press DISPLAY and MENU on the remote, each successive press reveals the ESS, Panel and Drv version numbers).

Regards,
Ian Guinan
 
It looks that way doesn't it!!

What I'm trying to do is try and build a picture for myself as to what firmwares there actually are out there for the 3800 (and which are the working ones, do they enable all features, and which have problems).

We are seeing several owners on here now who are getting region free machines, yet still I'm being told that the semi-official region free software has not been released. When a version leaks out for those of us who are hoping to upgrade our machines ourselves I want to know which are the firmwares which are working 100%..and which have problems. There is so much bs flying around about the 3800 at the moment it is hard to sort the real information out from the chaff.

I promise that I'll share the fruits of my researches when they're complete!

(at the mo' I'd settle for ANY region free firmware :( )

Regards,
Ian Guinan

p.s. feeling a bit foolish tonight as managed to infect myself with Bugbear worm....massive apologies to anyone who got an email. Your virus checker should catch it, but watch out for any email with attachments of 50.8K size..removal program is here if it gets you,
http://www.sophos.com/support/bugbear.html
 
Thanks JJ
You see if I listened to most people about problems they had with the 2800 and I admit many did, but my 2800 is perfect!, so for me to get the 3800 it too has to be perfect with pal progressive,rce,region free,ect
cheers laurie
 
Hi installer,

any chance you can publicly print the place you got it from?
ready to buy, just waiting for pal prog and cheap price...

cheers.
 
Do you think most problems with the 3800 are firmware related and not hardware!

A combination I think. The very early 3800s (Feb 2002 ie. 2002 first 4 digits of serial no.) had a problem with their DVD drives which causes them to 'lock-up'. There seems to have been a change over for the April manufactured machines (2004 ser.no.) but these still seem to run a bit warm.

Currently available machines should have neither of these problems, and any remaining problems are down to firmware (i.e. chroma bug etc)

Regards,
Ian Guinan

(now 'bugbear' free..thanks for all the kind help and advice)
 
For the avoidance of all doubt and to summarise the discussions I have had with my dealer and confirmed by denon .

The new official denon disc has not yet been released to make the the machine multi region !!!!

There was another disc released from them in April of this year but all copies to official dealers were withdrawn because of an intermittant fault on the firmware (it causes machimes to lock up and or stutter badly) .The problem is compounded with copies of the original disc being made by dealers both official and non offcial continuing to sell their machines as region free in the full knowledge that at some point in time it will freeze up. This invalidates denon warranty only valid against offical firmware and you only have recourse now with the shop that sold it you if you bought the player and upgrade from there.

The disc when it comes will be diffrent for the 3800 and and 2800mk2 (which will be done later) .The chroma bug has not been fixed yet for pal machines only NTSC but is hoped to be issued on the same disc. Pal progressive has also not yet been fixed and is WIP but no promise regarding timing has been made to anyone in this regard.

Denon are targetting the r1 / chroma issue to be resolved pior to min November when the "silly season starts in av sales".
 
My Denon 3800 serial no starts with 2088 , I do aerial installs for my local Audio T and was in the shop when there Denon salesman bought the upgrade disk in (about a month ago) , my player shows no sign of the chroma bug (have tried it on toy story 2 and monsters inc) so far it has acted perfectly ,have had to pack it away now as i am moving house :( , I will check the firmware when I have it set up again.
 
I have also just picked up a 3800 with multiregion and PAL-P, and it works like a dream so far. Have been testing random discs, and everything has worked, including RCE titles. For Region 2 PAL-P I tried Battle Royale SE and it had no problems. I'm afraid that's the only R2 disc I have, as it's not currently available in R1 as far as I can tell.

The picture is superb into my Panasonic plasma, and I can definitely notice a significant difference between it and my previous Toshiba SD9000 (interlaced). I guess the deinterlacing on the Denon is much better than my model 4 plasma. One of the main things I have been impressed with is that the picture is much less noisy than previously. I thought this was an issue with plasma technology but it is obviously not entirely so, as the picture from the Denon is much smoother than I have been used to. The sound also seems richer than previously, even though I am using the same Denon AVCA1SE amplifier. I didn't expect to hear much change in the sound, but I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised all round.

The discs are still pretty warm when they come, but haven't had any problems yet (only day one though). BTW, my serial number also starts with 2088.
 
Hi Guys;

Well i reallly hope im wrong about this and the discs you have are some kind of prototype or pirated form the technical section ahead of the time ormaybe even a trial version before they go out en mass for release .But My dealer sells more denon than everyone else bar empire direct and if there was an official disc out there on release he would have it ,and deservedly so the amount of money he spends with them.

I also have dobts that the pal progreesive muti region and the chroma bug which I personally have discussed with denon technical over the last week have been fixed and even more surprising on the same disc.

Its going to be rel interesting when I get the offcial disc and we compare firmware numbers. Till then lets just see if anything occurs and good luck with the move installer i know how traumatic they can be.
 
I bought my Denon from a major dealership and the product comes with full 2yr Denon warranty, so however the MR and PAL-P upgrade came about I don't really care. I have my receipt which states full warranty etc., so as far as I'm concerned it must be pretty kosher.

As for PAL-P, it certainly works, as when I play Battle Royale R2 it clearly indicates 'Progressive Scan' on the 3800 display, and sure enough my Panasonic plasma is in pro-scan mode. With the chroma bug I haven't seen any evidence so far. The red block on the Toy Story 2 opening credits is utterly soild with no streaking whatsoever. I'll see if I can get a screenshot later today.
 
I have just taken this screenshot from Toy Story 2 to show the pure red in the logo. No evidence of the chroma streaking at all. This is a crop from an actual screenshot (Panasonic 42" Model 4 plasma) and has not been doctored in any way:
 

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I'm sitting here watching Daylight DTS region 1 on my DVD 3800 right now.
All well to 1 hour 1 min, guess what happens, it's freezing for a sekond or two, like set on pause. Layer change i guess, but no. It keeps freezing every couple of seconds:(
it's now at 1 hour 21 min, and it keeps frezzing.
Guess i'll have to talk to my dealer next week.
I've also had a problem with sloping lines moving across the picture from time to time.
I really thought this player would be the one, but i guess not.
Tried to stop it while it was locking, that seem to be impossible.
Now 1 hour 16 min, keeps locking.
My software is:
ESS 720
DRV 6100
ESS 6134-2
Panel 6093-2
If anyone else has Daylight region 1 DTS and DVD3800 test it.
 
denon up to it's old tricks again!!

s**t Q C

dvd :D
 
Carl
I am really pleased u are happy and your screen shot does does look good and does not appear to have the chroma bug. However, I do not know how long your bliss will last (hopefully its permanent) As soon as I get the official disc i will let you know the firmware number ,lets hope you have something out of the development lab and not an old disc that has withheld from the withdrawl . Incidently, I rang 4 Audio T shops today in the south of england and the one in chester and only 1 of them said he could make my 3800 region free cos he had the disc ( the one in enfield) .He then proceeded to ask me whilst looking down his list if mine was a mk2 or mk1 model (2800) after correction by me again (about 3 times) the dealer said it would be the same disc for both and he would charge £20. Would you let him near your machine ???? I rest my case.

Magking I had exactly the same problem with "Training day" last week at 57 mins ( the scene where denzel is with the corrupt officials having dinner) for about 5 minutes of the movie. My wife has just took the disc back to the local asda for replacement Im hoping its the disc as most others have played well However on my dmr e30 it came across as 1 layer change type pause and only 1 not several like on my denon. I will try it out again with the replacement disc later , if it does not work the I would appreciate it if somebody could try this disc ou on there machine for me too.

Cheers guys im sure we will get there in the end.

ps just bought another mag and 3800 has won best dvd iunder £1000 in the awards.
 
Originally posted by markbuffyfan
Cheers guys im sure we will get there in the end.

ps just bought another mag and 3800 has won best dvd iunder £1000 in the awards.

Why? Its faulty

My old Pioneer 525 has shown these "sticking and pausing problems" (overheating i think) so I'm looking to upgrade/replace and have got a Denon 3800 on my DVD shot list to run Pal progressive on my Panny Plasma should look cool i thought. But I think I will get something a little cheaper now and replace it in couple of years. Because for £750+ I would want a lot less hassle than Denon expect their customers to put up with.

You are a very patient bunch you Denon DVD owners. I think Pioneer, Tosh or even Phillips for me. Arcam if have a bit of luck on the fixed odds.

Thanks for the info though invaluable.
 
markbuffyfan:

You're right, I hope my bliss is permanent too! :D If not then it goes back for repair or refund if I manage to crash it within the next 4 weeks. Will keep you all posted, and with all the reports of faults I do feel slightly precarious.

Will try to use it as much as possible as people who have problems report hot discs, and I have noticed the discs are very warm too.
 
strange one this Training day fault as reported earlier

My wife brought home the new disc and it had the slightest of pauses on it (layer change) and then continues on fine tried to confirm it was a layer change by using panny dmr 30 again and it was a lot worse on the panny (much longer delay) in exactly the sma place .Happy for today folks .
 
mark: witch mag has that test?
 
I saw Training day on Friday, region 1, it played fine. I also noticed the layer change though.
By the way, my Denon DVD3000 makes the disks alot hotter, alot.
 

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