Audio Video Revolution Forum

My 2 year search for a new home theater receiver has finally ended!
Ever since I got into HD I've wanted a receiver with at least 4 HDMI 1.3 inputs without spending a ton of cash, I decided on the Denon AVR3808CI.
While several brands have come out with multiple HDMI 1.3 inputs at a similar price including the Sony STR-DA5300ES with 6 inputs the single option that put the Denon at the top of my list was the ability to upgrade the firmware.
As fast as things are changing it's nice to know that this can be upgraded.
The fact that not all firmware upgrades will be free tells me that some new functions may be added & it's not all just bug fixes in the software that can be downloaded.
While the 3808CI can be bought at Best Buy in the Magnolia store within a store I highly recommend that you purchase it from a custom installer, the CI in the model number stands for custom Install & there are menus that only trained installers can access & they can diagnose problems over the internet, when I asked the sales guy at Magnolia about that he didn't have a clue what I was talking about (big surprise!).
My dealer went to the demo at CEDIA & is going to take the class provided by Denon to support this line of receivers.
I'm not impressed with the remote but the fact that both remotes have direct input buttons is a big plus, I programmed my Harmony 880 to run mine & when I'm sure I added all the functions I need it will go in the drawer with all the other stock remotes!
The Audyssey MultEQ XT auto setup was easy to do (it helps to have a tripod to mount the mike on) & it got the size & distance on all my speakers correct but oddly turned my Sub Woofer down so low it was barely putting anything out, a quick trip to the manual speaker setup corrected that.
I got it hooked up to my computer with no problems & my computer recognizes it but I haven't figured out how to stream music from my computer or get internet radio yet.

I wondered if there would be any handshake problems with the HDMI connections, I have my DirecTV HR20-700 HD-DVR, Sony Playstation 3 & Sony DVP-NS3100ES DVD player hooked up through HDMI to the 3808CI & a HDMI cable going to my Sony KDS-R70XBR2 & there was no problems.
It does have the "Playsforsure" sticker on it which means that anything that has been certified by the HDMI group should have no problems hooking up & playing & that worked in my case.
I've only had it a couple of weeks & have been through the owners manual twice but there is so many things this will do I'm going to have to go through it again.

I'm sure there is much more this receiver will do that I haven't found out yet but I do know that Ted Nugent sounds killer on it & I can really crank it up on action movies.
I'll add more as time goes by but for now here's a couple of pics & the specs.

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/r...ront.jpg/image
http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/r...Back.jpg/image

130W/channel x 7
Newly revised front panel and controls
ALL NEW GUI Setup and control interface (front panel setup possible as well)
0.05% THD
3 independent power transformers
6 independent power supply circuits
Dynamic discrete surround circuit-HD (revised for HD audio formats)
Analog Devices SHARC 21366 (1) and 21367 (1) DSP
Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital+ decoding
dts-HD Master Audio decoding
Dolby Digital EX, dts ES Discrete/Matrix/Neo:6
XM-HD 5.1 with Neural Surround
Compressed audio restorer for portables/iPods
Audyssey MultEQ XT room correction with eight (8) mic positions
Revised Y/Mold setup microphone
AL24 processing (AL24+ front left/front right)
24-bit/192kHz DACs (2/8 ch PCM1791A)
Analog-to-Digital conversion all channels on stereo analogue inputs (24/192 PCM1804)
Variable high/low-pass crossover points (12/24dB) 40-250Hz
Assignable digital inputs
Denon Link 3rd (PCM/DSD compatibility)
8-channel parallel digital inputs (for professional monitoring use)
iPod-ready with Denon D-dock
USB port (front and rear) for portable music players/flash drives/HDD with Command and Control functionality, on-screen data
XM Satellite Radio-ready (Mini-tuner compatible)
Multi-source, multi-zone discrete tuner select function (AM/FM/XM/HD)
HDMI 1.3a repeater inputs/outputs with support for 1080p/24/60 and 12-bit Deep color, xvYCC color space, auto lip sync correction, and 7.1 uncompressed 24-96 audio plus SACD
Analogue to HDMI video conversion/scaling (480p/720p/1080i/1080p)
Faroudja DCDi video processing (FLI-2310)

Audio Inputs/outputs:
3 digital S/PDIF
4 digital optical
2 optical, assignable S/PDIF outputs
Phono input
10 analogue inputs including tuner
2 analogue record outputs (with DAC to allow digital source output)

Video Inputs/outputs
4 HDMI 1.3a inputs
1 HDMI 1.3a output
7 composite/s-video video inputs
3 composite/s-video video outputs
3 component video inputs (100MHz)
2 parallel (main zone) component video outputs (100MHz)
Independent video conversion (s-video to composite for Zone 2)
Source delete function
Source function rename
Dual surround mode speaker selection
System setup/surround parameters lockout
8-channel external analogue inputs
Pure Direct/Direct/Stereo modes for digital/analogue inputs
7 DSP effect modes
Multi-channel stereo mode
56-station auto-preset memory tuning
RS-232 port with new Denon 2-way remote control and RF/IR base station
RJ-45 Ethernet port (MAC/PC streaming, Internet radio, web browser, enhanced for WMA lossless and AAC)
PC setup and control via Ethernet (with remote off-site diagnosis, correction, update and upgrade capability)
3-zone, 3-source (with DACs for digital audio PCM support)
Composite video output for second zone with OSD for meta-data from iPod/XM/streaming
Discrete IR remote codes (4 for main zone, 2 for multi-zone)
Enhanced power amplifier assign for multi-zone (Zones 2 and/or 3 in split mono) or bi-amping; four (4) modes in all
8 channel preamp outputs for main zone
Relay-controlled protection circuits
New enhanced multi-zone remote with punch-through commands
Compatible with RC-7000/7001CI IR/RF 2-way remote/base station (optional
35.6 pounds
Dimensions: 17.1" x 6.7" x 16.9"