Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Denon 3808 Feature Upgrade

Only about 1/2 of American households have broadband internet access. There is absolutely no need to require this for a firmware update. It needlessly increases complexity and customer frustration.

Many sophisticated devices require firmware updates: digital cameras, Blu-Ray players, computers, etc. Nearly all of these allow downloading a file via USB, burning to a disc, writing to USB thumb drive, SDHC card, etc.

Denon receivers are the only consumer device I've seen which requires a direct broadband connection for firmware updates. It's incredible a consumer electronics company would require a capability which about 1/2 of all households don't even have.

Not to be argumentative (I kinda agree with you in principle), but the 3808 is a bit of a niche market. Sure, 50% of you don't have broadband, but how many of those even know what a Rx is let alone be going highish end? I don't know too many that would:

a) know of Denon;
b) spend US$1200+ for a Rx;
c) be comfortable doing their own firmware updates (if they even care); and
d) not have broadband.

Denon probably figures those numbers are low enough to be considered acceptable losses. Or maybe they'll fix it in a future update!

Ain't many places that have ethernet that don't have broadband. The house Peter and I lived in in college was an exception, but that was also back when DSL (a) wasn't available and/or (b) cost a fortune/month.

The aforementioned Wii, which is selling millions a month, needs the broadband connection for updates.

If half the households don't have a broadband connection, then obviously the other half does. This would be the higher tech household Denon is looking to sell this product to and are most likely the ones looking to buy a product in this price range.

Wii requires broadband ethernet because there's no other alternative. E.g, on-line game play requires a live connection. You can't do that by downloading firmware to a USB thumb drive.

By contrast updating the Denon 3808/4808 firmware is a maintenance and support issue. There are many technical alternatives to broadband ethernet for delivering that. Most other consumer devices -- even very sophisticated, expensive ones -- allow firmware updates via non-broadband methods. My Nikon D300 DSLR costs more than my AVR-3808CI, and is arguably just as complex to use. Nikon could have reasoned the technical user base buying that camera has broadband, so we'll require that for firmware updates. They didn't -- firmware updates are done via a downloaded file.

The issue isn't "Joe Six Pack can't afford broadband, but Denon's not interested in those customers". Rather a large % of potential customers simply cannot get broadband. It's not a matter of affordability or customer sophistication. This may be difficult for urbanites to understand, and especially younger people who grew up viewing broadband as a required utility like water and power. But broadband is just not available for a large % of the U.S. population.

The fact it requires one for online gaming isn't the point, the point is they could still use it's USB ports and a Thumb drive for updates but didn't allow this feature.
Using the same logic you used for the Wii, the 3808 needs broadband because of it's internet radio capability and network audio streaming, there is no other alternative for these features either.

Yes, they could have and most likely should have, allowed for updates via the USB port and thumb drive but they chose not to, the updates are not a requirement for it to run properly, unless there is an issue, but even then it maybe updated by taking in the receiver to a dealer or a friend's house with broadband and updated, unlike the previous years where it HAD to go in to a dealer/repair center for any and all updating.

I bought this receiver knowing that it required High Speed Broadband requirement so it does not bother me one bit. Every piece of hometheater equipment I have uses the internet except for the TV.

My only problem is that on http://www.denon.ca it says free feature upgrades. I did what was expected of me and it promises 1 business day authorization which I have still not received.

I have written another email and will followup tomorrow with a phone call see what is happening.

Other than that the receiver is great. Just need to order some axioms to go with it.

Finally!! I got my upgrade done....
After calling Denon and figuring out that my ISP was forwarding any/all messages from Denon to the spam filter I have authorization to download the upgrade pack.

What a good day!

Good stuff!! Do let us know what you think of the upgrade.

I snail-mailed my info last week, but don't expect to hear domething for three more or so...