Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Denon 3808 Feature Upgrade

Hey Guys,

I bought a new Denon 3808 on boxing day this year and its awesome except I would like to try out the new features promised on their website.

I filled out the required documents and sent them to Denon and they have not responded nor authorized my receiver to receive the upgrade.

Just wondering if anyone else had the same problem.

Thanks,

Funny enough, I was going to be doing the same thing with my 3808 today, but hadn't gotten to it yet.

I have nothing in terms of help, but will be watching this thread closely!!

I found it rather irritating that I was unable to type in the pdf form (it would put whatever I was typing in all the boxes). The concept of faxing a piece of paper just seems really archaic to me, so I still haven't gotten around to it either. Alas, my legacy scanner will not work with my new computer so the email option is also not doable.


This is starting to feel like "mail in rebate" to me.

Bryan, I believe it is fairly common this time of year, as sales spike and they receive more requests, it just takes longer to get through the back log. Have you tried calling them? I am not sure it helps, but it couldn't hurt.

Have you gone to any of the 3808 threads on AVS that I sent you links to?

Yeah I read a little bit about it. Some guys seem to have it installed on their receiver already.

Sorry I meant to say "from factory" in post above

Im a little impatient.. Thats all

You have time, you don't even have the speakers yet!

I would call them today and/or Friday and try to see if there is something they could do over the phone, although I have heard some not so good things about Denon's CS as of late.

There are two ways to get the free upgrade: (1) fill out and send in the paperwork (2) Pay $100 get authorization for immediate download, send in paperwork and get $100 reimbursed.

I did the latter but haven't sent in paperwork yet.

IMO the entire situation is poor. It's not just paying for the upgrade -- it's the complexity of getting it. Filling out page after page, the incredible requirement to connect your receiver via BROADBAND ethernet, etc. Does Denon think everyone has broadband?

You just spent a lot of $ on the receiver. The upgrade hassle creates an unpleasant customer experience. It negates what they're trying to accomplish: gain and keep satisfied customers.

Manufacturers sweat ever little product detail to improve the customer experience -- dial color, surface texture, etc. Denon has great products, but then shoots themselves in the foot with a terrible owner's manual and the worst firmware upgrade procedure I've ever seen.

I'd suggest calling Denon to check on the upgrade. It's worth pursuing, as the features are nice.

I'd also suggest complaining about the upgrade process. It's Denon's right to charge for it -- that's not the issue. But the cumbersome, burdensome procedure is a problem.

incredible requirement? Even the lowly Wii has this requirement. I believe the feeling is if you are tech savy enough to even know what that ethernet port is for, you will have a broadband network.

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...

I am surprised the replies were getting filtered out, after all they are going directly to your named account not a generic/mispeeled approximation name, anyway, glad to hear you got the upgrade done!

I have what might or might not be a stupid question:

When you upgrade to new features (such as here on the 3808), how do you control them? There's obviously no hard button on the unit, but how will I go about setting up an on/off option for Audyssey EQ and volume on a remote? I can't even "learn" it off the old remote since THAT doesn't have a function for it....??

Mark,

I have what might or might not be a stupid answer:

I don't believe you actually control any of the new feature upgrades.

Mark to control any of the features, like Audyssey, of the 3808 you need to hit the menu button and go into that specific features menu and then make the adhustments.

There is an EQ button on the remote that cycles on and off the EQ.. I guess you could use the "learn" feature to assign it to another remote.

The other thing you can keep in mind is that the second zone remote that comes with the denon has some hard buttons on it not found on the main remote that can be used during the "learning" process of a universal remote... not sure if that applies in this situation or not tho.

I've got my universal remote configured pretty well at this point, and I DID use both the "Main" and "Second Zone" remotes to learn from. I also have my remote configured with the "EQ" button so I can cycle through options.

Jay, I can understand that I need to go into the menu to change parameters of the new Audyssey features, but are you saying that it's something that will pretty much be left "on" all the time once it's configured...or.... you have to go within menus to turn the features on and off, which you'll want to do sometimes?

I had been assuming that I would want controls for turning the features off and on, hence my original question. Maybe that's a false pretense and the features work so well that they're designed to be left "on" at all times?

Well, my answer was a serious one and I warned you that it was possibly a stupid one.

Mark as Jason mentioned, once you have the 3808 setup it remembers what settings you used for that input, Audyssey on or off, so you shouldn't be switching things on and off nearly as much and as David said, there is a button on the remote to turn Audyssey on and off if needed.