Definitely set it up first. Then go into the menu and see what firmware version it has on it. You may not need to update. If it does need to updated, you can definitely use the receiver’s display. That’s how I updated it the first time I updated. You will want to familiarize yourself with the GUI and how to navigate it first, before you use the display for updating. When you are comfortable with the steps that take you to the update screen, it will be a piece of cake to do it I another room. It just sucks to have to disconnect all your cables.
The receiver will convert analogue to digital, but it will not pass anything above 480P to your display unless you use HDMI. Using S-cable will work, but you will have set it up in the GUI to convert analogue to digital. You may have to set your cable box to output 480i or 480P (try both as the 3808 may do a better job at deinterlacing than the cable box).
The option / function set up on this beast takes time to understand. Some settings that you make will eliminate other settings from the GUI. It’s pretty smart actually. For example…. It has three enhancing modes for compressed audio feeds (like from cable or satellite) that you can pick from. However, if the audio feed coming in is not compressed, the enhance modes are no where to be found. You’ll discover many situations where this happens and new options will seam to appear out of nowhere, but just try to recall what you changed first so you can learn from it. You might also want to write down how you set everything up and keep track of the changes you will make as you learn more.
Another thing you will soon discover is the receiver allows you to set up each input differently than the others. Or, you can make a selection in the menu that will use the same settings for all inputs. It’s pretty handy to have this option. I have all my inputs set up differently and would hate to have them all the same.
