David - the Dynamic Volume control does work. It comes with a downside, however. To me, it just seems to function like a seriously upgraded version of what Denon used to call Dynamic Range Compression in their feature menu.
It cuts out the highs and the lows and mushes them all together at a medium volume. So, when listening to movies or music, you're not going to want to use this setting. Even when listening to a good movie on cable in 5.1 sound, you probably won't want to use it because of the compression.
However, when watching "Deal or No Deal" or you girlfriend's favorite soap opera
it works very nicely. It actually has 3 settings, Day, Night, Midnight (I think those are the names - think of them as low, medium, and high compression). So far I've only used "Day" and found that it definitely cuts the volume difference between TV and commercials without creating a big negative impact on sound during the actual TV programming.
At this level though, there is still a slight bump in volume when the commercials start, but it is definitely attenuated from what it is like without the feature. I imagine on medium or high compression the transition is even more smooth, but I haven't played with it enough to be completely sure. I wanted to try it at the low setting first to minimize compression on the sound I actually wanted to hear. I imagine I'll eventually settle on the medium setting and keep it there for my DirecTV input. It can be set by input and the Denon remembers which input has what setting, so if you turn it on for your cable/sat input, it does not affect your DVD, etc., which is the way you want it.
Hope that helps sell the GF... though the difference with Dynamic EQ is what you'll really like. A win-win.
Jason
