I should have known you guys would go all "sensible" on me. ;-) You are forcing me to relive the painful (I mean that literally as being old and fat and on your knees for hours with a flashlight and a manual can make you sore!) experience of the last few nights. But I suppose it would be easier to commiserate with you all, than to explain it all to a "surround trauma therapist". So here goes.
The Receiver model is AVR-1705. Everyone is always interested in those numbers so I wrote it down.
I suppose all of my problems could be boiled down into 2 categories: 1) No rear sound 2) Running video signals through the Denon
I was at my drummer's house in Seattle a few weeks ago and it seemed like every source of audio he had was somehow channelled through all the speakers. There was never a source that he pulled up and the rear speakers were silent. I thought that the system would "simulate" surround even if it had no actual surround signal. Here's the weird thing: When I press the "test tone" button, it doesn't event TRY to send a sound to the rear speakers. That makes me think that somewhere the thing has been told that I don't have them. Maybe a setting in the configuration of the box? I've read through the manual about 3 times now, and even though it's apparent that it was either 1) translated from another language or 2) written by someone that got a "C" in high school english, I am able to understand most of it. I am still however somewhat intimidated by all the "modes" and what they are supposed to do. But I figure I'll learn that over time. So why no rear channel?
The second issue of video: At first I followed the wiring schematic taking the video out and component out from the DVD and mapped them as indicated. I could not ever get a PICTURE to show up on my TV. So in frustration last night, I wired the DVD video directly into the TV as it has always been, and routed only the audio through the Denon. This provided my first glimpse of daylight as I actually saw a picture and heard sounds that appeared to be from the same source!!! But I fear that by doing it this way I am giving up some sort of functionality. I just had to have SOME kind of victory last night or I was going to hurt myself.
My friend pointed out that I really needed a digital optical cable to run from my DVD to the Denon. I plan to get one of those today on the way home from work (radio shack knows me on a first name basis now). He seemed to think that would kick in those rear speakers. He may be right. But again, I wired my Dish network regular TV stereo into the amp, and it plays it in stereo through the FL and FR speakers, but now the Center and rear sit quietly. I was hoping for more.
Thanks for your patience and help everyone. Please forgive my sarcasm and attempts at humor!
