OK, I admit it...I'm just as confounded by the Denon manual as everyone else. I have an issue with Zone 2 on my AVR-2308. I'm using it for a pair of speakers in another room. It works fine when the input is set for the tuner, but none of the other inputs result in any sound at all. I've been through the manual and the menus several times and I can't find anything that solves this problem.
Any ideas?

Joe, without undergoing the horrors of studying the Denon manual(which I've suffered through for years), I'll just toss out the idea that the Zone 2 may operate only with analog signals, which the FM tuner supplies, of course. Are the other source materials which you've been trying to use all been digital in nature?

Other zones don't work with HDMI input. So make sure you're using analog (I've been told coax/optical works as well) inputs.

I'd be amazed if it worked with any digital signal at all.

Thanks for the input. Wouldn't it be great if Denon mentioned that in the manual somewhere?

Geeeez, I've bought my receiver (Denon 2809) and blue ray, now looking at speakers. I'm not looking forward to the setting up when the time comes. Lots of people say the same thing about the Denons....geat product/poor manual. Ummm, maybe we need a manual to figure out THE manual!

This forum is the manual to figure out the manual.

If I didn't have experience with my Marantz; didn't have this forum; didn't have AVS, I would have been royally screwed. Marantz's manual wasn't too bad but Denon's is really awful!

That's what I thought, but someone pointed out that optical and coax digital sources work (but haven't personally verified it)

We need "Denon for Dummies" the book...

Yeah, when I first got into this I figured that because of my experience in interpreting our criminal code and, much worse, the Internal Revenue Code, that receiver manuals would be a piece of cake. Denon showed me otherwise!

Maybe I'm in a masochistic mood tonight, but the comment by Hansang about possible use of digital connections encouraged me to risk looking at the 2808 manual . I found, fairly well-buried on p.60, a series of three Notes. One clearly stated that HDMI connections weren't usable for Zone 2, another one somewhat unhelpfully stated that "certain digital signals" would output noise in Zone 2 and a third stated that optical or coaxial digital inputs could be used for Zone 2, but only as to 2-channel PCM signals.

Denon = trial and error, it is much simplier to just try things and see what happens than to actually sift through the manual to find an answer.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

If D&M Holdings hired one single guy to write really good manuals for its receivers (many sections of new models could be copied and pasted from earlier or similar models), Denon's reputation within both the experienced and newbie audio communities would increase.... easily paying that one guys' salary 10X over....

I heard a guy tried to hang himself with an HDMI cable after trying to decipher the Denon Manual.

Thankfully, it was a non-locking HDMI cable, and it slipped right out.

You have to look at this from the other side. Denon has been using cryptic code to keep the unwashed out of its legend of fans for years. Why mess with the successful formula. Use the same solid amp section, stick to strong fundamentals over new bells and whistles, and "mak'em figure that sh@t out!".
I have been studying the 2000 version for my AVR 3300 for years. What I have learned is that to migrant farmers from Cambodia wrote the manual. The main body was written by a farmer on the AVS forum who never actually owned a stereo. The notes/tips however, were written by a 15 year old who actually saw the AVR in a store. The one sentence tips are generally the only useful part of my manual – and that only gets you moving in the right direction. Although, if you note (on my manual at least) they leave tons of empty space for you to write notes once you discover the meaning of a function. That is awful nice of them.

Haha, Zimm. I also heard Tom Hanks wants to do a sequel to the Davinci code based on the Denon owners manual.

It could work. If at the end you found out the manual is really a code book for some lost religion, it would not shock Denon owners.

Good thing he didn't have one of those monk-woven-levitating cables Zimm has. He'd have been a goner for sure.

What kind of cables do monks use for self-flagellation these days?

A cilice. (remember the Da Vinci code?) Ouch.

Jason

You can't hang yourself with levitating wire! Come on.

But when girls see my levitating wire they say I can go hang myself.

There is that...

Ok...this is an old joke that I've updated. Where the original was "women", the phrase "Denon owner's Manual" has been substituted.

One day a man speaks to God and asks him if he would be able to build him a bridge across the Atlantic, so he could drive to Europe for a vacation.

God replies "this is a huge undertaking, is there something else you wish" ?

Thinks for a minute...." I've never understood 'the Denon owner's Manual' can you please explain it to me" ?

God...."how many lanes did you want on that bridge".

Hey guys,

When I'm watching satellite or a DVD, what should I have the audio source set to? In the manual it looks like my best two options are "standard" or "direct".

Thanks

I watch all shows/movies/ect. in standard mode.

I went downstairs to watch the team Canada game on new years only to find out that there wasn't any audio, so I had to get a friend to check the SPDIF running from my satellite receiver to my Denon and then reassign the input. Once that was done I had sound, but it wasn't set up correctly and I couldn't remember what it was set to buy default. I'm not too excited to find out what those nobs messed up when they hooked up my front door video camera.

Oh yeah, thanks David.