Denon DVD 3910 ISSUES

[WastelandWand'r]

Folks,
Hope everyone had a great New Years. As you can imagine mine was a cold, dark one. Not as cold as 'Snows', but close.
Onto the topic,
Recently picked up a Denon DVD 3910 in black, used.
Previous owner even threw in 8 used discs.
I apologize beforehand to everyone that this will upset, but I actually purchased Allison Krauss 'Forget About It' as my first 'SACD' purchase.
Threw it in the player, and.................. zip.
Took it out threw it into my reference CDP a Sony $39.00 Best Buy unit and amazingly enough it reads, and plays the CD layer.
Anyone else have issues with this player? It hesitated once on everyone's favorite, DSOTM SACD but after opening the drawer and closing it again, read it and played it.
Got it for cheap, but not cheap enough it seems.
It appeared to be well taken care of, and if the rest of his equipment was an indicator, well chosen.
Any ideas?

[fbm211]

You could try cleaning it. The laser could be dirty. Did you have it shipped as it could have been dropped?

[tcrossma]

When you put in the SACD it doesn't even recognize the disc?

A couple things to check:

1. For the time being, make sure that the 'Pure Direct' setting is set to Normal. Press the button on the front right of the player until it says 'Normal', and that way you'll be able to see the control panel and see what it's doing. I usually leave it set to 'All Off' for normal audio use.

2. Check the setting of the 'Super Audio CD' setting by repeatedly pressing the button on the front right of the player. For testing purposes you could set it to 'CD' -- which will cause the player to read from the normal redbook layer of the CD. If that works, try one of the Multi or Stereo SACD options. If they don't play, maybe you have a connection issue since those options normally want to use the Multi-Channel outputs of the player.

3. There's a bunch of settings in the Setup screen that might affect things. Maybe you've got the player configured to output via the Denon Link output or something. Play around in the setup and see if you see anything that isn't right.

Good luck, hopefully you don't have a bad player.

[WastelandWand'r]

Handcarried onto plane, for the short ride home. Actually found it in state (AK). I have tried cleaning the disc (brand new) and running cleaning disc through the player. No luck.
Thanks for the ideas.
Hate to see it, as I was held hostage for the SACD ($$$$). I could not find it for sale on any of the normal outlets.
Nathan

[Fongolio]

Why are you apologizing for buying Allison Krauss? I just pre-ordered the vinyl version of her with Robert Plant's Raising Sand. Very good stuff. Hey, if you like it who gives a crap what I or anyone else think?

[WastelandWand'r]

Tcrossma,
Many thanks. I had read and re-read the users manual and had set what I thought was the correct settings. (Other SACD's had fired up no problem)
I put the disc in as suggested, and toggled to CD on the display in the SACD setup. It read the CD layer, I then toggled to STEREO and lo and behold the beautiful blue SACD icon beamed back at me.
You guys are the best! Thanks for the help.
My wife was close to telling me I had wasted yet more money.
What satisfaction. 09 is looking up.
Happy Trails,
Nathan

[WastelandWand'r]

Fongo,
Years of buying Metallica/Judas Priest/Black Sabbath has caused me to, right or wrong, sneak into 'that' section in the music store. I have been known to claim I was 'Buying them as a gift for someone."
Therapy is helping me branch out.

[tcrossma]

Glad it worked out for you. Would have been a shame if it was a bad unit as it's a very competent CD player. Enjoy. Keep in mind that when set to 'Stereo' that you're operating in 2-channel SACD. It's what I always use, but if you were hoping for 5 channel that's not what you're getting. If that's what you're after, you might have connection issue preventing it from working. Post back and let me know if you need any further help.

[WastelandWand'r]

Thanks again. Nope, only two-channel for me unless it happens to be a DVD-Video. The PS3 handles those, or that high end Sony I referred to. :D

[skrol]

I was just going to start a thread about my DVD-2910 (a demo that I bought used). I think that it is having similar issues. Most disks it reads just fine. I have 2 disks that are band new that it will not read. One is a regular red book CD and the other is an HDCD. I did get one of them to play by banging the unit on the right side while it was trying to read the disk. I haven't tried cleaning the thing yet as I can't seem to find my cleaner disk.

I was able to copy the 2 disks on my computer and the 2910 can read the copies just fine.
Stan

[F1nut]

WastelandWand'r,

Even though you got it to play, don't hold your breath that it will the next time. The Allison Krauss SACD's where issued by Rounder Records and the plant that they used to press the discs seems to have done a crappy job.

What I'm saying is that you're not alone in having issues with those Allison Krauss SACD discs. None of them will play in my SACD player and I know of others with the same issue.

[WastelandWand'r]

F1,
Got any more good news? Just ordered Marvin Gaye, What's Going On, hoping for stellar results with that one.
Nathan

[F1nut]

LOL...

Well, the good news is that most of the problems with SACD discs seem to be largely with the Rounder Record issues that where pressed by the US company. Their current George Thorogood SACD's are pressed in Germany.

That said, I have read of some other SACD reading issues, but believe they are very limited.

[agfrost]

Even though you got it to play, don't hold your breath that it will the next time. The Allison Krauss SACD's where issued by Rounder Records and the plant that they used to press the discs seems to have done a crappy job.

What I'm saying is that you're not alone in having issues with those Allison Krauss SACD discs. None of them will play in my SACD player and I know of others with the same issue.

This is good to hear Jesse, I've borrowed a friend's Krauss SACD and my Marantz chokes on it--I was imagining I somehow damaged a disc that goes for $75+ on eBay, and wasn't too happy with the need to confess to that.

WastelandWand'r, enjoy your tunes.

Jay

[Fongolio]

I'm still Metallica some days and other days Sinatra. I've even been known to throw on old BeeGees when the mood hits. Mavin Gaye sounds fantastic in high resolution as well. I had some issues with a Denon 3800 not properly reading DVD-Audio disks from time to time. I retired it about a year ago and now have a Pioneer Elite DV-79Avi that works very well on almost all formats. I also recently discovered my particular model of PS3 also plays SACD very well IF I have my setting right in the PS3 menu. Your 3910 should sound really nice. I'm glad you got it to work but your PS3 may also play SACD's.

[WastelandWand'r]

Well after F1 burst my balloon by warning me about issues with Rounder SACD's, I gave it a while before I tried the Alison Krauss disc again. Imagine my disappointment when the tray closed and it acted like I just fed it spoiled fish.
I had resigned myself to using it (Krauss) as a conversation piece when the 'new' Dire Straits Brothers in Arms SACD showed up. Slipped it in and started sobbing when the player just stared at me. After unplugging it and holding it over the trash can I thought I had scared it enough to work, but no.

I sent an uncomplimentary email to Denon support telling them about the problems expecting little to nothing in return, since it is used. Someone there took pity on me, listened to my rants, and sent my a new firmware disc, which was as easy as putting it in the tray and closing it. Shut it down, powered up, and put, (I know I am a glutton for punishment on this one), Alison Krauss in it and.............. saints be praised it fired up. Put Dire Straits in and it fired right up.
I shut everything down, powered up and repeated. Same results. How nice is that!

Not sure what everyone elses impression has been with Denon CS, but I wanted to put a shout out for them on this one.:D
Happy Trails,
Nathan

[treitz3]

Wow, I haven't had any issues with my 2910 but this is something to keep in mind if I ever do have an issue. I had to call Denon CS because I got my unit off the showroom floor. No box, no user manual, no remote. They took the time to explain why I wasn't getting the SACD layer played and what I needed to do to correct it. Then they asked me for my address. I asked them "Why?". They said that they had an extra remote for my model and that they would ship it to my house free of charge. Then they pointed me to where I could get the manual pdf online.

All in all a great experience and the 2910 is still-a-rockin' in all the SACD glory. Glad to hear you received the same consideration and service.

[skrol]

I should try that. Mine was a store demo and they didn't have the correct remote so they gave me one for a lower model. Unfortunately, I can't access all the set up functions.