- Networking capability opens up your AV system to audio and jpeg photo streaming and Internet radio.
- HDMI 1.3a Repeating (5 input, 2 output, one front panel) provides one cable connection between the receiver and TV
- 1080p HDMI connectivity supports Blu-ray disc surround sound formats, including Dolby TrueHD and DD+, dts-HD and dts-HR
- Audyssey DSX and Dolby Labs Pro Logic IIz Matrix decoding featuring front height effects channels
- Audyssey MultEQ XT, Dynamic Volume and Dynamic EQ
From my testing so far:
Pros:
1. Great sound; drastic (positive) improvement over previous Denon 1508 I had in this setup.
2. Video: The upconversion from any source to HDMI is good and works without a hassle. (The worst case testing of standard cable to 1080p doesn't look good and is more grainy than I would have liked; but standard DVD looks fantastic on my Panasonic 1080p plasma with this receiver).
3. Audussey setup: was quite easy (just took some 10 minutes) and once done, had done a good job of measuring distances and capacities of speakers I have (Martin Logan Aeons for the front, Vignette for the center, ML Grotto for the sub, but a low end polk audio for surrounds in my 5.1 setup), and correctly set the relative power etc for the speakers. I can see the difference in one of the side chairs in my listening setup.
4. On screen GUI: Great improvement over my previous Denon/Marantz etc. Again this works flawlessly, and the GUI, while it can be improved, is good enough for most people.
5. The remote: the primary remote, after you get used to it, is great. Now I could dispose of my Panasonic TV remote as well as my DVD player's remotes and just use one remote effortlessly. I also have a Harmony remote that I stopped using long time ago, and this remote is better than the harmony remote in my experience (one simple reason is that harmony remembers the state of the equipment and expects you to use only the remote always; so if you do manual change, for e.g, walk up to the TV and switch it on, harmony gets confused!). Again a great improvement over previous/lower end Denon models.
5. Network access/firmware upgrade: just having these features is a plus (BUT...I had lot of issues with this that I am covering below)
6. Ipod direct connectivity using front USB input: great again. (I was able to connect both iphone first gen and a ipod video 5th gen as well as a ipod nano 3rd gen and use them correctly using the onscreen menu). There is an audio improvement mode that improves the compressed mp3 music ("Restorer" has 4 modes off or no processing, 64, 96bit and HQ high quality?)
7. Several inputs 6 HDMI inputs there is even a set of front inputs hdmi, composite,USB inputs for convenience.
8. Doesn't get too hot! I tried pushing this a higher volume on my sub-4 ohm Martin Logans and no sweat! Receiver does get hot but not too hot that you will burn your fingers! This is one big reason I bought this receiver my experience with other brand rececivers was quite bad at 75-90 watt/channel, these receivers trip my house fuses frequently; Denon (both my old 1508 at 75 watts and 4310 now at 130 watts) does admirably well in this regard and I have no complaints only superlative praises for the efficiency and power handling of Denon.
Now for the CONS and the problems I encountered:
1. Poor, unfinished, mediocre web access while it does allow you to change the source, do the setup of components, control multi zones, volume control etc using (browser) access), it looks very primitive not one that you expect in a 2000$ receiver.
2. NET/USB and other network Modes: Several bugs here let me try a few,, but I am not finished finding them yet!
a. Doesn't recognize any NAS drives in the home network; only sees Windows media servers in the network! So to play music in a NAS drive, I have to first add it to a WMP library and then I can play that from Denon. This is more a feature request than a bug.
b. While navigating through list of songs/albums etc, there is no page up/page down keys and so going down one entry at a time and lack of search is a pain when you have thousands of songs.
c. There is a minor bug in playing media server/USB files: while the display goes to sleep after a minute or so, the album art stays in the screen in the same place this will be bad for plasma TVs!
d. Ipod troubles: I have a first generation iphone and so when I connect that, there is a warning on iphone that says this device is not compatible and so I should put the phone in airplane mode. Say no to this screen and it continues to work normally! Not sure if it is apple's bug or denon's bug! But Denon is recognizing older ipods to current generation.
Quite a few problems I saw with NET/USB/Media server/internet radio have been solved with the firmware updates over the last month..
I want to give 4.5 stars, only because most of the problems I saw can be fixed by software updates (I hope Denon will act fast), and the rest, the most important thing for me audio quality, video quality, power handling are worth 6 stars.
I haven't got to testing Audussey DSX the height and wider channel features presented by this receiver. I will update this review as I test more features...
Update: July 2010: After almost a year and several firmware upgrades later, I still haven't tested the Audissey DSX feature. But the problems I noted with media server/Net are still there in particular, the media server is still sooooo slow, I can't really use it. In fact, my Denon is wired to the wireless router. Sharing music between my systems using wireless on Windows 7 pcs/notebooks is reasonably (much) faster but Denon is quite slow literally takes several seconds for each key press. Internet radio, napster, usb drives etc are quite useable (no issues there).
The http screens for this receiver are still primitive no changes there. You will still need the on-screen menus if you want to make changes. The best you can do with http access is to change the input, change volume/mute (more like a simple remote).
Ultimately, the sound quality is great and audio performance of this receiver rocks the sole reason for my buying this receiver. In spite of all the other small issues I mentioned, the sound quality and power performance (runs quite cool for the power it handles) is one of the best I have seen at this price range.
UPDATE: 11/26/2010: With the latest firmware updates, the network access and Ipod/USB access etc seem to have improved several fold. Now access to media on my NAS box in the home network is quite snappy, and I can play a song in a couple of seconds after selecting the song.I have had my 4310 since November last year. Overall a great unit with many features. However, the network card in this model and the higher 4810 has been very flaky and many have failed. Now, you might think that if you are not going to use the network features then no big deal; but somehow the network card failures cascade into other sections of the unit.
Ensure you select an authorized dealer as Denon will not honor their warranty; the Denon warranty center is outsourced to a third party in New Jersey so shipping to them is at your expense and repairs take 2-3 weeks minimum (with stories from others for months).This is to share my experience with a new 4310CI for a week:
PRICE I just upgraded to this 4310CI from an old Denon AVR3801 which has 7x110W. From all the articles I've read which indicated 4310CI is more likely an upgrade of the 3808CI instead of 4308CI, and price was raised form the 1699 for 3808CI to the 1999 MSRP. However, I had the 4310 for 1248 (.) I paid ~800 for the 3801 in 2001. I think 1248 for the 4310CI is alright as of this time.
AUDIO 1) In stereo mode, I cannot tell of an improvement immediately over the old 3801. However, 4310CI's HD radio locks in more stations (with the 4310CI, signal dropout completely if signal quality is poor) and offers pleasant radio listening experience. I don't have XM and Sirius satellite; therefore, I cannot share any experience for those. 2) In AV mode, 4310CI does differently sensationally and somehow better than 3801; however, 3801 is doing great basic 5.1 decoding, IMO. No need to upgrade to 4310CI just for this if I am not looking for HDMI connections. 3) The internet radio is cool, and sound quality is not bad. However, it froze on me a few times thus far; power cycle brought it right back.
VIDEO 1) no HDMI handshake issue so far with my LN52A750, and 1080P really does significantly better job than 1080i via component cables with my old 3801. 2) ABT-2010 does a super job up-scaling my DVD's 480i and 480p output. IMO, it does the best up-scaling job (very SMOOTH, although yet Bluray quality) while PS3 does good job and LN52A750 does poorly. This alone would make 4310CI a good buy if you don't have a higher end DVD or Bluray player.
OTHER 4310CI gets kind of hot. My 3808 is running cool to touch from the top, no heat at all. I was concerned about the heat when I first had the 4310CI all connected and ran for just about 15 minutes in -30db. Don't know if this normal; however, user manual does say it would get hot and it needs room for ventilation.
It is somewhat expensive; however, I'd recommend this 4310CI for the price I paid for.
UPDATE #1:
I think my 4310CI ran hot was due to vedio processing from up-scaling 480p DVD input. I checked again yesterday while I was watching 1080i input from DirecTV, it stayed warm although not cool but not hot.
Audio signal comes right in at power-up and dropout while syncing with video via HDMI. Video wouldn't show on TV at least for the first 3-5 seconds. This only happens at start-up, have not run into a similar situation while watching DirecTV, DVD, or with a PS3.
Update #2 (02/29/2012):
I have not used the NET/USB feature and didn't check for updates for several months, and now just realized my network connection is totally gone. I have tried power on/off several times alone with a complete reset, no go. I was able to get IP address to show up a few times in setup menu but could have never been able to establish a network connection. I did a quick research online and found that a lots, if not all, 3310ci and 4310ci are experiencing this issue. I called Denon and they wouldn't acknowledge this has been widely spread. My unit is 4-5 month out of warranty, sham on Denon.I have had the Denon 4310 for 3 weeks. I'm extremely satisfied with its options and sound quality. Beware if you are not really into fooling around with electronic setups. I'm very experienced with home theater equipment and it took me several days to really set it up right after wading through the user manual. The only problem I had with this product is the instructions which are unnecessarily complicated. To actually do the setup is easy, but getting the info from the manual on how to do it is very time consuming.
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