AVS Forum Archive 2 - Upgraded My 5900 To DL3

Digione

07-13-05, 07:39 PM

Awesome in a word!

This is just a quick note to give all those 5900 owners out there the knowledge and hope that the 5900 DL3 upgrade is no more than just a disc.

I have just completed the upgrade it took about 1 minute and was one disc that contained a 2MB file. The upgrade was done with an "official" Denon software patch but due to the conditions associated with being given the file by Denon I cannot give it out.

The upgrade will be available on the Denon USA web site as soon as they have resolved some "web issues".

It was well worth the wait, well at least for me. I am using the 5803A and the improvement in all aspects of the sound quality on SACD were immediately apparent and very significant.

Regards

Paul

DigiPete

07-13-05, 07:51 PM

[QUOTE=Digione]Awesome in a word!

This is just a quick note to give all those 5900 owners out there the knowledge and hope that the 5900 DL3 upgrade is no more than just a disc.

I have just completed the upgrade it took about 1 minute and was one disc that contained a 2MB file. The upgrade was done with an "official" Denon software patch but due to the conditions associated with being given the file by Denon I cannot give it out.

The upgrade will be available on the Denon USA web site as soon as they have resolved some "web issues".

It was well worth the wait, well at least for me. I am using the 5803A and the improvement in all aspects of the sound quality on SACD were immediately apparent and very significant.

Regards

Paul[/QUOTE]

Congrats!!

kgturner

07-13-05, 08:36 PM

bastard!!!

i've been waiting for the upgrade since it was announced back in may.

kevin t

Sam S

07-13-05, 09:53 PM

Digione,

Did you notice if your firmware or SYS number changed with the DL3 disc? Or did everything stay the same and DL3 was just "activated"?

ssabripo

07-13-05, 10:23 PM

Should I assume the 3910 DL3 firmware update will be "officially" available in the US Denon site soon as well??

Digione

07-14-05, 06:46 AM

Sam,

The SYS data is totally different as this is only a temporary patch, with official upgrade still to be released.

ssabripo,

Cannot really comment on this but I would assume that once Denon has resolved its web distribution issues all upgrades would becomme available on the Denon site.

Regards

Paul

bambam

07-14-05, 09:51 AM

Will this upgrade - that you say is delivered via cd - have, in addition, all other upgrades to date for the 5900?

Also, at any point, did you have to send in your 5900 to Denon for any upgrades - that eventually allowed you to run this latest update?

keenan

07-14-05, 02:10 PM

Digione, your 5900 isn't multi-region by any chance is it?

Digione

07-14-05, 02:42 PM

bambam,

This temporary upgrade was a file that I burnt to CD. Previously I had sent my player in to have the IEEE firmware upgraded and I was running -8 software. I have read conflicting information as to wether you will have to return your player for any internal upgrades prior to the DL3 upgrade.

Keenan,

Sorry, my player is region 1 only.

Regards
Paul

JackG

07-18-05, 09:15 PM

Bambam et al
According to my discussion with a Denon Service rep last Thursday re another matter, he says that the permanent DL3 upgrade will be ready " in about a month". You will have to send in the 5900 unit and all upgrades will be included in the service. It will be considerably over -8. Still seems to be just shipping one-way.

bambam

07-18-05, 10:34 PM

JackG,

Thanks for the update. That's good to know. Not thrilled about having to send the 5900 in, but I guess it's a small price to pay for the upgrade - and it will be nice to have everything up to date and done at once!

Do we just keep checking Denon's web site for the "official" word?

[QUOTE=JackG]Bambam et al
According to my discussion with a Denon Service rep last Thursday re another matter, he says that the permanent DL3 upgrade will be ready " in about a month". You will have to send in the 5900 unit and all upgrades will be included in the service. It will be considerably over -8. Still seems to be just shipping one-way.[/QUOTE]

csukasem

07-18-05, 11:57 PM

Digione

07-19-05, 07:33 PM

csukasem,

I noticed no change in the video and audio performance of the player. I am using DL3 and have my player modified to SDI out, so it unlikely that I would see any change.

Regarding the forthcoming DL3 update. It has been reported on the Audioholics web site forum that both the 5900 and 5910 will need to be returned for a "full" DL3 upgrade. I have no idea what they are going to upgrade or what other functionality they are going to add escpecially as my DL3 upgrade works just fine!

Again according to Audioholics, Denon are taking reqests for the upgrades for both of these players. I shall call tomorrow to see if this is true.

Regards

Paul

csukasem

07-19-05, 08:05 PM

Paul,

That's very unfortunate. Yesterday I talked to Denon's authorized dealer here(Thailand) and they just did not know anything about the upgrade. Anyway, I am using many kinds of accessories which really, really help the quality of picture and sound (I am using Denon A11 which is 5900).

Thanks a lot.

Sukasem C.

Digione

07-19-05, 08:35 PM

Sukasem,

The best upgrade I have ever done was to upgrade the 5900 to SDI out and add a DVDO HD scaler. The improvement in the pixel mapped picture (1366x768 P60) was dramatic and worth every penny.

Regards

Paul

keenan

07-19-05, 09:39 PM

[QUOTE=Digione]Sukasem,

The best upgrade I have ever done was to upgrade the 5900 to SDI out and add a DVDO HD scaler. The improvement in the pixel mapped picture (1366x768 P60) was dramatic and worth every penny.

Regards

Paul[/QUOTE]
Same here, absolutely no hint whatsoever of MB, and the picture has less noise in it. I also had it made region free for like $50 on top of the SDI mod.

uzun

07-20-05, 01:13 PM

I modded my 3910 for SDI output as well. The difference in PQ vs DVI was quite surprising, especially considering the video processor I'm using has a DVI output to the display. In my experience, SDI mod + External Video Processor is a HUGE improvement over the 3910 via DVI.

CCarncross

07-20-05, 02:56 PM

For the money that needs to be invested in the SDI mod, and a good external video processor, and the price of a suitable player to be modded, it better look damn good. WHy would you expect it not to look much better.

uzun

07-20-05, 03:30 PM

I would expect DVI input to the video processor to look about as good as SDI input to the video processor because both are digital out of the player. One goes through the players internal processing first, but I wouldn't expect much difference. In fact going DVI into the video processor vs. going SDI into the same video processor you get less noise and a cleaner picture (using actual movies or test patterns) with the SDI connection. I'm not sure why, but for some reason SDI gives a lot better picture than DVI, at least with the 3910.

Why would you expect them to be much different, when following essentially the same path?

keenan

07-20-05, 03:47 PM

Well the biggest difference in signal paths is that the SDI signal is the pure 480i feed right off the MPEG decoder. I don't know of any DVDPs that send a 480i signal over DVI. SDI is the cleanest, un-processed, representation of the digital information encoded on the disc. It bypasses the scaling and de-interlacing done in the player, which in some Faroudja chipped players causes MB. SDI is simply a cleaner, less encumbered path for the signal.

There will be different results with different setups, but for my setup, I was actually surprised at the degree of quality that was obtained by going SDI. I knew there would be an improvement, but not to the the degree that I actually got.

LEVESQUE

07-20-05, 04:37 PM

I was able to compare the same player (Pio 59avi) with SDI to a scaler vs 480i over HDMI to the same scaler and there was so small a difference between both configurations that it was not worth it for me...

But if we are talking about players unable to pass 480i over the digital connection (like all the Denon players), then SDI is clearly the way to go for those, particulalrly those with the MB bug...

uzun

07-20-05, 07:00 PM

I would think 480i over HDMI would be roughly equivalent to SDI. It's possible some player modification of the signal is still occuring, in fact it's likely the player is doing something to the 480i signal but I expect not too much. With SDI you are at least guaranteed the player does nothing but decompress the MPEG data, no other processing comes into play meaning you get the cleanest possible signal into the Video Processor, but I imagine a 480i HDMI signal is pretty close to that as well.

kgturner

07-21-05, 11:54 AM

so, where would i look to have my 5900 upgraded to sdi? maybe a future upgrade, but i doubt it's necessary now with my low resolution sony vpl-hs3 projector. thanks.

kevin t

Digione

07-21-05, 12:18 PM

I had mine done by JVB. It works just fine with my HD, and it was a two day turnaround. Be careful about who does the upgrade there appears to be some compatability issues between some of the SDI upgrades and some of the scalers.

Aren't we a bit of the thread topic?

Regards

Paul

keenan

07-21-05, 01:11 PM

Mine was done by JVB Digital, very fast turnaround..

...and yes, we're off topic, but short of any news about DL3/5900-5910 availability, it's nice to have a current 5900 thread, I haven't posted in one since last year I think, the 3910 guys are getting all the action... :p :D

Digione

07-21-05, 01:54 PM

Keenan,

Point taken.

As an update on DL3 I had a chat with Denon the other day and they are reporting that the 3910 should only be a single disc upgrade (not 7 as reported here on AVS) but the upgrade for the 5900/5910 will probably require it to be returned for some internal firmware upgrade.

They are unable to explain yet as to what this internal upgrade does and why it is required. I explained what my previous version of software was (-8) and the upgrades (IEEE) that I had done on my unit in an attempt to find out why my DL3 patch worked just fine and had no adverse effects on the performance of my player. However, no answer was forthcoming and the final format of the DL3 upgrade for these two players still seems a little "cloudy".

They are still having web issues, they were explained to me but too lengthy to go into here, these should be resolved in the near future allowing the DL3 upgrades to become available to us all.

Regards

Paul

Allen

07-21-05, 02:08 PM

The 3910 DL3 upgrade is up now, and is three disks. However, if you had previously installed the three disk upgrade available in May, you only need to use one of the disks, so the actual DL3 part of the upgrade is 1 disk.

Allen

keenan

07-21-05, 02:10 PM

Interesting, my player appears to be in the exact state yours is, or was before you added the DL3 patch, regarding FW version and IEEE1394 fix(already been done), the only difference being mine is region free. I've been waiting for the DL3 patch so JVB can tell me how/if it may affect that region free status.

Ultimately, I'm perfectly happy with SACD performance with the current setup, but it would be nice to have full functionality, if only to compare the 2 methods of transmission.

bambam

07-26-05, 11:20 AM

OK, so what is needed to upgrade my Denon 5900 to DL3? Do I need to send it in to Denon? If so, is there a charge for this - other than shipping? I called Denon at a 973 area code, and I believe it was the tech department. The person I talked to knew absolutely nothing - and frankly shouldn't even be allowed to answer the phone.

Any feedback? I'm getting a little frustrated.

Digione

07-26-05, 11:45 AM

bambam,

I understand your frustration, like many others, however I cannot tell you more than I posted earlier. There will possibly be a need to send the player in, you pay shipping to Denon only, but this has yet to be confirmed. The patch I used does not appear to be what is to be released but my player works just fine with my 5803A. I therefore do not understand what the issue is, even after discussions with Denon.

I have been unable to get any more information as to why players MAY have to be returned. Quite frankly I am suprised at the time it is taking to offer this upgrade on what was the top of the line model, more so now as the 3900 upgrade is now available.

Regards

Paul

JackG

07-27-05, 08:21 PM

bambam
If you spoke to someone at (973)396-7494, you did not speak to the tech dept. but to the receptionist-- who indeed knows nothing. You have to get into Ext. 492 to talk to anyone in the know. The 5900 DL3 upgrade is still not ready and it will require you to send in the unit for this work when it is available.There is a huge online firmware that is availble that will get you to 6334-G. It is complicated but it is doable. Patience is a virture.

fibreKid

07-29-05, 12:40 AM

I just requested my update G for the second time. With any luck I'll get it about the time the DL3 upgrade is available. I hoped I wouldn't need to send it back but if I have to I will. Currently I'm at 6334-8 which was original from the factory.

kgturner

08-09-05, 12:42 PM

any more news? i'm getting antsy.

kevin t

kgturner

08-14-05, 12:13 PM

i just noticed a 5900 sell on audiogon. the seller claimed it had been upgraded to dl3. there's no new firmware on denon's site. i guess i'll give them a call on monday and see what the deal is. anybody know if denon's doing a silent return/upgrade? that wouldn't make sense to me, but who knows?

kevin t

fibreKid

08-14-05, 12:50 PM

:eek:
I'm still waiting for my (5900) firmware upgrade that I requested via the Denon site. They say 2 - 3 weeks so I guess I have at least another week before I can rant too loudly...

-john

kgturner

08-15-05, 04:01 PM

i've upgraded to the latest available 5900 firmware. i just burned the downloaded files to cd's and followed the instructions. there's no dl3 in it. unfortunately, i got busy at work and by the time i called denon, they were closed. damned time zones!!

kevin t