Okay I have this one working...
But there is no simple volume up/volume down?
Also any ideas how you would choose "Online Music" -> "Pandora" -> "Shuffle"?
Also a SKIP to skip to the next track?
Maybe there is a different driver?
I have a Netatmo Home Health sensor.
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Yeah it likely won’t be until after the first if the year. Building a whiskey lounge is higher up the todo list. 
I had a feeling an update was due. 7.1 is fine for now. I’ll have to run new wiring for some floor standing speakers to get 7.2.6. Right now I have tower mains and tree pair in the ceiling.
Upgraded HDMI is good but I’m only pushing 4k HDR @60Hz. Even that took some effort to get cabling that would handle it with a 4:2:2 chroma. I do have it set to match frame rate so it often isn’t running at 60.
I’m not seeing what the A110 really brings to the table over the 8500.
Awesome, we have similar taste! My original 2020 plan called for building a full bar & home theater in my basement. Once this year took a quick turn straight down the toilet I decided to focus on outdoor home improvements instead. I'd love to hear what your plans are for the whiskey bar. I'm a scotch and bourbon fan myself. Other than some fancy lights I've been trying to figure out what kind of "smart stuff" I could put in a bar!
Well for starters it's beautiful 
For me though I plan to have it in a closet so the style doesn't matter. I've heard the HDMI 2.1 upgrade for the 8500H is going to go for about $1500 (rumor right now) so that narrows the gap. Main difference is build quality which can go a long way on a high end AVR.
Not sure, the builtin Denon driver has volume commands though. Otherwise, I'll stop derailing your thread now. I'm not much help outside of Denon.
I'm curious what native smart features do modern AV receivers have that HE can take advantage of? My older Onkyo (2017 or so) has no wifi or smartness to it, but I can control it with my Roku Device in HE (CEC), or with a Logitech Harmony (IR) or an $11 Tasmota-IR (HE version) IRBridge.
Since I simplified to everything we do coming from the Roku streaming Stick, it has gotten very simple. Meaning no imputs to change, etc - Roku remote does everything. I just want HE for Away mode and Good Night rules to turn things off.
Thanks
Harmony is awesome, but it's IR. There is no guarantee the command was received and no way to check to see if the state actually updated. For example, you send a power off command, but occasionally a device stays on, I guess some kind of IR interference at that moment. When I send the command via telnet to my AVR I'm positive the command was received, and I can also read the device state:
My harmony wouldn't know that my AVR volume is currently set to 51. It just knows how to increase/decrease it.
None of that may be important for what you're looking to do though, but that's what I use.
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That's what I figured - HE would know the state of things, and can act on them. Makes sense. I've had pretty good luck using an inexpensive IR repeater that has transmitters stickered direct to the IR of the AV receiver. Your typical hidden behind a cabinet stuff. I would love to know the state like yours, but this works (and sounds great -the most important part!)
Since the recent convert to Roku/SonyTv/Onkyo all working with CEC for me, the TV volume level display is always in sync with the volume level on the Onkyo, so I'll have to look into if the Roku has volume level knowledge. Probably not but worth a look.
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I feel that way about Yamaha.
I also have a (reduced) collection of around 30 vintage Yamaha stereo components as well...
I tend to buy the TOTL AVR Yamaha when there's a big shift in tech. Running the RX-A3070 two yeas now (passed on the RX-A3080). They released the 5000 series after I bought but those a little more spendy than I like and since I run outboard amps, I don't need any big power.
There's an unsupported community driver for Yamaha, but I also have a Harmony Hub integrated with HE so I don't use the direct integration.
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I agree, I bought a RX-A2060 a few years ago and have loved it ever since. It has decent Alexa integration but I mainly use Logitech Harmony and it's Alexa integration to control it.
I haven't verified this and if anyone that has an 80 series Yamaha receiver I would love to know, but supposedly they improved the 80 series Alexa integration massively to be on par with the likes of Sonos where you can set a zone as a default speaker for an Alexa group, thereby you can just ask her to play music and it turns on the zone and plays the music as opposed to just playing out of the Alexa speaker. IMO this is a massive benefit for any Alexa user if this is true.
From what I have read online, and correct me if I am wrong, if you want the one of the best in the business automatic room correction systems, you go with Denon, but if you want the best performance as far as hardware components and audio processing you go with Yamaha.
Go with Marantz. Whichever model meets your input and wattage needs.
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Since he's not a fan of Denon, unlikely he'll be a fan of Marantz.
I'll give it another try. Funny I was looking at the Marantz stuff and man have they aligned their processes even the manuals look the same.
Yeah, Marantz and Denon are essentially the same. Marantz has more pre/pro options. Their build quality is often generally superior to Denon as well. Otherwise, the main difference is chassis style and occassionally a few extra input options (like multi-ch analog inputs). Edit: And Marantz generally has a higher price tag too
Ya back in my college days I was a poor audiophile so I'm pretty familiar with the Marantz reputation. Used to have some Carver gear and some Infinity speakers back in the 80's.
Another vote for Denon. Though the only automations I do are related to the status of the AVR, like adjusting lighting, and auto-muting the system when a door is opened.
I've just bought a new Samsung that provides a spectrum app (eliminates cable box) has Apple TV, amazon prime, Alexa support. I still have a Smartthings hub that I added it to. I'm using Hubconnect with Smartthings so I have some control over the TV in Hubitat, this is connected to Node-red (on rPI) via maker API where I am running all automations. I just picked up a Denon AVR.
So... my question, I don't anticipate plugging a variety of hardware devices (Apple TV, cable box, amazon) into the Denon based on having it on the tv. will I be losing a lot of the reason for having the denon connected? Will I be turning the denon into a expensive speaker controller then?
Should I really use the Denon to control everything instead of the TV and just have the TV as a big monitor? Any guidance on this?
Depending on the Samsung ability, you may be able to have it be the 'smartest thing in the room', if you can connect the Denon via HDMI and enable CEC or ARC.
I was in a similar setup, but with an Onkyo. With a Sony TV, there is a Sony community driver, and when I turn the TV off or on, the Onkyo also is told to turn on/off with the CEC or ARC (sorry, can't remember which one is allowing this).
We are using a Roku Stick+ for 100% of our input, like you are with internal apps. It also controls Mute/On/Off/Vol up/Vol down for the Onkyo because of CEC (not the Sony driver.)
So that may be an option... the Denon is 100% dumb amp, and listens to the TV to tell it what to do. What is so cool that I wasn't expecting is that the volume number on the TV always matches the volume number on the Amp. My wife loves this setup. No more Harmony remote, just a Roku remote and it can switch between seven apps, and does Everything needed!
Hope that helps as an option.
Yes.While @rick.guthier is correct about ARC (Really you need a TV that supports eARC, ARC cannot transmit the latest audio technologies and eARC would only be in 2019 TVs at the earliest), I wouldn't say the minor benefit you're going to get in this situation being worth the hundreds/thousands you'll have to spend.
So from that chart, what would his current Samsung be able to do with a Denon?
Also, what audio/video sources would use uncompressed 5.1 and 7.1? I ask because I'm 7.1 and my typical sources are Netflix, Prime, YouTubeTV, and Plex. I can tell there is 7.1 (maybe it is 5.1) audio - you can hear things like china dinnerware clink in the rear upper speakers as an example.
That chart looks like is is creating problems that only eARC solves, yet most users of streaming services will not use 37Mpbs audio, for example. Am I wrong? As you can tell, I'm not an Audiophile... Thanks
Prime Video, Netflix, and Disney+ all support Dolby Atmos as one example. ARC does not support Atmos, only eARC does. That's just one example.
You're also definitely not getting 7.1, only 5.1. 7.1 cannot be output over ARC. The receiver might "upconvert" the 5.1 audio to 7.1, sometimes they will do channel doubling where it plays splits the front/back channels to the side channels as well. But that's not true 7.1 any more than upconverting a Blu-ray to 4K is true 4K.
You're right, we're not talking end of the world stuff. It really depends on your needs. A Denon receiver can set you back as much as $5,500. If you're spending that kind of money, I want my 7.1 Currently I'm running a 7.2.4 setup in my living room and building a 7.2.6 theater and I wouldn't want my TV to limit that ability... especially when I can solve it all eliminating the need of ARC by buying a $30 Fire Stick and using that as my input instead of the crappy rarely updated apps Samsung puts out there (It's weird, Netflix, Hulu, etc. have new app versions on my Fire Stick all the time... on my Samsung? Almost never).
Matter of opinion of course, most people are happy with a simple sound bar in which case my points are moot. When I spent what I spent on my receiver, I care!
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