An enthusiast friend of mine has asked me for advice and I'll admit that the in depth 4k stuff is something I'm still struggling to fully learn.

He has a PS4 pro, a Denon AVR-x4300w, and an LG OLED C7P, and I havn't confirmed that the cables are 18gb/s but presume they are as he's savvy and aware that they are needed. But I will confirm. I'll also confirm the length.

He's able to get 4k HDR with the PS connected right to the TV but not through the AVR.

From my friend:

"I've narrowed it down to the receiver not sending 18 gbps of bandwidth 4:4:4 chroma subsampling yet I dunno if there's a way to force AVR-x4300H to do that. Also, all the HDMI ports at the back of the receiver resulted in sound without video. Kinda strange that I've to use the front Auxiliary HDMI to get the PS4 Pro to produce sound and video to TV. Do you know if the AVR-x4400H is not plagued with these problems?

I've attached a PDF of the problems I'm encountering. I upgraded to 4K, only to be able to use HDR with the good ol 1080p. If I'd known, I'd not have even bought a PS4 PRO because the regular PS4 can do HDR just fine.

Thanks."

I told him the standard firmware updates and ensuring 18gb/s cables are used. I suggested he contact Denon support but honestly I'm not optimistic there. They'll blame everything else.

You guys are the only people I trust for actual answers so I would really appreciate if you could offer some advice.


Thanks.

Craig.

Edit:

He sent me a PDF of some screen shots with useful info but I don't know how to post it so if you could tell me how I will, haha. Thanks.

Pretty sure you have to have an online photo storage site and link to it. I don't believe you can post a pic directly but I could be wrong.

Yes, you post a picture somewhere. Then you mouse over the image, right click, and choose "copy image URL." Paste that into your text. The image will appear there in your post.

Occasionally an image won't appear that way, but come back and ask about that if you run across one.

If Craig's post isn't clear, hit "Quote" to see what he entered.

For the last few years many images would appear on this site if you simply enter their URL. That's what I was talking about above.

Craig's example is the old way of doing it and should work also with the images that don't need the added stuff. Here it is in its simplest form; again, hit "Quote" and you'll see what I actually entered.


I think the part that he wrote at the end reduced the size of the image. I haven't learned about that yet so I can't be accurate.

Every once in a while, especially in a google search, you'll end up with an image URL that's thousands of characters. These rarely work. You want a URL that ends in .jpg or .png.

That's the best I could achieve screen shotting a PDF.

Top right flags say:
16:9, 2160p, PCM

Middle right and bottom left flags say:
16:9, 1080p, HDR, BT.2020, PCM


I did some research and there all kinds of people have issues with PS4 on various TVs and receivers. Sony blames the TVs, TV blames Sony, you know the usual. Apparently Yamaha owners can solve it by finding a hidden menu and choosing HDMI mode 1 vs the stock mode 2.

Denon support says to select enhanced hdmi output and turn off video conversion. My friend says this didn't work.

My thoughts are that a firmware update may settlemit in the future but leaving at that sure leaves a big question mark.

Craig.

What it looks like is the Denon only passes component video color, chroma subsampled 4:2:0.

RGB 4:4:4 would take up more bandwidth and the EDID from the AVR is telling the source that it doesn't pass.

What happens if he opens the AVR's menu and looks at the video info menu? It's pretty comprehensive.

I'll ask him. Although it says right in the write up for the receiver that it passes 4:4:4 HDR.

The x4400h has another menu where you choose Enganced HDMI. Specifically lists this as one of the available resolutions. It's a new purchase from BB so I suggested he exchange it and see if that changes things.

Could very well be that you are correct and perhaps the newer model has been improved.

Craig.

He's not using any kind of active HDMI cable, is he? If it's an older Redmere, it won't pass 4k/HDR/full color gamut. For that matter, if it's a Key Digital Redmere cable, it probably won't pass 1080p, like the one I replaced (and they won't honor the 3 year warranty).

Interesting that you mention Key Digital. Years ago during the change from the original PS3 to the smaller version I did an install with a Key Dig 50 ft active cable. Worked fine on my older PS3 during testing at home, but not on the clients new PS3 at his home. A Monoprice 50ft passive, (which was a pull that I had kept in my box to show clients what a crap cable looks like) saved the day.

Anyhow, I'm still not sure whether the cables in use are up to spec officially. He told me he has an expensive high grade "Forest" (iPhone typo? never heard of it) he got from a local expensive stereo store, and another new Wirelogic he got from Costco. He can't find info on either that back up their capabilities. I told him they don't need to be expensive to be good, bit that they must pass 18gb.

One cable is 25ft, the other is 3ft. Not sure which one but my guess is the 25ft is the Forrest cable as hes had it a long time and this system has been setup for a while (not withstanding the addition of the new receiver and PS4).

He did mention that both cables worked just fine when using the PS4 direct to the TV so in that respect I feel confident that cables are fine. But who knows with this HDMI thing?

I'm still gathering info and I did recommend he confirm, and poss try new cables.

Craig

Forest is a model of Audio Quest HDMI cable
[Link: audioquest.com]

It is a good cable but doesn't mean it was installed correctly. Meaning; if whoever installed it didn't understand the delicate nature of signal cables, many things could have happened:
They could have yanked on it way to hard. Damaging the cable and causing it to no longer met its full specifications.
They could have it bundled with an electric cable most of the distance.
They could have it bent at too sharp an angle somewhere, or even tied in a knot.
Many things that can degrade the performance of an otherwise good cable, when someone that doesn't know what they are doing, becomes part of the installation. If he did it himself, by the sound of your friend, I would think he took all precautions in installing the cable. But I would still ask.

Note:
The old saying = "It works fine when I bypass the A/V receiver" - "so the cables, TV, and source must be good. Has to be the A/V receiver". Is not always correct. If the signal was marginal to begin with, adding the A/V receiver in the signal chain might be what breaks it. No fault of the A/V receiver, it is doing what it is suppose to.
Have to look at HDMI as a system. Every component along the chain matters. Any one component can be bad and break the system. but additional, a signal chain full of marginally performing pieces, can cause the chain to not work.

Great advice Brad.

He is right into this stuff so my guess is he took care, however, I will ask for sure. In these cases I find if we don't ask even the simplest questions it often results in face palm moment.

The issue has been over come but unfortunately not using the AVR-X4300H.

He exchanged for the AVR-X4400H and with the HDMI output switched to "Enhanced" everything passes.

So it looks like current model year Denon (and my guess is Marantz too as they have the same setting in the menu) have the required capabilities.


Craig.