Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

For the first two weeks I thought the Denon AVR3312ci was a great upgrade from my 3 year old Marantz SR7002. Sound quality was very good and the extra power was impressive. The speaker setup (Mythos One mains, Mythos Eight center, Supercube II sub, Mythos Four surrounds, and Mythos Six rears) went well but the manual is very confusing when it comes to manually selecting different sound schemes (e.g. Dolby® TrueHD, DTS-HD(tm) Master Audio, Dolby® Digital Plus, DTS-HD(tm) High Resolution Audio,etc.) Whoever designed the remote needs a remedial class in basic principals of "user friendly" design. Two days ago I connected the AVR3312ci to a Linksys bridge to enable connection to my home wireless network. That process went very well. Yesterday the receiver started a 40 minute firmware update which, at first, seemed to go well. Video quality immediately after the firmware update was noticeably impaired. Within hours after that the output for both sound and video went completely out. A quick chat with Denon C/S this morning told me the receiver needed repair. Since I live 3 hours from the nearest Denon repair center, it was shipped today to a supercenter repair facility at a cost of $24. Not sure how many others are having problems with their new $1099 receiver/paperweights but I must say I am really disappointed. It took two hours to pull out the AVR3312ci, put back in the Marantz SR7002 into my HT setup, pack up the AVR-3312ci and get it to FedEx for shipment. I'll update this review as I get more info on what the repair center finds. Right now I can only give it two stars. I can only hope it comes back from repair and works without additional problems! UPDATE: The Service Center in So Cal did return the "repaired" receiver within 10 days. They did a firmware update checked the output and that was it. After two weeks the same problems returned. Sound would randomly drop out and HD picture quality went horrible after 10-30 minutes of watching when the receiver had warmed up - lots of high contrast ghosts/artifacts that could not be fixed with contrast or any other picture adjustments. Tried turning off HDMI Control function on both TV and receiver per Denon Support to no avail. Additional problems with function of specific remote buttons. If I plug the HDMI directly from the Cable Box or the BluRay player into the TV there are no picture or sound quality problems so I know the problem is within the receiver. The receiver is back on it's way to Denon's So Cal Service Supercenter (I'm out another $25 in shipping) with a case opened at Denon USA on the problems I'm having. At this point I would say avoid any new Denon receiver. The quality of the product and the quality of support from Denon USA just isn't there..... SECOND UPDATE: At the repair center for the second time the remote was repaired/replaced, the internal HDMI video board was replaced and the firmware was updated yet again. Returned within 2 weeks from my shipping date. Now, four months later, I can report that the unit has been working just fine. I've very satisfied with the current video and sound quality. But what a hassle to go through to get a new unit to work properly! Starting in December I've been getting another message from the receiver to do a firmware update but frankly I'm now too scared to do it! LONG TERM UPDATE: Since the HDMI video board and remote control were was replaced I have not had any other issues. Getting great sound and am satisfied with my purchase. I have even successfully completed two firmware updates over the past year. IF YOU DO A FIRMWARE UPDATE YOU MUST USE A HARDWIRED ETHERNET CONNECTION TO THE INTERNET! DO NOT TRY TO USE A WIRELESS BRIDGE OR OTHER WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY TO DO A FIRMWARE UPDATE!!!