Dynamic Range Setting; Digital Audio Out - Harman Kardon DVD 50 Owner's Manual

Setup Menu

Dynamic Range Setting

With the DVD format you have the opportunity
to hear a program's soundtrack in the most
accurate and realistic presentation possible,
thanks to the use of digital audio technology.
However, in certain instances you may wish to
slightly compress the dynamic range of the
audio output (the difference between the loud-
est sounds and the quietest ones) so that you
may listen to a movie at a lower volume with-
out losing dialog intelligibility.
In most cases it is desirable to leave the
Dynamic Range setting at "OFF" so that no
compression is applied to the audio, but if you
wish to change to a compressed setting, follow
these steps.
First, you must be viewing the Setup Menu
(Figure 1), which is available by pressing the
28
Menu Button while the unit is in the
Stop mode. At the Setup Menu, press the
Navigation Button until the Dynamic
Range option is highlighted. Next, press the
Enter Button and select one of the
two choices in the options box using the
Navigation Buttons (Figure 13).
/
The choices are as follows:
Figure 13
Off: Select this option to turn off the
Dynamic Range compression and have the
soundtrack presented exactly as it was
authored.
On: Select this option to turn on the
Dynamic Range compression circuitry so
that the dialog will remain clear even at low
volume levels.
When you have made your selection using the
Navigation Buttons to highlight
/
the desired option, press the Enter Button
and note that the circle next to your choice
will fill in. The menu system will then automati-
cally return to the status listing.
24 SETUP MENU
If you have no other changes to make after set-
ting this default, press the Menu Button
to remove the Setup Menu from the screen, or
press the Play Button / to begin or
resume playback.
Note that the performance of the Dynamic
Range function is dependent on the audio
format of the disc being played, and whether
or not the disc's soundtrack is capable of this
feature.

Digital Audio Out

DVD players accommodate a variety of audio
formats, including Dolby Digital, DTS and the
PCM audio format used by conventional CD
discs and some DVD playback. Depending on
the type of equipment your DVD 50 is connected
to, you need to set a default for the type of
audio outputs accommodated. Although the
DVD 50 will play all of these disc types, this
setting creates a default that tells which way to
present the soundtracks when there is a choice.
In addition to compatibility with both Dolby
Digital and DTS multichannel soundtracks,
the DVD 50 also accommodates the latest
96kHz DVD recordings. This menu section
allows you to select how 96kHz audio pro-
grams are handled so that they are compatible
with your A/V receiver or surround processor.
To select a Digital Audio Output default, you
must be viewing the Setup Menu (Figure 1),
which is available by pressing the Menu
28
Button while the unit is in the Stop
mode. At the Setup Menu, press the
Navigation Button until the Digital
Audio Out option is highlighted. Next, press the
Enter Button . Select one of the three
choices in the options box (Figure 14) using the
Navigation Buttons . The choices
/
are as follows:
Figure 14
Stream/PCM: Choose this option if your
28
A/V receiver or surround processor is capa-
ble of decoding both Dolby Digital and DTS
audio. With this selection, either Dolby
Digital or DTS will be output according to
the choice made in the Audio Menu options
provided by the DVD disc.
Dolby Digital/PCM: Choose this option if
your A/V receiver or surround processor has
a digital input, but is only capable of decod-
ing Dolby Digital. With this selection, when
both a Dolby Digital and DTS program are
present, the DVD 50 will automatically out-
put the Dolby Digital data stream.
PCM: Choose this setting if you are using
only the left/right Analog Audio Outputs
£, or if the Digital Audio Outputs
¶/• are connected to a processor that is
capable of decoding only conventional PCM
audio for CDs.
Remember, regardless of the option chosen, you
may still have to adjust the settings on your
audio equipment or in a specific disc's menus
to match the output of the DVD 50. In addition,
the choice of which audio formats are available
is limited by the type of material recorded on
the disc when it was authored.
Use the Navigation Buttons
/
make your selection, as noted by the circle to
the right of your desired choice turning orange.
Once a selection has been made for the type of
digital audio data streams that the DVD 50
outputs, you may also need to adjust the way it
handles the various sampling frequencies used
in the production of digital audio for DVD. The
DVD 50 is compatible with both 48kHz and
96kHz sampling, but some early A/V receivers
and surround processors are not. If your audio
system is NOT capable of handling 96kHz audio
signals in their native form, do not make any
changes to the bottom part of the Digital Audio
Out menu, and press the Enter Button
twice to return to the Main Menu Settings
option. However, if your audio system can han-
dle these signals, change the setting to achieve
the greatest audio fidelity possible.
to