Harman Kardon AVR 525 Owner's Manual page 30

OPERATION
Selectinga DigitalSource
lo utilize either d igitalmode,youmusthaveproperly
connected a digital s ource to theAVR525 Connect
the digital o utputs from DVD players, I dDTV receivers,
satellite systems or CDplayers to theOptical or
CoaxialInputs_'F_i"_]_ _ Inorderto provide a
backup signal anda source foranalog stereo recording,
theanalog outputs provided o n digital s ource equipment
should alsobe connected t o theirappropriate inputs on
theAVR525rearpanel ( eg, connect t he analog stereo
audiooutputfroma DVD to theDVDAudioInputs
on the rearpanel w henyouconnect t he source's d igi
taloutputs)
Ifyou havenot already c onfigured an inputfor adigital
sourceusing the on-screen menus asshown on page
20, firstselect t he inputusing the remote or front
panel c ontrols asoutlined inthismanual N ext,select
the digital s ourcebypressing the DigitalSelect
Button qi_lD_"'d a ndthenusing the ,J,/V Buttons
on theremoteor the ,/, SelectorButtons
i'['_i'lk " ] on thefrontpanel t o choose anyof the
OPTICAL
or COAXIAL inputs, a sthey
appear i nthe UpperDisplayLine [] or on-screen
display Whenthe digital s ourceis playing, the
AVR525 willautomatically detect w hichtypeof digital
datastreamis beingdecoded anddisplay thatinfor
mationinthe UpperDisplayLine [].
Digital BitstreamIndicators
Whenadigital s ourceisplaying, theAVR525 senses
thetypeof bitstream datathatis presentUsing this
information, the correct s urround modewillautomati
callybe selected Forexample, DFS bitstreams w ill
causetheunitto switch to DTSdecoding, andDolby
Digital bitstreams willenable DolbyDigital d ecoding
When the unitsenses PCM datafromCDsandLDs,
it willallowtheappropriate surround sources to be
selected manually Since the rangeof available s ur
roundmodes is dependent on thetypeof digital d ata
thatis present, the AVR525 uses display indicators to
letyouknowwhattypeofsignalispresentlhis will
helpyouto understand the choice of modes
lb helpyouseewhichtypeof digitalsource is playing,
the SurroundMode Indicators[] incombination
withthe InformationDisplay[] alsoserveas
bitstream indications t o showwhichtypeof bitstream
is present, a swellasthesurround modein use,if
applicable
DolbyDigital:WhenthegreenLEDnextto the Dolby
Digital or DolbyDigital E Xmodes is lit, a DolbyDigital
bitstream is beingreceivedDepending o n thesettings
on the source player andspecific surround information
andnumber o f channels o n the disc, a number o f sur
roundmodes arepossibleFordiscswithfull51
audio, o nlythe DolbyDigital a ndVMAxmodes are
available
DTS:Whenthe greenLEDnextto the DFSlogo
lights, a DIS bitstream is beingreceivedWhenthe
unitsenses thistypeof data,onlytheapplicable DFS
modemaybe used
PCM:When the greenLEDnextto the wordDIGITAL
lights, a standard Pulse CodeModulation, or PCM, s ig
nalisbeingreceivedlhis is thetypeof digitalaudio
usedbyconventional compact d iscandlaserdisc
recordings W hena PCMbitstream is present, a ll
modes exceptDolbyDigital a ndDFSareavailable
HDCD: W henthe letters HDCD appear o nthe
Lower DisplayLine [] inconjunction w iththe PCM
indicator, the CDthatis playing is encoded through the
specialHighDefinition Compatible D igitaP _process
HDCD _ 'discsuse20 bitencoding andotherpropri
etaryprocessing t o provide the ultimate inCDlisten-
ing HDCD processing i sonlyavailable i nthe Stereo
(Surround o fo mode
MP3:WhenMP3 appears on the Lower Display
Line [] a compatible M PEG l/Layer 3 digital s ignal
is beingreceivedlhis is the popular a udiof(_rmat
usedby manycomputer p rograms f or recording corn
pressed audiofilesWhen an MP3bitstream is pres
ent,thesoundwillautomatically be played inthe
Stereo (Surround Off)modelhe surround modes are
notavailable duringMP3playbacklhere aremany
different f ormsof MP3encoding available andthe
formatis usedat a number o f different b itrateslhe
AVR525 maynotbe compatible w ithallformsof
MP3,parHcularly whenthedatafileis encoded at
128kb/sor above
Speaker/Channel I ndicators
Inaddition to thebitstream indicators, theAVR525
features a setof uniquechannel inputindicators t hat
tellyouhowmanychannels of digital i nformation a re
beingreceived and/orwhether t he digital s ignalis
interrupted (SeeFigure 9)
m El-CI] m
rrgl
%<>N
lhese indicators a rethe L/C/R/LFE/SL/SR/SBL/SBR
letters thatareinside thecenterboxesof the
Speaker/Channel I nput Indicators[] inthe front-
panel M ain InformationDisplay[] Whena
standard analog signal i s inuse,onlythe"L"and"R"
indicators w ill light,asanalog signals haveonlyleft
andrightchannels
Digital s ignals, however, mayhavetwo,five, s ixor
seven channels, depending on the program material,
themethod of transmission andthewayin whichit
wasencoded Whena digitalsignal i s playing, the let
tersintheseindicators w ill lightinresponse to the
specific signalbeingreceivedItis imporlant t o note
thatalthough DolbyDigital, f (}rexample, is referred to
asa "51" system, n otall DolbyDigital D VDs or pro
gramsareencoded for51 lhus, it is sometimes n or
realf(}ra DVDwitha DolbyDigital s oundtrack t o trig
geronlythe "L"and"R"indicators
NOTE: M anyDVD discsarerecorded withboth"51"
and"20" versions ofthe samesoundtrackWhen
playing a DVD, a lways becerlainto checkthetypeof
material on the discMostdiscsshow thisinformation
inthe formof a listingor icononthe backof thedisc
jacket,Whena discdoesoffer multiple soundtrack
choices, youmayhaveto makesomeadjustments to
yourDVDplayer (usually w iththe"AudioSelect" b utton
or in a menuscreen onthe disc)to senda full51
feedto theAVR525 Itis alsopossible forthetypeof
signal f eedto change duringthe course of a DVD
playbackIn somecases, the previews o f special
material willonlybe recorded in20 audio, w hilethe
mainfeature is available in51 audiolhe AVR525
willautomatically sense changes tothe bitstream and
channel countandreflect t hemintheseindicators
lhe lettersusedbythe Speaker/Channel Input
Indicators[] alsoflashto indicate whena bitstream
hasbeeninterrupted Thiswillhappen whena digital
inputsource is selected before the playback s tarts, o r
whena digital s ource suchasa DVDis paused]he
flashing indicators r emindyouthatthe playback h as
stopped dueto theabsence of a digital s ignal a ndnot
through anyfaultof theAVR525 ]his is normal, a nd
thedigitalplayback w ill resume oncethe playback i s
started again
Night Mode
Aspecial f eature of DolbyDigital i sthe Nightmode,
whichenables specially e ncoded DolbyDigital i nput
sources to beplayedbackwithflJll d igitalintelligibilily
whilereducing the minimum peaklevelby 1/4 to 1/3
lhis prevents abruptly loudtransitions f romdisturbing
others, w ithout r educing the impact o f thedigital
sourcelhe Nightmodeis available o nlywhenDolby
Digital s ignals withspecial d ataarebeingplayed