Night Mode - Harman Kardon AVR 130 Owner's Manual

OPERATION
Digital bitstreams will enable Dolby Digital decoding.
When the unit senses PCM data from CDs or LDs, you
may select any of the standard surround modes,
including Dolby Pro Logic II or Logic 7. Since the
range of available surround modes is dependent on
the type of digital data that is present, the AVR 130
uses a variety of indicators to let you know what type
of signal is present. These messages will appear
shortly after an input or surround mode is changed,
and they will remain in the Lower Display Line ¯
for about five seconds before that portion of the dis-
play returns to the normal surround mode indication.
Surround Mode Types
For Dolby Digital and DTS sources, a three-digit indi-
cation will appear, showing the number of channels
present in the data. An example of this type of display
is 3/2/ . 1.
The first number indicates how many discrete front-
channel signals are present.
• A "3" tells you that separate front-left, center and
front-right signals are available. This will be displayed
for Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 programs.
• A "2" tells you that separate front-left and -right sig-
nals are available, but there is no discrete center
channel signal. This will be displayed for Dolby
Digital bitstreams that have stereo program material.
• A "1" tells you that there is only a mono channel
available in the Dolby Digital bitstream.
The middle number indicates how many discrete
surround channel signals are present.
• A "2" tells you that separate surround-left and -right
signals are available. This will be displayed for Dolby
Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 programs.
• A "1" tells you that there is only a single surround-
encoded surround channel. This will appear for
Dolby Digital bitstreams that have matrix encoding.
• A "0" indicates that there is no surround channel
information. This will be displayed for two-channel
stereo programs.
The last number indicates if there is a discrete Low-
Frequency Effects (LFE) channel. This is the ".1" in the
common abbreviation of "5.1" sound; it is a special
channel that contains only bass frequencies.
• A ".1" tells you that an LFE channel is present. This
will be displayed for Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1
programs, as available.
• A "0" indicates that there is no LFE channel informa-
tion available. However, even when there is no dedi-
cated LFE channel, low-frequency sound will be pres-
ent at the subwoofer output when the speaker config-
uration is set to show the presence of subwoofer.
When Dolby Digital 3/2/.1 or DTS 3/2/.1 signals are
24 OPERATION
being played, the AVR will automatically switch to the
proper surround mode, and no other processing may
be selected. When a Dolby Digital signal with a 3/1/0
or 2/0/0 signal is detected, you may select any of the
Dolby surround modes.
It is always a good idea to check the readout for the
channel data to make certain that it matches the audio
logo information shown on the back of a DVD pack-
age. In some cases you will see an indication for
"2/0/0" even when the disc contains a full 5.1, or
3/2/.1, signal. When this happens, check the audio
output settings for your DVD player or the audio menu
selections for the specific disc being played to make
certain that the player is sending the correct signal
to the AVR.
PCM Playback Indications
PCM is the abbreviation for Pulse Code Modulation,
which is the type of digital signal used for standard CD
playback, and other non-Dolby Digital and non-DTS
digital sources such as Mini-Disc. When a PCM signal
is detected, the Lower Display Line ¯ will briefly
show a message with the letters PCM, in addition
to a readout of the sampling frequency of the digital
signal.
In most cases this will be 48kHz, though in the
case of specially mastered, high-resolution audio discs
you will see a 96kHz indication.
The AVR 130 also features channel-input indicators
that tell you how many channels of digital information
are being received and/or whether the digital signal is
interrupted.
These indicators are the L/C/R/SL/SR/LFE letters that
are inside the center boxes of the Speaker/Channel
Input Indicators ˆ on the front panel. When a
standard analog signal is in use, only the "L" and "R"
indicators will light, as analog signals have only left and
right channels, respectively.
Digital signals, however, may have two, five or six sep-
arate channels, depending on the program material,
the method of transmission and the way in which it
was encoded. When a digital signal is playing, the let-
ters in these indicators will light in response to the
specific signal being received. It is important to note
that although Dolby Digital, for example, is referred to
as a "5.1" system, not all Dolby Digital DVDs or pro-
grams are encoded with 5.1 channels. Thus, it is
sometimes normal for a DVD with a Dolby Digital
soundtrack to trigger only the "L" and "R" indicators.
Again, remember that some DVD discs are recorded
with both "5.1" and "2.0" versions of the same sound-
track. When playing a DVD, always be certain to check
the type of material on the disc. Most discs show this
information in the form of a listing or icon on the back
of the disc jacket. When a disc does offer multiple
soundtrack choices, you may have to make some
adjustments to your DVD player (usually with the
"Audio Select" button or in a menu screen on the disc)
to send a full 5.1 feed to the AVR 130. It is also pos-
sible for the type of signal feed to change during the
course of a DVD playback. In some cases, the pre-
views of special material will only be recorded in 2.0
audio, while the main feature is available in 5.1 audio.
As long as your DVD player is set for 6-channel out-
put, the AVR 130 will automatically sense changes to
the bitstream and channel count and reflect them in
these indicators.
The letters used by the Speaker/Channel Input
Indicators ˆ also flash to indicate when a bitstream
has been interrupted. This will happen when a digital
input source is selected before the playback starts, or
when a digital source such as a DVD is paused. The
flashing indicators remind you that the playback has
stopped due to the absence of a digital signal and not
through any fault of the AVR 130. This is normal, and
the digital playback will resume once the playback is
started again.

Night Mode

A special feature of Dolby Digital is the Night mode,
which enables Dolby Digital input sources to be played
back with full dialogue intelligibility while reducing the
1 1
minimum peak level by / to / . This prevents
4 3
abruptly loud transitions from disturbing others, without
reducing the impact of the digital source. The Night
mode is available only when Dolby Digital signals with
special data are being played.
The Night Mode may be engaged when a properly
encoded Dolby Digital DVD is in use by pressing the
Night Mode Button l. When the button is first
pressed, a D-RANGE OFF message will appear
in the Lower Display Line ¯ to show the current
status of the mode.
To change the Night Mode setting, press the Night
Mode Button l or the Buttons n to
⁄ ¤
/
scroll through the choices of MID or MAX compres-
sion. Choose the setting that provides the best dynamic
range, which is to say, the one that retains the best dif-
ference between the loudest and softest sounds with-
out compromising either intelligibility at a given
low volume level.