Surround Mode Selection; Digital Audio Playback; Selecting A Digital Source - Harman Kardon AVR 225 Owner's Manual

OPERATION
Surround Mode Selection
Oneof the mostimportant features of theAVR225
isits ability[o reproduce a futtmultichannel surround
soundfieldfromdigitalsources, analog matrix sur-
round-encoded p rograms a ndstandard stereo pro-
grams. I nall,a totalof 16 listening modesareavail-
ableon theAVR225.
Selection o f asurround modeis based on personal
taste, a swellasthetypeof program source material
beingused. F orexample, motion pictures orIV pro-
gramsbearing t he logoof oned the major s urround-
encoding processes, suchasDolbySurround_t DFS
Stereo ®*or UltraStereo
TM
* maybe played ineither
the Dolby Digital, D olby ProLogicIIor Logic7 Cinema
surround modes, depending o nthe source material.
NOTE: O ncea program hasbeenencoded w ithmatrix
surround information, it retains thesurround information
aslongasthe program is broadcast instereo, lhus,
movies withsurround sound maybedecoded viaanyof
theanalog surround modes suchasProLogicIIor
Logic 7, whentheyarebroadcast viaconventional IV
stations, cable, p ayIV andsatellite t ransmission. Inaddi-
tion,a number d made-for-television programs, sports
broadcasts, radio dramas andmusicCDsarealso
recorded insurround sound. Y oumayviewa listof
theseprograms a twww.dolbycom.
Even whena program isnot listed ascarrying intentional
surround information, youmayfindthatthe ProLogicII,
Logic7, VMAx andthe Hall o r [heatermodes often
deliver enveloping surround p resentations through theuse
d the natural information present inallstereo recordings.
However, for stereo, butnotsurround p rograms, wesug-
gestthatyouexperiment withtheothermodes.
Surround m odesareselededusingeither t he front-
panel c ontrols or theremote. I o selecta surround
modefromthefront panel, p resstheSurround Mode
Selector[] to scrollup or downthrough the listof
available m odes. I o select a surround modeusing the
remote, presstheSurround ModeSelector_ and
thenpressthe AI• Buttons qi_)qJ_)to change the
mode. A syoupressthe buttons, the Surround mode
name willappear i nthelowerthirdof theon-screen
display a ndinthe MainInformationDisplayL__J,
andanindividual modeindicator willalsolightup['_JL'_J
l_r_r¢_. _]11. Asthesurround modes change, a
greenLED willlightnextto thecurrent m odeinthe
SurroundMode Indicators [] listonthefrontpanel.
NOTE: l he name of eachSurroundMode willscroll
acrossthe bottomof theon-screen display and
through the Main InformationDisplay[] whilethe
modes arebeingselected. I o avoidexiting fromthe
surround modeselection process, pushthe • or •
Button qi_)qi_) whilea modenameisstillvisible.
Notethatthe DolbyDigital a ndDFS modesmayonly
be selected whena digitalinputis in use.Inaddition,
whena digitalsource is present, t heAVR225 will
automatically select a ndswitchto the correct m ode
(DolbyDigital or DIG),regardless o fthe modethathas
beenpreviously s elected. F ormoreinformation on
selecting d igital sources, seethefollowing section of
thismanual.
Io listen to a program intraditional two-channel stereo,
usingthefront-left a ndfront-right speakers o nly(plus
thesubwoofer if installed a ndconfigured), followthe
instructions shown above for using theremoteuntil
SURR OFF appears inthe MainInformation
Display[]. Note thattheStereo-Dired ( Bypass) mode
mayonlybeselected w henananalog inputis inuse.
Digital Audio Playback
Digital audioisa major a dvancement overolderanalog
matrix surround s ystems. Itdelivers f ivediscrete c han-
nels: l eft-front, center, right-front, left-surround andright-
surround. Each channel reproduces fullfrequency r ange
(20Hz to 20kHz) a ndoffers dramatically improved
dynamic r ange andsignificant improvements to signal-to-
noise ratios. I naddition, digital s ystems h ave the capa-
bility to deliver a n additional channel thatis specifically
devoted to low-frequency information, lhis isthe".1"
channel referred to whenyouseethesesystems
described as"5.1".lhe bass channel isseparate f romthe
other c hannels, butsince it isintentionally bandwidthdimited,
sound designers have given it thatunique d esignation.
DolbyDigital
Dolby Digital (originally known asAC-3 ®*)isa standard
part o f the DVD format, a ndisalsoparttithe newdigital
broadcasting system andit isavailable withmanysatellite
receivers a ndsomedigital cableboxes, aswellaswith
specially e ncoded LDdiscs.
Note thatanoptional, e xternal R Fdemodulator is
required to usetheAVR225 to listen to the Dolby
Digital soundtracks a vailable o n laserdiscs. C onnect
the R_: o utputof the LDplayer to thedemodulator and
thenconnect t he digital o utputof the demodulator to
the Opticalor CoaxialInputs_,_l'l_'t_'lJ of the
AVR225. Nodemodulator is required for usewith
DVD players or DfS-encoded l aserdiscs.
DTS
DFS is another d igital a udiosystem thatis capable of
delivering 5.1 audio. A lthough bothDISandDolby
Digital aredigital, t heyusedifferent m ethods of encod-
ingthesignals, andthustheyrequire different d ecoding
circuits to convert t he digital s ignals backto analog.
DfS-encoded s oundtracks areavailable o n selectDVD
andLDdiscs, a swellason special audio-only DIS
discs. Y oumayuseanyLDor CDplayer equipped with
a digital o utputto playDIG-encoded d iscswiththe
AVR225. Allthatis required isto connect t he player's
output_oeither t he Opticalor Coaxialinputon the
rearpanel _ or frontpanelll_'tll_J.
Inorderto listen to DVDs encoded withDFSsound-
tracks, t he DVD playermustbe compatible w iththe
DFSsignal a sindicated bya DFSlogoon the player's
frontpanel.Early DVDplayers maynot beableto play
DfS-encoded DVDs. lhis doesnot indicate a problem
withthe AVR225, assomeplayers cannotpass the
DFSsignal t hrough to the digital o utputs. I fyouarein
doubtasto the capability o f yourDVD player to handle
DfS discs, c onsultthe player's o wner's manual. P lease
notethatsomeDVDplayers areshipped withtheir
outputsetfor DolbyDigital o nlyIo ensurethatDFS
dataisbeingsentto theAVR, p lease checkthe setup
menusystem onyourDVDplayer t o makecertain that
DFSdataoutputisenabled.
Selecting a Digital Source
Io utilize eitherdigital m odeyoumusthaveproperly
connected a digital s ource to the AVR225. Connect
the digital o utputs from DVD players, H DFV receivers,
satellite systems or CDplayers tothe Optical or
CoaxialInputs_,_ll_'tl'l_J. Inorderto provide a
backup signalanda source foranalog stereorecord-
ing,theanalog outputsprovided ondigitalsource
equipment shouldalsobe connected t o theirappropri-
ate inputs on theAVR225 rearpanel ( e.g.,connect
the analog stereo audiooutputfroma DVD to the
DVDAudio Inputs _} on therearpanel w henyou
connect t he source's digital o utputs).
Whenplaying a digital s ource suchasDVD, firstselect
the inputusingthe remote or front-panel controls as
described o n page17. Next,select t he digital s ource
by pressing t he Digital InputSelectorButton
qi]_] andthenusingthe A/'v Buttons qi_)qi_)
on theremoteor theSelectorButtons [] on the
frontpanel t o choose anyd the optical o r coaxial
inputs, a stheyappear i nthe Main Information
Display[], the Digital Input Indicators[1']1_]or
theon-screen display. Alternatively, youmayusethe
I N P U T S E T U P menu(Hgure2) to select
amongthedigitalor analog inputsasdescribed o n
pages17-18. When the digital s ourceis playing, the
AVR225 willautomatically detect w hether i t is a multi-
channel D olbyDigital or DFSsource, o r a conventional
PCM signal, w hichis thestandard outputfromCD
players. A Bitstream Indicator[] will lightinthe
Main InformationDisplay[] to confirmthatthe
digital s ignal i s DolbyDigital, DIS or PCM.