Digitalaudio Playback - Harman Kardon AVR 520 Owner's Manual

Operation
as DolbySurround, D TSStereoor UltraStereo ®
may be playedin eitherthe DolbyDigital,Dolby
ProLogicII Cinema,DTS Neo:6Cinema, o r
Logic7 Cinemasurroundmodesdependingon
the sourcematerial.
NOTE:Oncea programhasbeenencoded with
matrixsurroundinformation,it retainsthe sur-
roundinformationas long asthe programis
broadcastin stereo. T hus,movieswith surround
soundmaybe decodedviaany of the analog
surroundmodessuchas ProLogicII Cinema,
Logic7 Cinemaor DTSNeo:6Cinema,when
they arebroadcastviaconventional TVstations,
cable,pay-TV andsatellitetransmission. In addi-
tion, a growingnumberof made-for-television
programs, s portsbroadcasts, radio dramas and
musicCDsarealsorecordedin surroundsound.
Youmay view a list of theseprogramsat the
DolbyLaboratories W ebsiteat www.dolby.com.
Evenwhena programis not listedascarrying
intentionalsurroundinformation,you mayfind
that the ProLogicII, Logic7 Enhanced (available
only inthe 5.1 configuration)or DTSNeo:6,
VMAxandthe HallorTheatermodesoften
deliverenveloping surroundpresentations
throughthe useof the naturalinformationpres-
ent in all stereorecordings. H owever, f or stereo,
but not surroundprograms, w e suggest t hat you
experiment w ith the othermodes.
Surroundmodesare selectedusingeither the
front panelcontrols or the remote.Toselecta
surroundmodefrom the front panel,pressthe
Surround Mode Selector [] to scrollup or
down through the list of availablemodes. T o
selecta surroundmode usingthe remote,first
determinewhichof the surroundmodecate-
goriesyou wish to choose from and pressthe
button corresponding to that category:Dolby
Modes I_), DTS Surround_ from digital
sources, DTS Neo:6 _ from analogsources,
Logic7 l_t, DSP_ modesor Stereo _.
As you pressany of the Mode Select Buttons
l_)l_ll_t_ _ (exceptthe Surround
Mode Selector _ asnoted below)the sur-
round modenamewill scrollacrossthe Main
Information Display[]. Letthe modescroll
sothat you readthe mode'sname,but if you
wish to selectanothermode in that category,
pressthe button againbeforethe modename
scrollsoff to the left of the Main Information
Display [] or on-screendisplay.
Toselectfrom the DSPmodes(Hall 1,Hall 2,
Theater, V MAxNearor VMAx Far), f irst press
the SurroundMode Selector Ill). Next,
pressthe A/T Buttons_ to scrollthrough
the list of availablemodes.
An individualmodeindicatorwill alsolight up
i"_F=i[-"_inlPl][['4Plii'_li'_l. ASthe surround
modeschange, a greenLEDwill light next to
the current modein the Surround Mode
Indicators [] list on the front panel.
Note that the DolbyDigitaland DTS5.1, DTS-
ESMatrix and DTS-ES Discretemodesmay only
be selectedwhen a digital input is in use.In
addition,when a digital sourceis present,the
AVR520will automaticallyselectand switchto
the correctmode,regardless of the mode that
has beenpreviouslyselected.Formoreinforma-
tion on selecting digital sources, seethe follow-
ing sectionof this manual.
Tolistento a programin traditionaltwo-chan-
nel stereo,usingthe front left and front right
speakers only (plusthe subwoofer,if installed
and configured), p ressthe Stereo Button
until S UR R OF F appearsin the Main
Information Display [].
Digital Audio Playback
Digitalaudioisa majoradvancement overolder
analogsurroundprocessing systems suchas
DolbyProLogic.It delivers five discrete channels:
left front,center, r ightfront, left surroundand
right surround. E achchannel r eproduces f ull fre-
quencyrange(20Hzto 20kHz)andoffersdra-
maticallyimproved dynamicrangeandsignificant
improvements t o signal-to-noise ratios.Inaddi-
tion, digital systems havethe capabilityto deliver
an additionalchannel t hat is specifically d evoted
to low-frequency information. T hisisthe ".1"
channel r eferred to when you seethesesystems
described as "5.1," "6.1" or "7.1 ". Thebass
channel i s separate from the otherchannels, but
sinceit is intentionallybandwidth-limited, s ound
designers havegiven it that uniquedesignation.
Dolby Digital
DolbyDigitalis a standardpart of DVD,andis
availableon specially encoded LDdiscsandsatel-
lite broadcasts andit isa partof the new high-
definitiontelevision (HDTV) s ystem.
Note that an optional,externalRFdemodulator
is requiredto usethe AVR520 to listento the
DolbyDigitalsoundtracksavailableon laser
discs,Connectthe RFoutput of the LDplayer
to the demodulatorandthen connectthe digi-
tal output of the demodulatorto the Optical
or Coaxial Inputs _ _ i'tT]F:_of the AVR
520. Nodemodulatoris requiredfor usewith
DVDplayersor DTS-encoded l aserdiscs.
DTS
DTSis anotherdigital audio systemthat is
capableof delivering5.1 or 6.1 discreteor
matrix soundfieldreproduction. A lthough both
DTSand DolbyDigitalare digital, they usedif-
ferent methodsof encodingthe signals,and
thus they requiredifferent decodingcircuitsto
convertthe digital signalsbackto analog.
DTS-encoded s oundtracksare availableon
selectDVDand LDdiscs, a s well as on special
audio-onlyDTSdiscs. Y oumay useany LDor
CDplayerequippedwith a digital output to
play DTS-encoded d iscswith the AVR520.All
that is requiredisto connectthe player'sout-
put to either the Optical or Coaxial Input on
the rearpanel _ _ or front panel []1_.
In orderto listen to DVDsencodedwith DTS
soundtracks,the DVDplayermust be compati-
ble with the DTSsignalas indicatedby a DTS
logo on the player'sfront panel. Notethat early
DVDplayersmay not be able to play DTS-
encodedDVDs. T hisdoesnot indicatea prob-
lem with the AVR520, assomeplayerscannot
passthe DTSsignalthrough to the digital out-
puts.If you are in doubt as to the capabilityof
your DVDplayerto handle DTS discs,consult
the player'sowner'smanual.
Selecting a Digital Source
Toutilize either digital mode,you must have
properlyconnecteda digital sourceto the
AVR520.Connectthe digital outputsfrom
DVDplayers,HDTVreceivers, s atellite systems
or CD players to the Optical or Coaxial
Inputs _ _ [tTJl_. In orderto providea
backupsignaland a sourcefor analogstereo
recording,the analogoutputs providedon digi-
tal sourceequipmentshouldalso be connected
to their appropriateinputson the AVR520 rear
panel(e.g.,connectthe analogstereoaudio
output from a DVDto the DVD Audio Inputs
I_ on the rearpanelwhen you connectthe
source'sdigital outputs).
If you havenot alreadyconfiguredan inputfor
a digital sourceusingthe on-screenmenusas
shown on page21, first selectthe input using
the remoteor front panelcontrolsas outlined
in this manual.Next,selectthe digital source
by pressingthe Digital Select Button
li_l[_[_l andthen usingthe A/V Buttons
on the remoteor the Selector Buttons
li_li'_'! on the front panelto chooseanyof the
OPTICAL or COAXIAL inputs,as they
appearin the Main Information Display []
displayindicator!'£11-11 or on-screendisplay.
Whenthe digital sourceis playing,the
29 OPERATION