Harman-Kardon AVR 254 owner manual Indicates that no surround information is present

ADVANCED FUNCTIONS

The second number indicates whether any surround channels are present:

“0” indicates that no surround information is present.

“1” indicates that a matrixed surround signal is present.

“2” indicates discrete left and right surround channels.

“3” is used with DTS-ES bitstreams to represent the presence of the discrete surround back channel in addition to the side surround left and right channels.

“4” is used with 7.1-channel digital formats, including Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD and DTS-HD Master Audio, to indicate the presence of two discrete side surround channels and two discrete back surround channels.

The third number is used for the LFE channel:

“0” indicates no LFE channel.

“.1” indicates that an LFE channel is present.

Each line is set to a default surround mode:

•Virtual Surround: Dolby Virtual Speaker Reference

•Stereo: 7-channel stereo

•Movie: Logic 7 Movie

•Music: Logic 7 Music

•Video Game: Logic 7 Game

You may change each line’s setting to a different surround mode. The choice of new modes depends on the number of speakers in your system.

•Virtual Surround: Dolby Virtual Speaker Reference or Wide

•Stereo: 2-channel stereo, 5-channel stereo or 7-channel stereo

The 6.1-channel signals – Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES Matrix and Discrete – each include a flag meant to signal the receiver to decode the surround back channel.

For Dolby Digital EX materials, the incoming bitstream will be displayed as 3/2/.1 EX-ON. For older discs, the display may show EX-OFF, but you will still be able to select the Dolby Digital EX mode manually.

For DTS-ES materials, the incoming bitstream will be displayed as 3/3/.1 ES-ON.

When a PCM signal is received, the PCM message, followed by the sampling rate of the signal (32kHz, 44.1kHz, 48kHz or 96kHz), will appear in the front-panel display.

In addition, the Speaker/Channel Input Indicators will indicate the number of channels discretely encoded in the signal by displaying a letter inside that channel’s speaker box. A line will connect the SBL and SBR boxes when a 6.1-channel signal is detected, indicating that the same signal is playing through both speakers. The letters flash when no signal is present, such as when a DVD is paused. See Figure 58.

L	C		R
	LFE
SL			SR
				Figure 58 – Speaker/Channel Input Indicators
SBL		SBR

When only two channels – left and right – are present, the analog surround modes may be used to decode the signal into the remaining channels.

If you would prefer a different surround format than the native signal’s digital encoding, press the Surround Modes Button to display the Surround Modes menu (see Figure 57).

The Auto Select option (the first line) uses the native signal’s digital encoding, e.g. Dolby Digital or DTS. For two-channel materials, the AVR defaults to Logic 7 Movie mode. If you prefer a different surround processing mode, select the appropriate line from the menu: Virtual Surround, Stereo, Movie, Music or Video Game.

•Movie: Logic 7 Movie, DTS Neo 6:Cinema, Dolby Pro Logic II Movie, Dolby Pro Logic IIx Movie

•Music: Logic 7 Music, DTS Neo 6:Music, Dolby Pro Logic II Music, Dolby Pro Logic IIx Music

•Video Game: Logic 7 Game, Dolby Pro Logic II Game, Dolby Pro Logic IIx Game

When one of the Dolby Pro Logic II Music modes is selected, access to the Edit submenu becomes available. This submenu may be used to adjust special settings available only in Music mode: Center Width, Dimension and Panorama.

Once you have programmed the default surround mode for each type of program, simply select the line from the Surround Modes menu any time you wish to override the AVR’s automatic surround mode selection. The AVR will use the same surround mode the next time the source input is selected.

Please refer to Table A12 in the appendix for more information on which surround modes are available with different bitstreams.

NOTE: Dolby Digital 2.0 signals may also include a Dolby Surround flag indicating DS-ON or DS-OFF, depending on whether the 2-channel bitstream contains only stereo informa- tion, or a downmix of a multichannel program that can be decoded by the Dolby Pro Logic decoder in the AVR. By default, these signals are played in Dolby Pro Logic IIx Movie mode, but you may select another Dolby surround mode manually.

Surround Modes

Surround mode selection is dependent upon the format of the incoming audio signal, as well as personal taste. There is no harm in experiment- ing with all of the modes available with any given source material. Table A12 offers a brief description of each mode the AVR 254 is capable of using, and also indicates the types of incoming signals or digital bit- streams the mode may be used with. Additional information about the Dolby and DTS modes is available on the companies’ Web sites: www.dolby.com and www.dtsonline.com.

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