Harman-Kardon AVR 260 owner manual Surround Modes, Dolby Surround Settings, Night Mode

Operation

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.

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 information, 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 experimenting with all of the modes available with any given source material. Information about the Dolby and DTS modes is available on the companies’Web sites: www.dolby.com and www.dtsonline.com.

When in doubt, check the jacket of your DVD for more information on which surround modes are available on the disc. Usually, nonessential sections of the disc, such as trailers, extra materials or the disc menu, are only available in Dolby Digital 2.0 (2-channel) or PCM 2-channel mode. If the main title is playing and the letters in the Speaker/Channel Input Indicators are not lit for all speaker locations, look for an audio or language setup section in the disc’s menu. Also, make sure your DVD player’s audio output is set to the original bitstream rather than just PCM. Check the DVD player’s output setting by stopping play of the disc and checking the DVD player’s menu system.

Different surround modes may only be available with certain input signals or bitstream formats. For any incoming signal, only a limited number of surround modes are available. Although there is never a time when all of the AVR 260’s surround modes are available, there is usually a wide variety of modes available for a given input.

To select a surround mode, press the Surround Modes Button R8, select either Auto Select - AVR Selects Best Mode, or move the blue line to the other options: Virtual Surround, Stereo, Movie, Music and Video Game. Each of these 5 options permit several selections, accessed by pressing the OK Button (See Figure 14).

Dolby Surround Settings

Some additional settings are available for Dolby modes. Three settings are active only when the Dolby Pro Logic II or IIx Music modes have been selected. See Figure 15.

Figure 15 – Dolby Pro Logic II/IIx Music

Mode Settings

Center Width: This setting affects how vocals sound through the three front speakers. A higher number (up to 7) focuses the vocal information tightly on the center channel. Lower numbers broaden the vocal soundstage across the three speakers. Use the M N Buttons to change the setting.

Dimension: This setting affects the depth of the surround presentation, allowing you to “move” the sound toward the front or rear of the room. The setting of “0” is a neutral default. Setting “F-3” moves the sound mostly toward the front of the room, while setting “R-3” moves the sound mostly toward the rear. Use the M N Buttons to change the setting.

Panorama: With the Panorama mode turned ON, some of the sound from the front speakers is moved to the surround speakers, creating an enveloping “wraparound” type of effect. Each press of the OK Button toggles the setting on or off.

Night Mode

Night mode is available with some Dolby Digital programs, if it has been encoded in the material. It compresses the peak sound levels, maintaining the intelligibility of the dialogue and quieter passages, while reducing the loudness of special effects and louder passages to avoid disturbing others.

Night Mode is accessed from the Audio Effects menu. Press the Audio Effects Button and scroll down to the Night Mode line. Three levels of compression are available:

Off: At this setting, there is no compression, as the Night mode is deactivated.

Half: A mild compression is applied.

Full: More compression is applied.

Feel free to experiment and simply cycle through all of the available surround modes at any time; you cannot cause any problems for the AVR 260 by doing so.

Note: To access 6.1- and 7.1-channel modes, such as Dolby Digital EX, DTS- ES, Logic 7 (7.1 modes), DTS Neo:6 (6.1 modes), and 7-channel Stereo, you must enable the surround back channels as explained in the Manual Setup section. You should not enable these channels if you don’t have surround back speakers in your system.

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