Harman-Kardon AVR 355 Audio Effects, Advanced Features, System Settings, General AVR Settings

Audio Effects Advanced Features

Color: This control adjusts the hue of the colors in the picture, and may be set between 0 and

100.Select a setting in which people and objects on screen look natural. There is no “recommended” setting, and no harm in experimenting.

Sharpness: You may adjust the Sharpness setting from 0 to 100. We recommend leaving this setting as low as possible, as contrary to what you might expect, a less sharp image can appear clearer on screen. In addition, increasing the Sharpness requires additional video processing, which may lead to loss of sync with the audio or visual artifacts. However,there is no harm in experimenting with this setting.

Audio Effects

Depending on the specific characteristics of your listening room, you may wish to adjust some of the audio settings, such as tone controls, to improve performance. Access these settings from the Audio Effects menu. Press the Audio Effects Button on the front panel or remote, and the screen shown in Figure 21 will appear.The menu may also be accessed from the Setup Source menu by pressing the Info Settings Button and selecting the Audio Effects line.

NOTE: The settings in the Audio Effects menu affect each source independently.

Figure 21 – Audio Effects Menu

Tone Control: This setting determines whether the treble and bass controls are active. When it’s off, the tone controls are “flat”, with no changes. When it’s on, the bass and treble frequencies are boosted or cut depending upon the tone-control settings. When an analog audio source is in use and the 2-Channel Stereo surround mode is selected, setting the Tone Control to “Off” places the unit in analog bypass mode, with no digital processing of the analog signal.

Treble: Boost or cut the high frequencies by up to 10dB by using the M/N Buttons to change the temperature bar setting. The default setting is 0dB, at the center of the temperature bar.

Bass: Boost or cut the low frequencies by up to 10dB by using the M/N Buttons to change the temperature bar setting. The default setting is 0dB, at the center of the temperature bar.

LFE Trim: lets you reduce the output to the separate subwoofer channel by up to 10dB in 1dB steps, if the general level to the sub set up in the Speaker Setup Menus seems too loud for a particular Source.

Night Mode: This setting is used with specially encoded Dolby Digital programs to compress the signal so that louder passages do not disturb others, while dialogue remains intelligible.

•Off: For normal listening.

•Half: Applies moderate compression.

•Full: Applies the most compression.

When you have finished making adjustments in the Audio Effects menu, press the Audio Effects Button or the Back/Exit Button to clear the screen.

Advanced Features

The AVR 255/AVR 355 is equipped with a number of advanced features that add extra flexibility to the unit’s operation. While it is not necessary to use these features to operate the unit, they provide additional options that you may wish to use.

System Settings

The AVR 255/AVR 355 offers system settings that allow you to make the receiver easier to use rather than directly affecting performance. These settings may be accessed from the System Settings menu, which is selected

by pressing the AVR Button and navigating to the System line. Press the OK Button to display the System Settings menu. See Figure 22.

Figure 22 – Systems Settings Screen

Front Panel Dimmer: Some people find the front-panel messages distracting while watching a movie. The AVR 255/AVR 355 allows you to dim the front-panel lighting or turn it off altogether.When the display is partly or fully dimmed, it will return to full brightness for five seconds whenever a command is entered, and then it will dim again. Select On 100% for full brightness, dim to 50% or 25% of full brightness or select Off to fully darken the display. The light inside the Volume Control will go out when the display is partly or fully dimmed, but the Power Indicator will always remain lit to remind you that the AVR is powered on.

General AVR Settings

Volume Units: Select whether volume is displayed in the conventional decibel scale or on a numeric scale from 0 to 100. When the decibel scale is used, 0dB is the maximum volume, with lower volumes measured as negative values.

Volume Default and Volume Default Level: These two settings are used together to program a volume level the AVR will always switch to when turned on. This feature avoids discomfort for listeners in case the last user turned the volume very high.

Turn Volume Default on, and then set the Volume Default Level to the desired turn-on volume.

Unit of Measure: This setting only affects the speaker-distance settings when performing Manual Speaker Setup. Select between meters and feet.

iPod Charging: (AVR 355 only). When docked in a Bridge2 Docking Station, plugged into the Bridge Connector ￿ on the rear panel, you may select that your iPod is being charged all the time, or that no charging is taking place.

Language: Select the preferred language for the AVR’s on-screen menus and displays: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian or Russian.

HDMI Audio to TV: This setting determines whether audio signals received through any of the HDMI Inputs are passed through the HDMI Output to the video display. In normal operation, leave this setting Off, as audio will be played through the AVR rather than the video display’s built-in speakers. However,sometimes you may wish to use the TV by itself, without using the complete home theater system. For those occasions change this setting to On. You may always mute the TV’s speakers when using the AVR for audio.

38ADVANCED FEATURES