Parasound Halo C1 Controller manual Online Sources for Further Information

USING THE MAIN CONTROLS continued 13

wraps the sound of the front left and right speakers around the listening area, and Dimension, which moves the surround field toward the back or front of the room. These adjustments are made through the Dolby/DTS setup page of the Audio Setup menu (see page 24).

•Dolby Digital EX: An enhancement of the original Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround system, it adds back- of-the-room surround information to the information coming from the surround speakers at the room’s sides. It can be used with a 6.1-channel speaker setup having one surround back speaker, or with a 7.1- channel setup having two surround back speakers. If the program includes an EX “flag” signal, and if “EX Enable” is set to “Auto” (page 35), the C 1 will select this mode automatically. The Dolby EX mode can be selected manually for the many EX DVDs that lack the flag. A list of Surround EX films can be found at www.dolby.com/movies/films_previous.html.

•Dolby 2/0: Two channel stereo recordings using the Dolby Digital signal format. Processing modes avail- able are mostly the same as those for stereo CDs.

•THX: In modes where it is available, THX processing is controlled by the THX key on the Master remote’s first C1/C2 page, not by the remote’s Mode keys or the SURROUND button on the C 1. The varieties of THX processing are described below:

•THX Cinema: This is the basic THX processing mode. (To save space, it is shown only as “THX” on the C 1’s front-panel display.) When activated from mono or stereo mode (or Direct mode, with Dolby 2/0 sig- nals), this processing includes only re-equalization (to compensate for differences between home and the- ater acoustics, which would otherwise make movie soundtracks sound too bright) and timbre matching (to maintain frequency balance between front and surround channels); see page 60. THX processing is also unavailable if no surround speakers are selected in “Speaker setup/Size”, except in mono and stereo modes.

•THX Surround EX: A THX-enhanced version of Dolby EX for movie soundtracks; it is available only in sys- tems with one or more surround back speakers in addition to L and R surround speakers. To select it,

press the THX key once or twice (depending on Setup entries and the input signal) while in Direct mode.

•THX Ultra2 Cinema: A version of THX Surround EX for systems having two surround back speakers in addition

to L and R surround speakers. It is engaged by pressing the THX key again while in THX Surround EX mode.

•THX MusicMode: Similar to THX Ultra2 Cinema, but for 7.1-channel listening with 5.1-channel music record- ings, which are mixed differently than movie soundtracks. With a full 7.1-channel speaker setup, it provides a wide, stable rear soundstage, placing surround sounds to best suit music playback. It is reached by pressing the THX key yet again while in THX Ultra2 Cinema mode.

•DTS-ES: An enhancement of the DTS 5.1-channel surround system which adds back-of-the-room surround infor- mation. In DTS-ES Discrete soundtracks, this is carried on a discrete, or independent, channel. In DTS-ES Matrix soundtracks, it is encoded as a matrix that is carried by the left and right surround channels. In Setup you can elect to play Surround-back information through one (6.1-channel) or two (7.1-channel) surround-back speakers.

•DTS 96/24: A DVD encoding system that delivers up to 5.1 channels of 24-bit audio, with potential for fre- quency response up to 48 kHz. DTS 96/24 signals are contained in a conventional bitstream that is available from any DVD player's 48-kHz digital output jack; the C 1 decodes these signals at this same sampling rate to reduce potential noise resulting from multiple DSP clock rates, then treats them like normal DTS 5.1 signals.

•DTS Neo:6 Cinema: For 6.1-channel decoding of movies with surround-encoded, two-channel soundtracks; adds a single rear channel (which can be fed to two surround back speakers); not available in systems with no surround back speakers.

•DTS Neo:6 Music: Similar to Neo:6 Cinema, but for music. It feeds stereo signals directly to the front channels, bypassing the decoder, while feeding the center, surround side, and surround back channels with ambient information derived from the recording, to add spaciousness.

•DTS Neo:6: Extracts rear surround information from DTS 3/2.1 tracks, Not available for other signals.

•DTS Neo:6 / Matrix: Extracts rear surround information from DTS-ES Matrix signals. Not available for other signals, including DTS-ES Discrete signals, which carry discrete rear-channel information.

•DTS 2/0: Two channel stereo recordings using the DTS signal format. Processing modes available are mostly the same as those for stereo CDs.

•Music Modes: Spatial effects, available only with two-channel signals. Natural generates 5.1-channel sur- round from stereo signals without adding reverberation. Club and Concert extract ambient information from the signal and add reverberation, to make the music sound as if performed in a small to medium or large space, respectively. The amount of reverberation can be adjusted through Audio Setup (page 25). Party feeds duplicated front-channel stereo signals to the surround (but not surround back) speakers; this spreads the sound more uniformly throughout the room.

Online Sources for Further Information:

www.dolby.com, www.dtsonline.com, www.thx.com, www.parasound.com/halo