Harman Kardon AVR 240 Service Manual Download Page 21

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• As indicated above, when the EX flag is not present

in a Dolby Digital bitstream, you may scroll through
the Dolby surround modes to manually select Dolby
Digital EX processing.

• When a DTS 5.1 signal is detected, you may listen

to it as a two-channel presentation, a 5.1-channel
presentation or a 6.1-channel presentation (if your
AVR is configured for 6.1/7.1 operation). To hear a
two-channel presentation, scroll through the DTS
surround modes until the Stereo icon lights in the

Surround Mode Indicators

in addition to the

DTS icon. Continue scrolling to engage DTS 5.1
processing or DTS+Neo:6 (6-channel) processing.

• If a DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete signal is present, you may

choose a two-channel presentation, a 5.1-channel
presentation or a 6.1-channel presentation (if your
AVR has been configured for 6.1/7.1 operation).
Scroll through the DTS surround modes until the
Stereo icon lights in the

Surround Mode

Indicators

, in addition to the DTS icon.

Continue scrolling to engage DTS 5.1 processing
or DTS-ES Discrete processing.

When a Dolby Digital signal with a 3/1/0 or 2/0/0
signal is detected you may select any of the Dolby
surround modes.

See page 40 for information on setting a default sur-
round mode.

It is always a good idea to check the readout for the
channel data to make certain that it matches the audio
logo information shown on the back of a DVD pack-
age. In some cases you will see indication for “2/0/0”
even when the disc contains a full 5.1, or 3/2/.1 sig-
nal. When this happens, check the audio output set-
tings for your DVD player or the audio menu selections
for the specific disc being played to make certain that
the player is sending the correct signal to the AVR.

PCM Audio Playback

PCM is the abbreviation for Pulse Code Modulation,
which is the type of digital signal used for standard CD
playback and other non-Dolby Digital and non-DTS
digital sources such as Mini-Disc. The digital circuits
in the AVR 240 are capable of high-quality digital-to-
analog decoding, and they may be connected directly
to the digital audio output of your CD or LD player.

Connections may be made to either the rear-panel

Optical

Coaxial Inputs

or the front-panel

Digital Inputs

To listen to a PCM digital source, first select the input for
the desired source (e.g., CD). Next press the

Digital

Select Button

and then use the

⁄

Buttons

on the remote, or the

‹

›

Selector

Buttons

)

on the front panel, until the desired choice

appears in the

Upper Display Line

During PCM playback, you may select any Surround
mode except Dolby Digital or DTS.

When a PCM signal is detected, the

Lower Display

Line

will briefly show a message with the letters

PCM, in addition to a readout of the sampling fre-
quency of the digital signal. In most cases this will be

48kHz

, though in the case of specially mastered,

high-resolution audio discs you will see a

96kHz

indication.

Speaker/Channel Indicators

In addition to the bitstream indicators, the AVR 240
features a set of unique channel-input indicators that
tell you how many channels of digital information are
being received and/or whether the digital signal is
interrupted. (See Figure 16.)

Figure 16

These indicators are the L/C/R/LFE/SL/SR/SBL/SBR
letters that are inside the center boxes of the

Speaker/

Channel Input Indicators

on the front panel.

When a standard analog signal is in use, only the “L”
and “R” indicators will light, as analog signals have
only left and right channels.

Digital signals, however, may have two, five, six or
seven channels, depending on the program material,
the method of transmission and the way in which it
was encoded. When a digital signal is playing, the let-
ters in these indicators will light in response to the
specific signal being received. It is important to note
that although Dolby Digital, for example, is referred to
as a “5.1” system, not all Dolby Digital DVDs or pro-
grams are encoded for 5.1. Thus, it is sometimes nor-
mal for a DVD with a Dolby Digital soundtrack to trig-
ger only the “L” and “R” indicators.

NOTE:

Many DVD discs are recorded with both “5.1”

and “2.0” versions of the same soundtrack. When
playing a DVD, always be certain to check the type of
material on the disc. Most discs show this information
in the form of a listing or icon on the back of the disc
jacket. When a disc does offer multiple soundtrack
choices, you may have to make some adjustments to
your DVD player (usually with the “Audio Select” button
or in a menu screen on the disc) to send a full 5.1
feed to the AVR 240. It is also possible for the type
of signal feed to change during the course of a DVD
playback. In some cases, the menu screens and pre-
views of special material will only be recorded in 2.0
audio, while the main feature is available in 5.1 audio.
The AVR 240 will automatically sense changes to the

bitstream and channel count and reflect them in these
indicators.

The letters used by the

Speaker/Channel Input

Indicators

also flash to indicate when a bitstream

has been interrupted. This will happen when a digital
input source is selected before the playback starts, or
when a digital source such as a DVD is paused. The
flashing indicators remind you that the playback has
stopped due to the absence of a digital signal and not
through any fault of the AVR 240. This is normal, and
the digital playback will resume once the playback is
started again.

Night Mode

A special feature of Dolby Digital is the Night mode,
which enables specially encoded Dolby Digital input
sources to be played back with full digital intelligibility
while reducing the minimum peak level by 1/4 to 1/3.
This prevents abruptly loud transitions from disturbing
others, without reducing the impact of the digital
source. The Night mode is available only when Dolby
Digital signals with special data are being played.

The Night mode may be engaged when a Dolby
Digital DVD is playing by pressing the

Night Mode

Button

on the remote. Next, press the

⁄

Buttons

to select either the middle-range or

full-compression versions of the Night mode. To turn
the Night mode off, press the

⁄

Buttons

until the message in the lower third of the video dis-
play and in the

Lower Display Line

reads

D-RANGE OFF

The Night mode may also be selected to always be on
at either level of compression using the options in the

DOLBY

menu. See page 22 for information on

using the menus to set this option.

IMPORTANT NOTES ON DIGITAL PLAYBACK:

• When the digital playback source is stopped, or in

a pause, fast-forward or chapter-search mode, the
digital audio data will momentarily stop, the channel
position letters inside the

Speaker/Channel Input

Indicators

will flash. This is normal and does

not indicate a problem with either the AVR 240 or
the source machine. The AVR 240 will return to dig-
ital playback as soon as the data is available and
when the machine is in a standard play mode.

• Although the AVR 240 will decode virtually all current

DVD movies, CDs and HDTV sources, it is possible
that some future digital sources may not be compati-
ble with the AVR 240.

• Not all digitally encoded programs contain full 5.1-

or 6.1-channel audio. Consult the program guide
that accompanies the DVD or laser disc to deter-
mine which type of audio has been recorded on the
disc. The AVR 240 will automatically sense the type

OPERATION

AVR240

harman/kardon