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32

AVR

Operating Your AVR

Playing files on a USB device
1.  Insert the uSb drive into the Avr’s front-panel uSb port. 
IMPORTANT: do not connect a personal computer or peripheral to the uSb port. uSb 

hubs and multi-card readers are not supported.
2.  Select the uSb Source Selector button on the remote. “uSb” will appear on the front-

panel display, and the uSb screen and the slide-in menu will appear.

3.  Select “browse uSb.” the Avr will list the folders located on the drive.
4.  Select a folder and press the ok button. the Avr will list all compatible audio files.
5.  Select a file to begin playback. the uSb play screen will appear. Any Id3 information 

and album art will be displayed, along with the track’s elapsed/current time and icons 

indicating the current playback status.

•  to skip to the next track, press the right button; to return to the previous track, press 

the left button once. 

•  you can use the transport control buttons to control playback (skipping to the 

previous or next track, searching at high speed forward or backward within a track, 

playing a file, pausing playback or stopping playback).

•  to repeat a file or folder, press the menu button and select the repeat option. each 

press of the ok button will change the setting from off (no repeat) to repeat one 

(file) to repeat All (files at the current directory level of the drive). repeat All will 

always be activated when random music playback is turned on.

•  to play the audio tracks in random order, press the menu button and select the 

random music setting. each press of the ok button turns the setting on or off. the 

Avr will automatically repeat the tracks until playback is stopped manually.

•  to collapse a folder or return to the previous menu level, press the back/exit button 

or the left button.

when an ipod, iphone or ipad device is connected to the Avr’s front-panel uSb port, you 

may play audio files through your high-quality audio system, operate the ipod, ipad or 

iphone using the Avr remote or the Avr’s front-panel controls, view navigation messages 

on the Avr’s front panel or a connected video display and charge the ipod, ipad or iphone. 

for the latest compatibility information, please see our web site: www.harmankardon.com.
press the uSb source selector button on the remote until the front-panel display’s “ipod” 

as the source. the ipod screen will appear and the slide-in menu will automatically 

appear.

the table below summarizes the controls available during normal playback via the uSb 

port.

play 

play 

pause 

pause 

menu 

menu

back/exit 

back/exit or left Arrow 

Select 

ok or right Arrow 

Scroll reverse 

up Arrow

Scroll forward 

down Arrow

forward Search 

forward Search 

reverse Search 

reverse Search 

next track 

Skip forward or right Arrow 

previous track 

Skip backward or left Arrow 

page up/down 

page up/down

while scrolling, hold the button to scroll faster. use the page up/down control on the 

remote to scroll a page at a time.
while a selection is playing, the album, artist, song title, track elapsed time, total track 

time and play mode icon will appear on the front-panel message display.

33

English

AVR

Operating Your AVR

If a video monitor is connected to the Avr and the system is not in ipod manual mode, 

an ipod screen will appear and display the play mode icon, song title, artist and album. A 

graphic bar indicates the current play position within the track. If random or repeat play 

has been programmed, an icon will appear in the upper right corner.

the screen may disappear from view, depending on the Setup and Slide-In menus setting 

in the System Settings menu (described in System Settings, on page 39). you can restore 

the now playing screen to view by pressing either of the left or right buttons.

press the menu button to view the slide-out menu:
Music: Select this to navigate the audio materials stored on the ipod, ipad or iphone. use 

the page up/down buttons on the remote to scroll through the content a page at a time. 

note: you can only play audio content via the uSb port.
Repeat Music: Select this setting to repeat a track or all tracks in the current album 

or playlist. each press of the ok button switches the setting: repeat off, repeat one or 

repeat All.
Shuffle Music: Select this setting to play all the available songs in random order. each 

press of the ok button switches the setting: shuffle by Song, shuffle by Album, or off to 

end shuffle playback.
NOTE: the itunes application allows you to exempt some tracks from Shuffle mode. the 

Avr cannot override this setting.

your Avr’s network connection brings you a world of mp3- and wmA-format streams via 

the Internet. After you have successfully connected to your home network as described in 

Connect to Your Home Network, on page 20, and set up the network as described in Set 

Up the Network, on page 27, press the network Source Selector button on the remote. 

each press toggles between the network and vtuner screens.

with the vtuner screen (above) displayed, the Avr will automatically connect to the 

Internet via the www.radioharmankardon.com portal. to select a stream, press the menu 

button, and use the up/down buttons to search by category: presets, my favourites, 

Added Stations, location, genre, podcasts by location, podcasts by genre, new Stations, 

most popular Stations, recently played and Search. 

NOTE: the categories displayed may 

vary by region.
to create a favourites list, log onto www.radioharmankardon.com from your computer. 

enter your Avr’s mac address as its Id # (the mac address is on the network Settings 

screen in the System Settings menu) and create an account. favourites that you select 

on the web site will be available on the Avr.
navigation is similar to other slide-in menus. Scroll to the desired item and press the ok 

button to select it. to return to the previous menu level (or to clear the top-level menu 

from view), press the back/exit button or the left button.
If you know the url (web address) of a specific audio stream, select the direct Station 

option from the menu. A live stream is required. the Avr is not able to connect to streams 

that require site registration or other interaction prior to playing the stream. If the Avr 

cannot connect to the stream, a “Station not live” message will appear briefly, and the 

Internet radio screen will remain essentially blank. not all urls will be accessible.

your Avr is dlnA-compatible and can access mp3 and wmA audio media that is stored 

on other dlnA-compatible devices that are connected to the same network as your Avr.
dlnA is a file sharing protocol that creates a bridge between the Avr and other devices 

on the same network that contain audio media. dlnA is supported by pcs that have 

windows media player, windows media center or Intel media Server file sharing. Apple 

computers can also share files via dlnA using hArmAn music manager software, which 

can be downloaded without charge from www.harmankardon.com. (third-party software 

that enables dlnA file-sharing also is available.)
MP3 compatibility: mono or stereo, contstant bit rates (cbr) from 8kbps to 320kbps, 

variable bit rates (vbr) from lowest to highest quality, with sample rates from 8khz – 

48khz.  
WMA compatibility: ver. 9.2, stereo cbr with 32khz – 48khz sampling rate and 40kbps 

– 192kbps bit rate, mono cbr with 8khz – 16khz sampling rate and 5kbps – 16kbps bit 

rate, vbr pass encoding and quality encoding 10 – 98, 44khz and 48khz sampling rate.
before you can access files located on other devices via the network, each device 

must first give permission to share files with the Avr:

34

AVR

Operating Your AVR

To share media on PCs: 
1.  open windows media player.
2.  open the library menu and select media Sharing. the media Sharing window will 

appear.

3.  check the “Share my media” box. An icon for the Avr will appear in the window.
4.  Select the Avr icon, select “Allow,” then select “ok.”
the computer’s wmA and mp3 media should now be available to the Avr.
to share media on other types of computers, operating systems or media software: 

check the instructions for the computer, operating system or media player.
to listen to shared media, press the network Source Selector button. (If vtuner appears 

as the source, press the button a second time to switch from the Internet radio source to 

the network source.) the network screen will appear.

press the menu button, and the slide-in menu should list by name all devices that allow 

sharing. use the slide-in menu to browse the content stored in the device’s media player 

library. Scroll to the desired item and press the ok button to select it. to return to the 

previous menu level (or to clear the menu from view from the top level), press the back/

exit button or the left button.
note: Although video content may appear in the menu, the Avr does not support video 

playback from the network connection.

Selecting a surround mode can be as simple or sophisticated as your individual system 

and tastes. feel free to experiment, and you may find a few favorites for certain sources 

or program types. you can find more detailed information on surround modes in 

Audio Processing and Surround Sound, on page 33.
to select a surround mode, press the Surround modes button (front panel or remote). the 

Surround modes menu will appear.

press the up/down buttons repeatedly until the desired surround-mode category 

appears: Auto Select, virtual Surround, Stereo, movie, music or video game. press the ok 

button to change the surround-mode category.
Auto Select: for digital programs, such as a movie recorded with a dolby digital or dtS 

soundtrack, the Avr will automatically use the soundtrack’s native surround format. for 

two-channel analog and pcm programs, the Avr uses the logic 7 movie, logic 7 music 

or logic 7 game mode, depending on the source.
Virtual Surround: when only two main speakers are present in the system, you can use 

hArmAn virtual Surround to create an enhanced soundfield that virtualizes the missing 

speakers. Select between wide and reference modes.

Stereo: when you want two-channel playback, select the number of speakers you want 

to use for playback:

•  “2 ch Stereo” uses two speakers. 
•  “5 ch Stereo” plays the left-channel signal through the front left and surround 

left speakers, the right-channel signal through the front right and surround right 

speakers, and a summed mono signal through the center speaker.

•  “7 ch Stereo” follows the same scheme as 5 ch Stereo but adds the surround 

back left and surround back right speakers. this mode is available only when the 

surround back speakers are present and have not been reassigned to multizone or 

front height operation. See Audio Processing and Surround Sound, on page 33, for 

more information.

Movie: Select from the following when you want a surround mode for movie playback: 

logic 7 movie, dtS neo:6 cinema or dolby pro logic II (IIx or IIz when seven main 

speakers are present).
Music: Select from the following when you want a surround mode for music playback: 

logic 7 music, dtS neo:6 music or dolby pro logic II (IIx or IIz when seven main speakers 

are present). the dolby pro logic II/IIx/IIz music mode allows access to a submenu with 

some additional settings. See Audio Processing and Surround Sound, on page 33, for 

more information.
Video Game: Select from the following when you want a surround mode for game 

playback: logic 7 game or dolby pro logic II (IIx/IIz when seven main speakers are 

present) game.
After you have made your selection, press the back/exit button.
See Audio Processing and Surround Sound, on page 33, for more information on surround 

modes.

the Audio effects buttons on the front panel and remote provide settings that let you 

adjust the dolby volume setting, tone controls, lfe trim or eZ Set, equalization on/off 

setting. we recommended that you leave these settings at their default values until you 

are more familiar with your system. See Audio Effects Button, on page 34, for complete 

information.

the video modes buttons on the front panel and remote provide settings that let you 

use the Avr’s video processor to fine-tune the picture, if necessary, after making all 

adjustments on the video display. we recommend that you leave the settings at their 

defaults until you are completely familiar with the video performance of your system. See 

Video Processing, on page 34, for complete information.

35

English

AVR

Advanced Functions

much of the adjusting and configuration your Avr requires is handled automatically, with 

little intervention required on your part. you can also customize your Avr to suit your 

system and your tastes. In this section we will describe some of the more advanced 

adjustments available to you.

Audio signals can be encoded in a variety of formats that can affect not only the quality 

of the sound but the number of speaker channels and the surround mode. you may also 

manually select a different surround mode, when available.

Analog Audio Signals
Analog audio signals usually consist of two channels – left and right. your Avr is able to 

process two-channel audio signals to produce multichannel surround sound, even 

when no surround sound has been encoded in the recording. Among the available 

modes are the dolby pro logic II/IIx/IIz, hArmAn virtual Speaker, dtS neo:6, logic 

7, 5 ch and 7 ch Stereo modes. to select one of these modes, press the Surround 

modes button.

Digital Audio Signals
digital audio signals offer greater flexibility and capacity than analog signals, and 

allow the encoding of discrete channel information directly into the signal. the result is 

improved sound quality and startling directionality, since each channel’s information is 

transmitted discretely. high-resolution recordings sound extraordinarily distortion-free, 

especially in the high frequencies.

Surround Modes
Surround-mode selection depends upon the format of the incoming audio signal as well 

as your personal taste. Although there is never a time when all of the Avr’s surround 

modes are available, there is usually a wide variety of modes available for a given input. 

table A12 in the Appendix, on page 50, offers a brief description of each mode and 

indicates the types of incoming signals or digital bitstreams 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.
when in doubt, check the jacket of your disc for more information on which surround 

modes are available. usually, nonessential sections of the disc, such as trailers, extra 

materials or the disc menu, are available only in dolby digital 2.0 (two-channel) or 

pcm two-channel mode. If the main title is playing and the display shows one of these 

surround modes, look for an audio or language setup section in the disc’s menu. Also, 

make sure your disc player’s audio output is set to the original bitstream rather than 

two-channel pcm. Stop play and check the player’s output setting.
multichannel digital recordings are produced in five-channel, six-channel or seven-

channel formats, with or without a “.1” channel. the channels included in a typical 

5.1-channel recording are front left, front right, center, surround left, surround right and 

lfe (low-frequency effects). the lfe channel is denoted as “.1” to represent the fact that 

it is limited to the low frequencies. 6.1-channel recordings add a single surround back 

channel, and 7.1-channel recordings add surround back left and surround back right 

channels to the 5.1-channel configuration. new formats are available in 7.1-channel 

configurations. your Avr is able to play the new audio formats, delivering a more exciting 

home theater experience.
NOTE: to use the 6.1- and 7.1-channel surround modes, the surround back channels 

must be enabled. See Manual Speaker Setup, on page 36 for more information.
digital formats include dolby digital 2.0 (two channels only), dolby digital 5.1, dolby 

digital ex (6.1), dolby digital plus (7.1), dolby truehd (7.1), dtS-hd high-resolution 

Audio (7.1), dtS-hd master Audio (7.1), dtS 5.1, dtS-eS (6.1 matrix and discrete), dtS 

96/24 (5.1), two-channel pcm modes in 32khz, 44.1khz, 48khz or 96khz, and 5.1 or 

7.1 multichannel pcm.
when the Avr receives a digital signal, it detects the encoding method and the number 

of channels, which is displayed briefly as three numbers, separated by slashes (e.g., 

“3/2/.1”).
the first number indicates the number of front channels in the signal: “1” represents 

a monophonic recording (usually an older program that has been digitally remastered  

or, more rarely, a modern program for which the director has chosen mono as a special 

effect). “2” indicates the presence of the left and right channels, but no center channel. 

“3” indicates that all three front channels (left, right and center) are present.

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 

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.
the 6.1-channel signals – dolby digital ex and dtS-eS matrix and discrete – each 

include a flag that signals the receiver to decode the surround back channel, indicated 

as 3/2/.1 ex-on for dolby digital ex materials, and 3/3/.1 eS-on for dtS-eS materials.
dolby digital 2.0 signals may include a dolby Surround flag indicating dS-on or dS-off, 

depending on whether the two-channel bitstream contains only stereo information or a 

downmix of a multichannel program that can be decoded by the Avr’s dolby pro logic 

decoder. by default, these signals are played in dolby pro logic IIx movie mode. 
when a pcm signal is received, the pcm message and the sampling rate (32khz, 

44.1khz, 48khz or 96khz) will appear. 
when only two channels – left and right – are present, the analog surround modes 

may be used to decode the signal into multiple 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 Selecting a Surround Mode, on page 

32).
the Auto Select option sets the surround mode to the native signal’s digital encoding, 

e.g., dolby digital, dtS, dolby truehd or dtS-hd master Audio. for two-channel 

materials, the Avr defaults to the logic 7 movie mode. If you prefer a different surround 

mode, select the surround-mode category: virtual Surround, Stereo, movie, music or 

video game. press the ok button to change the mode.
each surround-mode category is set to a default surround mode:

•  virtual Surround: hArmAn virtual speaker.
•  Stereo: 7-ch Stereo or 5-ch Stereo (depending on how many main speakers are 

present in the system).

•  movie: logic 7 movie.
•  music: logic 7 music.
•  video game: logic 7 game.

you may select a different mode for each category. below is a complete list of available 

surround modes. (the actual surround modes available will depend on the number of 

speakers in your system.) 

•  virtual Surround: hArmAn virtual speaker.
•  Stereo: 2-ch Stereo, 5-ch Stereo or 7-ch Stereo.
•  movie: logic 7 movie, dtS neo:6 cinema, dolby pro logic II movie, dolby pro logic 

IIx movie, dolby pro logic IIz.

•  music: logic 7 music, dtS neo:6 music, dolby pro logic II music, dolby pro logic 

IIx music, dolby pro logic IIz.

•  video game: logic 7 game, dolby pro logic II game, dolby pro logic IIx game, 

dolby pro logic IIz.

once you have programmed the surround mode for each type of audio, select the 

line from the Surround modes menu to override the Avr’s automatic surround-mode 

selection. the Avr will use the same surround mode the next time the source is selected.
NOTE: dolby pro logic IIx is available only if you have set up the Avr’s Assigned Amp to 

Surround back; dolby pro logic IIz is available only if you have set up the Avr’s Assigned 

Amp to front height. See Manual Speaker Setup, on page 36, for more information.
please refer to table A12 in the Appendix for more information on which surround modes 

are available with different bitstreams.