Manual

OPERATION
Surround Mode Selection
Oneofthemostimportantfeaturesof theAVR125
isitsabilityto reproducea fullmultichannelsurround
soundfieldfromdigitalsources,analogmatrixsur-
round-encodedprogramsandstandardstereopro-
grams.Inall,a totalof 16 listeningmodesareavail-
ableonhe AVR125.
Selectionof asurroundmodeisbasedonpemonal
taste,aswellashe typeof programsoumematerial
beingused.Forexample,motionpicturesorTVpro-
gramsbearinghe logoofoneofhe majorsurround-
encodingprocesses,suchasDolbySurround®*,DTS
Stereo®*orUltraStereo'M*maybeplayedineitherthe
DolbyDigital,DolbyProLogicIIor Logic7 Cinemasur-
roundmodesdependingonhe sourcematerial.
NOTE:Oncea programhasbeenencodedwih matrix
surroundinformation,itretainsthesurroundinformation
aslongastheprogramisbroadcastinstereo.Thus,
movieswih surroundsoundmaybedecodedviaanyof
he analogsurroundmodessuchasProLogicIIor
Logic7, whentheyarebroadcastviaconventionalTV
stations,cable,payTVandsatellitetransmission.Inaddi-
tion,a numberof made-for-televisionprograms,sports
broadcasts,radiodramasandmusicCDsarealso
recordedinsurroundsound.Youmayviewa listof
heseprogramsattheDolbyLaboratoriesWebsiteat
www.dolby.com.
Evenwhena programisnotlistedascarryingintentional
surroundinformation,youmayfindhat he ProLogicII,
Logic7, VMAxandhe HallorTheatermodesoften
deliverenvelopingsurroundpresentationsthroughthe
useof thenaturalinformationpresentinallstereorecord-
ings.However,forstereo,bL_notsurroundprograms,we
suggestthatyouexperimentwiththeothermodes.
Surroundmodesareselectedusingeiherthefront
panelcontrolsorhe remote.Toselecta surround
modefromthefrontpanel,presstheSurroundMode
Selector[] to scrollup ordownhroughthelistof
availablemodes.Toselectasurroundmodeusinghe
remote,presstheSurroundModeSelectorql]_and
thenpresstheA/T Buttonsqi_)qi_) to changehe
mode.Asyoupressthebuttons,theSurroundmode
namewillappearintheMain InformationDisplay
r-J, andanindividualmodeindicatorwillalsolightup
r_['_Jr_Jr_r_[n[]. Asthesurroundmodes
change,agreenLEDwilllightnextto thecurrent
modeintheSurroundModeIndicators[] liston
thefrontpanel.
NOTE:Thenameof eachSurroundModewillscroll
acrosshe MainInformationDisplay[] whilethe
modesarebeingselected.Toavoidexitingfromthe
surroundmodeselectionprocess,pushhe • or•
Buttonqi_)qi_) whilea modenameis stillvisible.
TheDolbyDigitalandDTSmodesmayonlybeselect-
edwhenadigitalinputisin use.Inaddition,whena
digitalsourceispresent,he AVR125 willautomatical-
lyselectandswitchto thecorrectmode(DolbyDigital
or DTS),regardlessof he modethathasbeenprevi-
ouslyselected.Formoreinformationonselectingdigital
sources,seehe followingsectionof thismanual.
Tolistento a programintraditionaltwo-channelstereo,
usinghe front-leftandfront-rightspeakersonly(plus
he subwooferifinstalledandconfigured),followthe
instructionsshownaboveforusingtheremoteuntil
SURR OFF appearsintheMain Information
Display[]. TheStereo-Direct(Bypass)modemay
onlybeselectedwhenananaloginputis inuse.
Digital Audio Playback
Digitalaudioisa majoradvancementoverolderanalog
matrixsurroundsystems.Itdeliversfivediscretechan-
nels:left-front,center,right-front,left-surroundandright-
surround.Eachchannelreproducesfullfrequencyrange
(20Hzto 20kHz)andoffersdramaticallyimproved
dynamicrangeandsignificantimprovementstosignal-
to-noiseratios.Inaddition,digitalsystemshavethecapa-
bilityto deliveranadditionalchannelhat isspecifically
devotedto low-frequencyinformation.Thisishe ".1"
channelreferredto v_enyouseehesesystems
describedas"5.1".Thebasschannelisseparatefrom
he oherchannels,butsinceitisintentionallybandwidth-
limited,sounddesignershavegivenithat unique
designation.
DolbyDigital
DolbyDigital(originallyknownasAC-3®) isa standard
partof he DVDformat,andisalsopartofhe newdigital
broadcastingsystemanditisavailablewih manysatellite
receiversandsomedigitalcableboxes,aswellaswih
speciallyencodedLDdiscs.
Anoptional,externalRFdemodulatorisrequiredto
usetheAVR125to listentotheDolbyDigitalsound
tracksavailableonlaserdiscs.ConnecttheRFoutput
of theLDplayerto he demodulatorandthencon-
nectthedigitaloutputofthedemodulatortothe
OpticalorCoaxialInputsi_)_i'l_'ti'l_lJ of the
AVR125. Nodemodulatoris requiredfor usewith
DVDplayersor DTS-encodedlaserdiscs.
DTS
DTSisanoherdigitalaudiosystemthatiscapableof
delivering5.1 audio.AlthoughbothDTSandDolby
Digitalaredigital,theyusedifferentmehodsof
encodinghe signals,andthustheyrequiredifferent
decodingcircuitstoconvertthedigitalsignalsback
to analog.
DTS-encodedsoundtracksareavailableonselect
DVDandLDdiscs,aswellason specialaudio-only
DTSdiscs.YoumayuseanyLDorCDplayer
equippedwitha digitaloutputtoplayDTS-encoded
discswih theAVR125. Allthatis requiredisto con-
necttheplayer'soutputto eiher he Opticalor
Coaxialinputontherearpaneli_)_ orfrontpanel
Inorderto listento DVDsencodedwithDTSsound
tracks,theDVDplayermustbecompatiblewiththe
DTSsignalas indicatedbya DTSlogoontheplayer's
frontpanel.EarlyDVDplayersmaynotbeableto play
DTS-encodedDVDs.Thisdoesnotindicatea problem
withtheAVR125, assomeplayerscannotpassthe
DTSsignalthroughto he digitaloutputs.Ifyouarein
doubtasto he capabilityof yourDVDplayertohandle
DTSdiscs,consulttheplayer'sowner'smanual.Please
notehat someDVDplayersareshippedwiththeir
outputsetforDolbyDigitalonly.ToinsurethatDTS
dataisbeingsenttohe AVR,pleasecheckhe setup
menusystemon yourDVDplayerto makecertainhat
DTSdataoutputisenabled.
Selecting a Digital Source
Toutilizeeitherdigitalmodeyoumusthaveproperly
connecteda digitalsourceto theAVR125. Connect
he digitaloutputsfromDVDplayers,HDTVreceivers,
satellitesystemsor CDplayersto he Opticalor
CoaxialInputs i_)_i'l_'ti'l_lJ.Inorderto providea
backupsignalanda sourceforanalogstereorecord-
ing,theanalogoutputsprovidedondigitalsource
equipmentshouldalsobeconnectedtoheir appropri-
ateinputsontheAVR125 rearpanel(e.g.,connect
he analogstereoaudiooutputfroma DVDtothe
DVDAudio Inputs_ on therearpanelwhenyou
connectthesource'sdigitaloutputs).
Whenplayingadigitalsourcesuchas DVD,firstselect
he sourceinputusinghe remoteorfront-panelcon-
troisas describedonpage21. Next,selectthedigital
sourceby pressingtheDigital InputSelectorButton
qi_! andthenusingthe,A/v Buttonsqi_)qi_)
onhe remoteor theSelectorButtons[] on the
frontpanelto chooseanyofthe0 P1"I C AL or
C0 AX I AL inputs,ashey appearintheMain
InformationDisplay[], theDigital Input
Indicators[][]. Whenthedigitalsourceisplaying,
he AVR125 willautomaticallydetectwheheritisa
multichannelDolbyDigitalorDTSsource,ora con-
ventionalPCMsignal,whichisthestandardoutput
fromCDplayers.A BitstreamIndicator[] willlight
intheMain InformationDisplay[] to confirmthat
he digitalsignalis DolbyDigital,DTSorPCM