Ayre DX-5DSD

Owner’s Manual

Universal A/V Engine

Table of

Contents

Welcome to Ayre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Overview and Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Connections and Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Setup and Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Controls and Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Optimization and Customization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

About Aspect Ratios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Advanced Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

On-Screen Setup Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

On-Screen Menu Settings Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Numbers and Specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Statement of Warranty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

A Technical Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

A Place for Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Welcome to

Ayre

Your Ayre DX-5DSD offers a significant advance inboth video and audio performance from all digitalformats. The excitement and dimensionality of yourfavorite films are apparent from the first viewing.Music is reproduced with the warmth andimmediacy of a live performance. The combinationof superb resolution and a natural, relaxed qualitywill draw you back to your home theater and musicsystem, time and time again.

This degree of performance has been implementedusing the highest level of workmanship andmaterials. You can be assured that the Ayre DX-5DSD

will provide you a lifetime of enjoyment.

To our North American customers, please besure to mail your warranty registration card andphotocopy of your original sales receipt within 30days in order to extend the warranty to fiveyears.

2

Overview and

Introduction

The Ayre DX-5DSD is a unique universal audio/videoengine that serves as the central source componentfor all of your digital media. It plays all currentlyavailable video optical disc formats (includingBlu-ray and DVD-Video), providing reference-levelpicture quality for your home theater. The DX-5DSD

also plays all currently available audio optical discformats (including CD, SACD, and DVD-Audio)with unsurpassed audio quality.

To provide the highest level of performance, thevideo and audio sections are totally separate. A bankof opto-isolators provides electrical isolationbetween the two sections of the player.

In addition, the DX-5DSD also connects to yourpersonal computer (using either Windows, MacOS X, or Linux) via the ubiquitous USB port tocreate a true high-performance music server. Asdigital downloads continue to grow in popularity,this feature will become more valuable as time goeson.

The DX-5DSD generates a fixed-frequency masteraudio clock and requests the data from the computer

3

at the correct time for jitter-free playback of yourmusic. The DX-5DSD also utilizes opto-isolators toprovide total electrical isolation for the connectionsbetween your computer and music system. Thisminimizes the introduction of unwantedradio-frequency interference (RFI), generated by allcomputers.

Avoiding the use of wireless networks (e.g.,Wi-Fi), by employing wired connections instead,will reduce RFI levels in your home and results inimproved sound quality for any music system.

The Ayre DX-5DSD A/V Engine serves as the centralsource component for most systems. It plays backvirtually all digital formats, both video and audio,and it also provides a connection to provide the fulladvantages of computer-based audio playback.Thanks to its advanced technological features theDX-5DSD will extract the full measure of performancefrom all digital video and audio formats,maximizing your enjoyment both now and into thefuture.

Quick Start

The Ayre DX-5DSD is extremely flexible andversatile. However, many of the features areprimarily of interest to the advanced user.

The information required to get started iscontained in the following three chapters of thismanual.

The remaining chapters cover additionalinformation that may be read at your leisure.

4

Connections and

Installation

The Ayre DX-5DSD is a universal audio/video engine.It may be connected to any video display with anHDMI input, any audio system either with HDMIor analog inputs, and any personal computer with aUSB output. It is easy to hook up and use. Thefollowing guidelines will ensure that the installationgoes smoothly.

Location

The infrared beam of theremote control will also travel

through glass.

A good location for your DX-5DSD is at an easilyaccessible height in an open-backed cabinet or on ashelf. The receiver for the infrared remote control ismounted behind the small lens to the left of thedisplay. A direct line of sight from the listeningposition will ensure the maximum range.

Video Outputs

Your Ayre DX-5DSD is equipped with an HDMI A/VOutput that supplies both high-resolution videoand multi-channel audio on the same cable.

5

While the HDMI A/V Output also includes theaudio, the best performance for both video andaudio is achieved by using separate connectionsfor both the video and audio signals.

Video switchers and/or scalersmay compromise the signal

integrity unless executed at theabsolute highest standards.

It is recommended to connect the HDMI A/VOutput directly to your display device and connectone (or both) of the dedicated audio outputs to youraudio system (multi-channel HDMI Audio Outputor two-channel Analog Audio Output).

There is also an analog Composite Video Outputfor troubleshooting purposes. It is notrecommended to use the Composite VideoOutput as the normal connection, because it onlyprovides a standard definition video signal.

Audio Outputs

The DX-5DSD has multiple audio outputs to allowconnection with a wide variety of music systems.However, one of two main outputs should be usedwhenever possible:

• Analog Audio Output – for two-channelplayback.

• HDMI Audio Output – for multi-channelplayback.

6

Isolation of Audio and Video

Any audio/video system willachieve the best performance

when the video system iselectrically isolated from the

audio system.

The audio section of the DX-5DSD is completelyisolated from the video section via opto-isolatorsthat provide total galvanic isolation. This is unusualand will require some extra effort to maintain thisisolation when also using other video sources.

For the best performance, all other video sourcesshould link to the audio system with an electricallyisolated connection to maintain isolation betweenthe video and audio systems. One simple andeffective method is to use the optical digitaloutput of other video sources. Coaxial digitaloutputs can provide isolation if a transformer is inthe signal path. If you are unsure if yourequipment has built-in digital audio transformers,external transformers are available. To isolate ananalog audio connection, the best solution is touse high-quality transformers. JensenTransformers offers both digital and analogisolation transformers.

Two-Channel Systems

For over 50 years, the vast majority of music hasbeen recorded in two-channel stereo, thus theDX-5DSD includes two ultra-high quality audiodigital-to-analog converters. The stereo AnalogAudio Outputs will play all sources at their absolutehighest quality, including all two-channel opticaldiscs as well as the USB input for computer audio.

In addition, the stereo Analog Audio Outputs willplay a two-channel mixdown of multi-channelsources, including both movie soundtracks andmusical discs. This allows the Analog Audio

7

Outputs to provide a rich and fulfilling sonicexperience for movies as well as music. If you have atwo-channel audio system, simply connect theAnalog Audio Outputs to your preamplifier and youcan enjoy all of your sources, both music andmovies.

Multi-channel SACDs may not be downmixed.However, they nearly always contain a separatetwo-channel playback area.

The Ayre DX-5DSD offers both balanced andsingle-ended outputs. Balanced connections aremade via three-pin XLR connectors, whilesingle-ended connections are made via RCAconnectors.

When you have a choice, a balanced connectionwill offer slightly higher sound quality than asingle-ended connection.

Multi-Channel Systems

The HDMI Audio Outputmust also supply a video

signal for proper operation. Itsimply sends a gray screen at720p for full compatibility.

Multi-channel audio is provided at full resolutionvia the HDMI connection. Please note that there aretwo HDMI connectors on the DX-5DSD. One islabeled “HDMI Audio Output” and provides higherquality audio than the HDMI A/V Output that alsosupplies the video signal.

The HDMI Audio Output transmits LPCM (oroptionally, DSD in the case of SACDs). Allcompressed formats from Dolby and DTS aredecompressed by the player before transmission.

Simply connect the HDMI Audio Output to yoursurround-sound processor to enjoy multi-channel

8

movie soundtracks and music sources. The AnalogAudio Outputs may also be connected to yoursystem at the same time as the HDMI AudioOutput, either directly to the surround-soundprocessor or through a stereo preamplifier with apass-through function.

Note that both the Analog Audio Outputs andthe Digital Audio Output are disabled and thestatus LED glows orange when the HDMI AudioOutput is connected to a selected (active) HDMIinput on your surround-sound processor (SSP).The disabled outputs will be re-activated when theSSP input connected to the HDMI Audio Outputis de-selected (de-activated).

The -DX-5DSD also supports “Audio Rate Control”(ARC), which allows the master audio clock in yoursurround-sound processor to be the main clock inyour audio system for the lowest jitter possible in amulti-channel system. (The Analog Audio Outputsprovide the lowest possible jitter in a two-channelsystem.) The DX-5DSD will lock onto this clock andadjust the rate of its playback to ensure perfectsynchronization, and the status LED glows violet.

AES/EBU Digital Audio Output

An adapter is available fromyour Ayre dealer should you

need to connect the DigitalAudio Output to an S/PDIF

input that uses an RCAconnector.

The Ayre DX-5DSD also features a balancedAES/EBU (S/PDIF) digital audio output. Thisconnection is limited to lower-quality compressedformats such as Dolby Digital and DTS. However,it can provide multi-channel audio to olderequipment that lacks an HDMI input for audio. TheHDMI Audio Output should be used wheneverpossible for multi-channel audio.

9

USB Input

The USB input allows the DX-5DSD to be connectedto a personal computer for use as a state-of-the-artmusic server. The input uses the squarish USB “B”type connector designed for computer peripheraldevices. The rectangular “A” type connector at theother end of the cable is designed to plug directlyinto the computer itself.

Music input at the USB Audio Input will not beoutput by either HDMI connector. Only theAnalog Audio Outputs will deliver music sent tothe USB Audio Input.

The USB 2.0 standard specifies a maximum cablelength of 16 feet (5 meters). It is not recommendedto use extenders or hubs with the DX-5DSD. Fiberoptic USB cables can be longer, but are relativelyexpensive.

AyreLink Ports

The AyreLink communication system provides aconvenient way to control your audio system. Thereare two AyreLink ports on the rear panel of theDX-5DSD. Each port has four contacts and containsboth an input and an output. Both ports functionidentically and may be used interchangeably.

AyreLink connections are made with commonlyavailable two-line telephone line cords usingmodular (RJ-11) connectors. (These are the cordsthat connect the telephone set to the wall in many

10

countries.) They are readily available in differentlengths and various colors at most electronics stores.

Be sure to use two-line telephonecords to make AyreLink connections.These can be identified by the fourgold contacts on each connector.Single-line cords with only two goldcontacts will not function in thisapplication.

The linked components may bejoined in any convenient

order.

The linked components should be connected indaisy-chain fashion, connecting each component toanother until all of the linked components havebeen connected.

When connecting the linkedcomponents to form a chain, be carefulnot to connect the two ends of thechain. Closing the chain to form a loopwill cause the AyreLink system not tofunction.

Ethernet LAN Connection

On the rear panel of the DX-5DSD is an RJ-45 jackfor an optional connection to the internet. Thisconnection will allow for two functions:

• BD Live – Some newer Blu-ray titles include afeature called “BD Live”. This allows aninternet-connected player to access additionalcontent such as commentaries and games.

11

• Firmware update – Periodically Ayre may offerupdates to the firmware of the DX-5DSD that willoffer additional features. While there are severalmethods for updating the firmware, perhaps theeasiest is to use an internet connection.

AC Power

The DX-5DSD may be plugged directly into anunswitched wall outlet. Although proprietary RFI(radio-frequency interference) filtering is built intothe universal A/V engine, in some situations an ACpower-line filter (such as those offered by Ayre) mayprovide additional sonic benefits.

As virtually all computers use switch-mode powersupplies that introduce unwanted RFI on the ACpower line, it may be beneficial to use an AC powerline filter for the computer and its accessories (e.g.,display monitor), many of which also utilizeswitch-mode power supplies.

Break-In

Playing the unit for 100 to500 hours will ensure full

break-in.

Due to the manufacturing processes used for theprinted circuit boards, wires, and capacitors, abreak-in period is necessary for the player to reachits full performance potential.

12

Setup and

Configuration

Once you have connected the Ayre DX-5DSD to yourhome theater system, you will need to configure itto ensure compatibility with your display. There isan extensive set of options as detailed in the chapter“On-Screen Setup Menu”. To simplify the setupprocess, nearly all of the options have beenpre-selected at the factory. However, a few settingsmay need to be changed to match your system.

Video Setup

With the DX-5DSD connected to your video displayand powered on, press the “Setup” button on theremote control handset (just above the “Red”button). This will access the On-Screen Setup Menu.Use the “Up/Down” arrow buttons to navigate tothe Video Setup menu item. Press the “Enter”button to select the menu items and then once againuse the “Up/Down” arrow buttons to select thedesired option.

13

TV Aspect Ratio

The Ayre DX-5DSD comes from the factorypre-configured for proper operation with a“widescreen” (16:9). This will work for the vastmajority of systems. However if you have an older“standard” (4:3) display, you will need to change themenu item TV Aspect Ratio.

Use the “Up/Down” arrow buttons to select theproper menu item and then press “Enter”. Use the“Up/Down” arrow buttons to select 4:3 Letterboxand then press “Enter”. If you have inadvertentlychanged the setting, the correct selection for a“widescreen” display is 16:9 Wide/Auto.

14

4:3 Display

16:9 Display

TV System

Around the world, there are two main videostandards in use, NTSC (North America and Japan)and PAL (Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa).The Ayre DX-5DSD can work perfectly well witheither system. From the factory the unit is set up toplay both types of discs (NTSC and PAL) in theirnative format.

If your display accommodates both standards, youneed not change this setting. Similarly, if you onlyplay discs purchased from the same area as yourdisplay, this setting will work well.

However, if you have purchased discs from otherparts of the world and your display only supportsone video standard, then you will need to changethe TV System setting to match your display.

Scroll down to the menu item TV System and press“Enter”. Select the video standard (PAL/NTSC) tomatch your display. The options are:

• Multi-system (default) – No system conversion isperformed. The output video system is the sameas that encoded on the disc. Requires a displaythat supports both NTSC and PAL systems.

• NTSC – When playing NTSC-encoded discs, nosystem conversion is performed. PAL-encodedcontent is converted to NTSC output.

• PAL – When playing PAL-encoded discs, nosystem conversion is performed. NTSC encodedcontent is converted to PAL output.

15

Output Resolution

Not only does the Ayre DX-5DSD Digital A/VEngine play high-definition Blu-ray discs, but italso has a world-class scaling engine thatup-converts standard definition video stored onDVD discs. The sophisticated video processorensures that the video will have the best possiblecolor, detail, and motion.

The player offers several video output resolutions.To achieve the best visual result, it is important toselect the output resolution that best matches yourdisplay device. The rule of thumb when selecting anoutput resolution is to match the “native resolution”of your display.

The default setting from the factory is Auto. Thisselection allows the display to communicate withthe player in order to establish the best resolution. Ifthere is difficulty with this setting, or if you wish toselect the resolution manually, use the “Up/Down”arrow buttons to select Output Resolution and thenpress “Enter”.

For the latest generation of 1080p, “Full HD” or“True HD” displays, the best output resolution willbe 1080p. (A few early model 1080p displays donot accept 1080p signal. For these displays the bestoutput resolution to use is 1080i.) For all otherdigital televisions this will likely be 720p. For CRTtube or rear projection televisions this will likely be1080i. These are general recommendations thatwork for most users, but there can be exceptions.Consult the owner’s manual for your display.

16

The DX-5DSD also supports a special “Source Direct”output resolution. This resolution is onlyrecommended for use with high-performanceexternal video processors. In “Source Direct” mode,the player works as a “transport”. It decodes videofrom the discs and then sends the raw video signalin its native resolution and format, without extraprocessing, to the external video processor.

Beyond the Initial Setup

If your system requires a special setup configuration,additional advanced details are given in variouschapters, including “On-Screen Setup Menu” and“Optimization and Customization”. The DX-5DSD

offers many specific features that may increase theease of operation in your audio/video system.

Configuring the Computer

You will also need to set up your personal computerto act as a music server, using the USB Audio Inputon the DX-5DSD. There are a variety of softwaremusic players that are well suited for the job.

No matter what operating system (OS) yourcomputer uses — Apple, Windows, or Linux —you’ll need to set up your computer to performseveral different tasks:

• Transferring music to your computer’s harddrive, either by converting the files from yourCD collection, commonly called “ripping”, or

17

by purchasing files that are downloaded via theinternet.

• Labeling the files you have transferred with thenames of the song, artist, album, et cetera,commonly called “tagging”. (Downloaded fileswill normally already have the “tags” included.)

• Using a music player program to organize yourmusic collection and play it back.

• Optionally record music selections back ontoCDs for playback in your car or other places,commonly called “burning”.

• Optionally transfer part of your music collectionto a portable music player.

A few programs can perform all of these functions,for example iTunes (Apple and Windows), J.RiverMedia Center (Windows), and Windows MediaPlayer (Windows). Some users will prefer to use acombination of other specialized programs toperform these functions.

An introductory guide to setting up your computeris available at the Ayre website at:

www.ayre.com/usb.htm

Please note that the DX-5DSD can play DSD-encodedfiles that have been downloaded to your computervia the “DSD over PCM” format (DoP). Howeverthis requires that your music player softwareapplication also supports DoP. Again, moreinformation is available at the Ayre website notedabove.

18

Controls and

Operation

The Ayre DX-5DSD may be controlled using eitherthe front panel buttons or the remote controlhandset. Basic functions are available at bothlocations. Additional functions are available only atthe remote control handset.

This chapter is divided into three sections:

• Basic Functions

• USB Computer Audio

• Media File Playback

There are also many other sophisticated functionsavailable for the advanced user. These are describedin a separate chapter, “Advanced Features” (page39).

19

20

Status LED

There is a status LED on the front panel to thelower-left of the control ring. It changes color toindicate various states of the DX-5DSD as follows:

• Blue = Display Off (see page 54)

• Green = Pure Audio (see page 46)

• Red = LFE Mixdown (see page 47)

• Orange = HDMI Audio Active (see page 9)

• Violet = HDMI Audio with ARC (see page 9)

21

Basic Functions

While the remote control handset has a multitudeof functions, only a few of them are commonly used.These basic functions apply to all optical discs,including Blu-ray discs (BDs), DVDs,DVD-Audios, SACDs, and CDs. Details on theremaining functions may be found in a separatechapter, “Advanced Features” (page 39).

Standby/Operate

The “Standby/Operate” button toggles the unitbetween normal operation and standby mode. Whenin standby mode, the LED in the front-panel“Standby” button is green and all critical circuitryremains powered. This ensures optimal performancewith a minimum of warm-up time.

Please note that the “Power” button on theremote control corresponds to the“Standby/Operate” function on the DX-5DSD.

Open/Close

The “Open/Close” button opens and closes the disctray. An open tray may also be closed by pressinggently on the front edge of the tray. When the trayis closed, most video discs will automatically beginplaying. The behavior of CDs and SACDs whenclosing the tray is determined by the On-ScreenSetup Menu (page 61).

22

Play

Pressing the “Play” button initiates playback of thedisc. If the drawer is open, pressing “Play” will alsoclose the drawer.

Pause

Pressing the “Pause” button will pause the discplayback. Playback may be resumed either bypressing the “Pause” button again or the “Play”button.

Stop

Pressing the “Stop” button will stop disc playback.However the position is memorized and the videodisplay shows “Press PLAY to continue.” Press “Play” tostart from the memorized position, or press “Stop” asecond time to clear the memorized position.

For more information on the “Memory Resume”feature, please refer to page 50.

Previous

Pressing the “Previous” button will back up to thestart of the current chapter or track. Additionalpresses will move to previous chapters or tracks.

23

Next

Pressing the “Next” button will move to the start ofthe next chapter or track. Additional presses willmove to subsequent chapters or tracks.

Reverse Scan

The “Reverse Scan” mode scans backward throughthe disc. Each button press increases the scan speeduntil it returns to the normal playing speed asshown at the diagram. Pressing “Play” will alsorestore normal playback speed.

Forward Scan

The “Forward Scan” mode scans forward throughthe disc. Each button press increases the scan speeduntil it returns to the normal playing speed asshown at the diagram. Pressing “Play” will alsorestore normal playback speed.

24

Cursor Buttons

Nearly all video discs feature on-screen menus toaccess the various features found on the disc. Thesemenus use a highlighted cursor that is controlled byusing the “Cursor” buttons on the remote controlhandset. When the desired selection is highlighted,press the “Enter” button.

The cursor buttons are also used to navigate the“On-Screen Setup Menu”. For additionalinformation, please refer to page 58.

Please note that the front panel control rings mayalso be used to navigate on-screen menus. The“Previous” and “Next” buttons correspond to“Left” and “Right”. The “Pause” buttoncorresponds to “Up”, while the “Stop” buttoncorresponds to”Down”. Finally, the “Play” buttoncorresponds to the “Enter” function.

Menu Buttons

The on-screen menus found on nearly all video discswill normally automatically display upon loadingthe disc.

Blu-ray discs usually contain a Top Menu and aPop-Up Menu. The Top Menu normally appears atthe beginning of the playback, after the previewsand copyright messages. The Pop-Up Menu can beaccessed during the movie without interruptingplayback. Some menus make use of the “Color”buttons. You can select menu functions by pressingthe corresponding “Color” button on the remotecontrol.

25

Most DVD discs use a chapter menu for navigation.Press the “Pop-Up Menu” button to display thechapter menu. Some DVD discs may contain a titlemenu, usually in addition to the chapter menu.During playback, press the “Top Menu” button toreturn to the disc title menu.

Number Buttons

During the playback of a disc, you can use the“Number” buttons on the remote control to directlyjump to a specified chapter or track number.

To enter a number greater than “9”, simply pressthe desired number buttons in order. Forexample, to enter “23”, first press “2”, then “3”.

Audio

Most video discs and some audio discs have multiplesoundtracks. These usually offer choices of differentlanguages, although some discs will have a choice ofdifferent encoding schemes (e.g., Dolby Digital orPCM). You can select a preferred language that willautomatically play using the On-Screen SetupMenus (page 56), or you can scroll through theavailable soundtrack choices using the “Audio”button on the remote control.

Subtitle

Many video discs offer a choice of subtitles. You canselect a preferred language that will automaticallydisplay using the On-Screen Setup Menus (page 56),

26

or you can scroll through the available subtitlechoices, or turn the subtitles off completely, usingthe “Subtitle” button on the remote control.

Pressing the “Subtitle” button once displays thecurrent setting. Additional presses will scrollthrough the available choices.

Repeat

To repeat a certain chapter, title, track or disc, pressthe “Repeat” button on the remote control. Eachpress of the “Repeat” button switches the repeatmode in the following sequence:

• DVD and DVD-Audio

• Blu-ray

• CD and SACD

Selecting a Repeat mode cancels any Shuffle orRandom mode you may be using.

Shuffle and Random

When playing a CD or SACD, press the “Blue”button on the remote control to activate the Shuffleand Random modes. Each press of the “Blue” buttonswitches the playback mode in the followingsequence:

27

In normal playback mode, each track is played backin sequential order. The Random playback moderandomly selects a track to play. The Shuffle modealso plays back the tracks in random order, but itensures that each track is played only once.

Selecting the Shuffle or Random mode cancels anyRepeat mode you may be using.

DVD Quick-Start

When watching a DVD, the “Yellow” button allowsyou to skip any previews or other material before thebeginning of the film. Simply load the disc in theopen tray and press the “Yellow” button to beginplay.

Light

When any button is pressed on the remote control,the backlight will illuminate the buttons with a softamber glow for a few seconds. Conveniently placedin the lower right corner, the “Light” button allowsyou to turn the backlight on without activating anyfunctions on the DX-5DSD.

If the front-panel display is off, pressing the“Light” button will momentarily turn the displayon.

Bass on Multi-Channel Discs

If you are playing a multi-channel disc using theHDMI Audio Output and the sound quality has

28

poor bass response, be sure that the “SpeakerConfiguration” settings are correct as explained onpage 86.

If a multi-channel disc played through thetwo-channel Analog Audio Outputs has poor bassresponse, first check the “Speaker Configuration”settings and then try the “LFE Downmix ” mode asexplained on page 47. This will correct forimproperly authored multi-channel discs.

USB Computer Audio

The DX-5DSD can be connected to any modernpersonal computer to create a powerful, flexiblestate-of-the-art music server. Connect and configureyour computer as explained in the previous chapters.

When the DX-5DSD receives an active signal at theUSB Audio Input, all of the disc playing functionswill shut down, including both HDMI outputs. Theaudio will be routed to the analog audio outputs.

Simply play your favorite songs on your computerusing your favorite software music player. The audiowill be routed through the DX-5DSD to your stereosystem.

When receiving a USB signal, the front paneldisplay will read “USB” along with the samplerate in kHz.

When the DX-5DSD Universal A/V Engine stopsreceiving a valid USB audio signal, it will simplyswitch “Off” completely.

29

Media File Playback

In addition to playing standard disc-based formatssuch as Blu-ray disc, DVD, CD, and SACD, theAyre DX-5DSD Universal A/V Engine can play mediafiles. You can enjoy digital music, movies andphotos stored on an optical disc (recordable CD orDVD) or a USB drive. Due to the variation ofmedia, encoding software and techniques used,compatibility cannot be guaranteed for alluser-created or downloaded contents. Support forsuch content is on a best-effort basis.

Playback from a USB Drive

The Ayre DX-5DSD is equipped with two USB hostports, one on the front panel and the other on theback. You may use either to plug in a USB drivestored with digital music, movie and photo files.

The USB host ports are rated toprovide a maximum of 5V, 500mApower to the USB drive. This issufficient for all USB thumb drivesand flash memory card readers, butmay not be sufficient for USB harddisks. It is recommended that you usea USB hard disk with an externalpower supply to avoid damage to theUSB host ports.

This unit supports “USB Mass Storage ClassBulk-Only Transport” devices only. Most USBthumbs drives, portable hard disk drives and cardreaders conform to this device class. Other USB

30

devices such as MP3 players, digital cameras, andmobile phones may not be compatible.

Supported USB drives must be formatted withthe FAT (File Allocation Table) or FAT32 filesystem. Drives formatted with the NTFS or HFSPlus file systems are not supported.

In some cases, an incompatible USB device maycause the player to stop responding. If this occurssimply turn off the power, remove the USBdevice, and turn the player back on.

The player accesses the USB drive in read-onlymode. In order to minimize the risk of datacorruption, it is recommended that you onlyunplug the USB device when playback iscompletely stopped.

The Home Menu

When a USB drive or an optical disc with mediafiles is inserted, the player presents a “Home Menu”to assist you in navigating and playing the files.You can also bring up the “Home Menu” with the“Home” button on the remote control. The “HomeMenu” is the starting point for accessing media files.

There are four selections in the “Home Menu”.Depending on what type of media files that youintend to play, you can choose among the “Music,”“Movie”, and “Photo” categories. The “Setup Menu”selection will bring you to the player’s Setup Menujust like pressing the “Setup” button on the remotecontrol.

31

Playing Music Files

To play digital music files stored on an optical discor USB drive, select “Music” from the “HomeMenu”. A file browser will appear to assist you innavigating the files and folders. The first step is toselect the “Data Disc” or USB device that containsthe music files. The player will read the disc and listthe folders and music files. In the music browser,you can perform the following operations:

• Press the “Up/Down” arrow or “PageUp/Down” buttons to move the cursor.

• When a music file is highlighted by the cursor,press the “Enter” or “Play” button to startplayback.

• Press the “Green” button to add the currentlyhighlighted music file to the Playlist. A greencheck mark will appear in front of the file name,and the Playlist count in the lower left corner ofthe screen will increase by one.

• Press the “Left” arrow button to move the cursorto the Selection Menu in the lower left corner ofthe screen. This menu contains the followingchoices:

• All Music – List all music files in a flat view withoutany directory structure.

• Playlist – List only music files added to the Playlist.

• Browser – List folders and music files according tothe directory structure on the disc or USB drive.

32

• Now Playing – Show the status of the currentlyplaying music file.

• Press the “Right” arrow button to move thecursor back to the file listing.

• If a music file starts playing and there is noother user operation, the “Now Playing” screenwill appear after a few seconds. You can also getto this screen using the “Now Playing” menu.This screen can show the following information:

• Playback status: “Play”, “Stop”, “Pause”.

• Playback mode: “Shuffle”, “Random”,“Repeat One”, “Repeat All”.

• Playback progress: “Track” and “Time”.

• Other embedded information: If the music filecontains supported album art image and tags,those will be displayed.

• The following operations are available while the“Now Playing” screen is shown:

• Normal playback control: “Play”, “Stop”,“Pause”, “Prev/Next”, “Rev”, and “Fwd”buttons.

• Special playback modes: “Repeat” button and“Shuffle/Random” button (”Blue” button)

• Return to the Browser without stopping themusic: “Return” button.

• Stop playback and return to the Browser: Pressthe “Stop” button twice.

33

Playing Movie Files

To play movie files stored on an optical disc or USBdrive, select “Movie” from the “Home Menu”. A filebrowser will appear to assist you in navigating thefiles and folders.

The first step is to select the “Data Disc” or USBdevice that contains the movie files. The player willtake a moment to read the disc and list the foldersand movie files. In the movie browser, you canperform the following operations:

• Press the “Up/Down” arrow or “PageUp/Down” buttons to move the cursor andselect movie files.

• When a movie file is highlighted by the cursor,press the “Enter” or “Play” button to startplayback.

Once a movie file starts playing, the normalplayback control functions are available. To stop themovie and return to the file browser, press the“Stop” button twice. You can also press the “Home”button at any time to get back to the “HomeMenu”.

Viewing Photo Files

To view digital photo files stored on an optical discor USB drive, select “Photo” from the “HomeMenu”. A file browser will appear to assist you innavigating the files and folders.

34

The first step is to select the “Data Disc” or USBdevice that contains the photo files. The player willtake a moment to read the disc and list the foldersand photo files. In the photo browser, you canperform the following operations:

• Press the “Up/Down” arrow or “PageUp/Down” buttons to move the cursor andselect photo files.

• When a photo file is highlighted by the cursor,press the “Enter” or “Play” button to startplayback in a full screen slideshow fashion.

If you choose to start a photo slideshow (automaticviewing of all photos in a folder), the followingoperations are available:

• Show the help screen: “Display” button.

• Normal playback control: “Play”, “Stop”,“Pause”, “Prev/Next” buttons.

• Adjust slideshow speed: “Rev” and “Fwd”buttons.

• Zoom: “Zoom” button. Once in “Zoom” modethe arrow buttons can be used to pan the photo.

• Reflect (flip the photo along its horizontal axisto make it upside-down): “Up” arrow.

• Mirror (flip the photo along its vertical axis tomake it a mirror image): “Down” arrow.

• Rotate left (counterclockwise): “Left” arrow.

• Rotate right (clockwise): “Right” arrow.

• Repeat: “Repeat” button.

35

• Show photos in “Digest” mode: “Red” button.The “Digest” mode shows nine photothumbnails in a screen to make visualnavigation easy.

• Show EXIF information: “Green” button.

• Play in random sequence: “Blue” button.

• Change slideshow transition effect: “Yellow”button.

Adding Background Music

You can add background music to the photoslideshow. To do so, you will need to prepare somedigital music files. The music files can be stored onthe same disk as the photos, or on a different USBdrive. Start music playback first by selecting“Music” from the home menu. Once the music isplaying, press the “Home” button to get back to thehome menu, and start the photo slideshow byselecting “Photo” in the usual manner.

36

Optimization and

Customization

The Ayre DX-5DSD offers many advanced features. Itis configured at the factory to provide the bestperformance for a typical installation. In certainsituations you may wish to change the defaultconfiguration for optimal performance in yoursystem, using small toggle switches on the rear ofthe unit.

The default configuration settings (all switches inthe “up” position) will work best for the vastmajority of users.

Digital Audio Output

An adapter is available fromAyre should you need to

connect the digital output to adevice with an S/PDIF input

that uses an RCA connector.

The Ayre DX-5DSD features a balanced AES/EBUDigital Audio Output on the rear of the unit. Thismay be used when connecting to an oldersurround-sound processor that lacks an HDMIinput.

The Digital Audio Output is only active with PCMor compressed PCM (Dolby Digital or DTS)based discs. It is inactive when playing SACDs.

37

A switch on the rear panel allows the Digital AudioOutput to be turned off if its use is not required.

Turning the Digital Audio Output “off” when notusing it will result in slightly higher sound qualitythrough the analog outputs.

Digital Filter

The digital filter of the Ayre DX-5DSD features twouser-selectable algorithms. A selector switch islocated on the rear panel. One algorithm producesgreater accuracy in the time domain and is labeled“Listen”. The other algorithm produces greateraccuracy in the frequency domain and is labeled“Measure”.

Normally the selector switch is set to the “Listen”position when listening to music. However somelisteners may prefer the additional high-frequencyenergy provided by the “Measure” position.

This switch only affects the Analog Audio Outputs,and not the Digital Audio Output or either of theHDMI outputs.

USB Audio Input Speed

USB Audio may connect to the computer at twospeeds. The first is known as “Class 1 Audio” and issupported by all operating systems (e.g., Windows,Mac OS X, Linux). Class 1 Audio uses the “FullSpeed” mode of USB and is capable of transportingall sample rates up to 96 kHz. Select Class 1 Audioby setting the switch to “Rsrv A”.

38

Setting the switch to “Rsrv B” selects “Class 2Audio”, which uses the USB “High Speed” mode totransport data at higher rates as long as theoperating system also supports Class 2 Audio.

For Mac, this requires OS X version 10.6.4 orhigher. None of the Windows operating systemssupports “High Speed” mode for audio via the USBports. We therefore have made available a customdriver that is compatible with Windows XP, ServicePack 2 and later. Please refer to the Ayre website todownload the required file and also additionalinstructions:

www.ayre.com/usb.htm

Remote Code

The remote control supports three remote codes.The default is “Code 1”. Some other products mayinadvertently respond to the DX-5DSD remotecontrol. In this case you can select a different remotecode to avoid conflicts.

To select a new remote code, open the batterycompartment cover of the remote control, and thenuse a ball point pen to flip the switch to one of thepositions marked as “1”, “2”, or “3”. Close thebattery compartment cover. Make sure that theDX-5DSD is turned on and the disc tray is ejected.Aim the remote control at the player. Press and holdthe “Enter” button for 5 seconds. The player willstart using the new remote code.

39

About

Aspect Ratios

The term “aspect ratio” simply refers to the ratio ofthe picture’s width to its height. Nonetheless thereis some room for confusion, as the original film, thepicture transferred to the disc, and the display itselfeach have their own aspect ratio. Most viewers preferto see the film in its original aspect ratio, whichpreserves the director’s intention for the visualcomposition of the film and is made easy with theAyre DX-5DSD Digital A/V Engine.

Aspect Ratios of Video Displays

Originally video displays were created with a 4:3aspect ratio, mimicking the original aspect ratioused in films. These types of displays are lesscommonly available today, and are often referred toas “standard” displays.

Most modern displays now use a 16:9 aspect ratioand are referred to as “widescreen” displays.Widescreen displays are highly preferred fordisplaying the wide aspect ratio movies that havebeen commonly made for the last 40 years.

40

4:3 Display

16:9 Display

The aspect ratios of video displays are usually givenas a ratio of integers. However as noted below, theaspect ratios of films are usually normalized to one.To make comparisons between video displays andfilms easier, the ratios for displays can also benormalized to one. Hence 16:9 becomes 1.78:1 and4:3 becomes 1.33:1.

Aspect Ratios of Films

Nearly all films made from the 1920s through theearly 1950s used an aspect ratio of 1.37:1. Tocompete against the threat of television, moviestudios began adding features such as color and awider (larger) picture.

Now nearly all films are made in a widescreenformat. The most commonly used aspect ratiostoday are 1.85:1 and 2.35:1. This wider pictureallows for more dramatic and creative visualcompositions.

Matching Film to Display

When the aspect ratio of the film closely matchesthe aspect ratio of the display, the film can easily beviewed as the director intended. This happens whenwatching a 1.37:1 film on a 1.33:1 standard videodisplay or when watching a 1.85:1 film on a 1.78:1widescreen video display, as there is only anegligible mismatch. But when there is a significantmismatch, some action must be taken to allow thefilm to be viewed without distortion.

41

Widescreen Displays

Let’s start with a widescreen movie shot in 1.85:1and viewed on a 1.78:1 widescreen video display. Inthis case virtually the entire image can be seen withno adjustments required. The film is presented inthe same way as in a movie theater.

If we want to now watch a standard movie shot in1.37:1, With the DX-5DSD TV Aspect Ratio menuset to 16:9 Wide we run into a problem. Thenarrower picture automatically fills up the screen,stretching and distorting the image.

This is clearly unacceptable, so instead select 16:9Wide/Auto in the TV Aspect Ratio On-ScreenSetup Menu. The DX-5DSD adds black vertical barson each side of the picture. These correspond to themovable curtains used to block part of the screen ina movie theater and restores the correct geometry.

Standard Displays

When watching a standard (1.37:1) film on astandard (1.33:1) display, we can see virtually thefull image without adjustments. Again, the film ispresented in the same way as it would be in a movietheater.

However if we watch a widescreen (1.85:1) film, wehave a new problem. The picture will be distorted asthe wide image is squeezed to fit the standarddisplay.

42

Again, this distorted image is unacceptable. A fewhigh-quality standard video displays will allow forthe vertical size of the picture to be decreased,restoring the proper image geometry. But sincenearly all standard displays lack any type of aspectratio control, this capability is instead built into allvideo disc players.

By selecting 4:3 Letterbox for the TV Aspect Ratiosetting in the On-Screen Setup Menu (see page 68),when a widescreen disc is played the player willautomatically squeeze the image vertically to restorethe correct geometry while adding black bars at thetop and bottom.

Additional Factors

So far everything has been relativelystraightforward. However, there are a few more casesto consider that introduce some complexity to thesituation.

Very Wide Films

Many films are made with aspect ratios even widerthan 1.85:1, such as 2.35:1. Even on a widescreen(1.78:1) video display these films would be distortedif they were simply allowed to fill the screen.Instead thin black bars are added to the top andbottom of the image on the disc itself when thetransfer from film to video is made.

On a widescreen display these thin black bars areperfectly normal and there is no distortion of the

43

image. On a standard display, additional black barswill be added by the video disc player (or much lesscommonly by the display itself). The end result willbe thick black bars at the top and bottom of thescreen. Again this is perfectly normal.

Pan and Scan Discs

Sometimes when a widescreen film is transferred tovideo disc, only the center portion is scanned. Thisprocess is called “pan and scan” and changes theaspect ratio to 1.33:1, allowing for viewing onstandard displays without the use of black bars.However this not only changes the film director’soriginal visual composition, but can even lead tocritical elements being left out of the pictureentirely.

These discs are often euphemistically called“fullscreen”. Most film enthusiasts prefer to watchthe film’s original aspect ratio and therefore avoidthese discs. As far as compatibility with eitherwidescreen or standard displays, pan and scan discswill work in the same way as standard 1.37:1 films.

Letterboxed Discs

Since all DVD players can convert a widescreen discto display properly on a standard video display,there is no technical reason to make a “letterboxed”disc. However in the very early days of DVD, moviestudios were selling to a much smaller audience ofDVD player owners. Instead of making a newtransfer to DVD in widescreen format, to save

44

money they would use an existing transfer that hadbeen made for the laser disc format. Since laser dischad no provision for widescreen films, thesetransfers were done in “letterboxed” format, wherethe black bars at the top and bottom of the imagewere added to the disc itself during the transferprocess.

These letterboxed discs will display properly on astandard display. However, on a widescreen displayyou will not only see black bars at the top andbottom of the image from the letterboxing processon the disc itself, but the display will add additionalblack bars at the sides of the image to maintain thecorrect picture geometry. The final result is a verysmall picture centered on your screen.

Most widescreen displays and the Ayre DX-5DSD

have a “zoom” mode (see page 55) that will expandthe image in all four directions to fill the screen.However, the picture resolution suffers as many ofthe available pixels on the disc have been discarded.Fortunately as the market for video discs havegrown, these types of discs are now rarely seen.

45

Advanced

Features

The remote handset for the Ayre DX-5DSD DigitalA/V Engine includes many features that may beused only occasionally or even rarely. The buttonsand their actions are described in this chapter.

Pure Audio

You can achieve higher quality audio by turning offthe video processing and output. The Pure Audiomode reduces any potential interference between thevideo and audio signals.

Since the main HDMI outputcarries audio together with

video, the HDMI video signalcannot be completely turned

off. A black screen istransmitted instead.

Press the “Pure Audio” button on the remotecontrol to turn off video and enter Pure Audiomode. In addition the front-panel display will beturned off. The status LED will glow green toindicate that the unit is in Pure Audio mode. Pressthe “Pure Audio” button again to cancel Pure Audiomode.

Pure Audio mode is automatically canceled whenthe unit is switched off or when playback isstopped.

46

Mute

Press the “Mute” button on the remote controlduring playback to turn off audio output. The TVscreen displays a mute icon. The front panel MUTEindicator will also light up. Press the “Mute” buttonagain to resume audio output.

Volume

The volume control function on the remote controlsends commands via the AyreLink to a linkedpreamplifier or integrated amplifier.

LFE Mixdown

“LFE” is short for “Low-Frequency Effects”. It is aseparate channel on a multi-channel disc, dedicatedfor sound effects such as explosions in movies. In asurround-sound system this channel is typicallydirected to a dedicated sub-woofer.

When playing a multi-channel disc the two-channelAnalog Audio Outputs contains a downmix of allchannels except for the LFE channel. This is becausethe LFE channel uses a different reference level andcannot be readily mixed in with the other channels.Normally this doesn’t pose a problem, as the onlything missing is an occasional sound effect.Unfortunately a handful of discs have been authoredincorrectly, and all low-frequency information fromall of the channels has been routed to the LFEchannel. Since the LFE channel is not part of thedownmix, the sound will be “thin” or “lean”.

47

To address this problem, the Ayre DX-5DSD offers amode whereby the LFE channel is mixed in with themain channels for playback through the AnalogAudio Outputs. Simply press the “Setup” button onthe remote control handset, and then the numbers“7 - 1 - 2 - 0” (for 7.1 channels to 2.0 channels).The LED indicator on the front panel will glow redto show the “LFE Mixdown” mode is active. To exitthe “LFE Mixdown” mode, press the “Setup” buttonfollowed by “0 - 0 - 0 - 0”.

To achieve the mixing of digital signalsof different levels, the output level isreduced by 6 dB. This requires anincrease of the system’s volume. Donot forget to reduce the volume beforeexiting the “LFE Mixdown” mode.

The “LFE Mixdown” mode is only for thosemulti-channel discs that have been improperlyauthored. Do not use it for two channel discs.

Viewing DVD-A Pictures

Some DVD-Audio discs contain static pictures, suchas photos of the band or song lyrics. When aDVD-Audio track is playing, you may use the “PageUp” button to select the previous picture or the“Page Down” button to select the next picture.

Display

During the playback of a DVD or Blu-ray disc, pressthe “Display” button on the remote control to show

48

status information. For CD and SACD, the statusinformation is shown automatically.

While the status information is shown, press the“Page Up/Down” buttons to scroll through severaldisplay formats. The playback time informationdisplayed on the front panel changes together withthe on-screen display.

Press the “Display” button again to hide theon-screen display. The playback time informationdisplay on the front panel will remain in theselected format. The following display formats areavailable:

DVD and Blu-ray

CD and SACD

In addition to the playback time, the on-screendisplay may also contain the following information:

• Playback status: an icon indicating play, pause,and fast forward/reverse status.

• Bit rate meter: an indication of the bit rate ofthe audio and video stream.

• Current and total title numbers. (video discs)

49

- Chapter remaining time

Title elapsed time

- Title remaining time

Chapter elapsed time

- Disc remaining time

Track elapsed time

- Track remaining time

Disc elapsed time

• Current and total title chapters. (video discs)

• Current and total tracks. (CD and SACD)

• Audio information: current and availablenumber of audio tracks including language,format, and channels.

• Subtitle information: current and availablenumber of subtitle tracks and language.

• Video format information: encoding type, framerate and original aspect ratio.

Memory Resume

The player automatically remembers the currentposition when playback is interrupted. Operationssuch as “Open” or turning “Power” off will cause theplayer to save the current playing position. Theposition is memorized even after changing the disc.

When the next time the disc with a memorizedplaying position is played back, the player willrecognize the saved playing position. Playback willautomatically resume from this saved position.However if you wish to cancel the automatic resumeand start playback from the beginning, you maypress the “Stop” button when prompted.

The player can remember playback position forup to five discs. When the sixth disc ismemorized, the oldest one is replaced.

50

Return Function

When you are using on-screen menus with a DVD,the “Return” function allows you to go back onemenu level. The “Return” function also performsthe same function when you are in a deeper level ofthe On-Screen Setup Menu.

A-B Replay

To repeatedly play a specified section, please followthese steps:

• During normal playback, press the “AB Replay”button at the desired beginning point (Point A)for the repeat play. The TV screen displays “A-”.

• When playback reaches the desired endingpoint (Point B) for the repeat play, press the“AB Replay” button again. The player nowrepeatedly plays back the specified section(A-B). The TV screen displays “A-B”.

• Press the “AB Replay” button for the third timeto resume normal playback.

Go-To

You may quickly find a specific location on the discby using the “Go-To” function. The first pressbrings up the on-screen display, shown here forvideo discs:

Pressing the “Go-To” button on the remote control

51

scrolls through the choices of searching by time,chapter (track for audio discs), title (video discsonly), or display.

Select the desired location using the NumberButtons or Cursor (Arrow) Buttons, and then press“Enter”.

For video discs, when the cursor is positioned onthe Time Counter, you can use the “Page Up”and “Page Down” buttons to toggle between TitleTime or Chapter Time. The icon to the left of theTime Counter will change from “T” for Title Timeto “C” for Chapter Time.

Frame-by-Frame

While a DVD or Blu-ray disc is paused, press the“Prev” or “Next” button to reverse or advance thevideo frame-by-frame. Press the “Play” button toresume normal playback.

Slow Playback

While a DVD or Blu-ray disc is paused, press the“Rev” or “Fwd” button to play the video in slowmotion.

Each press of the “Rev” button switches theplayback speed in the following sequence:

52

Each press of the “Fwd” button switches theplayback speed in the following sequence:

Press the “Play” button to resume normal playback.

Angle

When playing a DVD or Blu-ray disc, an anglemark will be displayed on the screen when theplayer detects scenes recorded with multiple angles:

The angle mark is also illuminated on the frontpanel display.

Press the “Angle” button on the remote control toselect the desired playing angle. To resume normalplayback, repeat pressing the “Angle” button untilthe default angle is displayed.

With the exception of adult entertainment titlesand a few music videos, almost no video discs usemultiple angles.

Secondary Audio and Video

Certain Blu-ray discs contain secondary video(Picture-in-Picture, or PIP) and secondary audio.This feature is often called BonusView. When sucha disc is played, a Picture-in-Picture mark (PIPmark) and a Secondary Audio Program mark (SAPmark) may be displayed on the screen to signify theavailability of the secondary audio/video content.

53

The PIP and SAP marks can be turned off usingthe On-Screen Setup Menu of the player.

The disc menu usually features interactive controlsto turn on/off the Picture-in-Picture video andSecondary Audio Program. Please use those controlsto select the desired secondary audio/video content.

There is a “PIP” button on the remote control. If thedisc menu does not offer interactivePicture-in-Picture controls, please use this button toturn on/off Picture-in-Picture or select frommultiple secondary video programs.

There is also an “SAP” button on the remotecontrol. If the disc menu does not offer interactivesecondary audio controls, please use this button toturn on/off Secondary Audio Program or select frommultiple secondary audio tracks. Secondary AudioPrograms are generally only available whenPicture-in-Picture is shown.

Discs may not respond to the “PIP” and “SAP”buttons. Certain discs can override the remotecontrol commands.

Dimmer

The front panel display of the DX-5DSD has twobrightness settings, plus an “Off” position. Pressingthe “Dimmer” button will scroll through the threechoices. The status LED near the display glows bluewhen the display is turned off.

54

When the display is off, pressing any button willilluminate the display for a few seconds. If the discis playing when the display is off, pressing “Play”will illuminate the display without affectingplayback.

Power

In addition to the red “Power” button that togglesthe power state of the DX-5DSD, there are alsodiscrete power buttons. These will not be used innormal use, as the user can see the state of the unitat a glance. However, they may be useful with anaftermarket programmable remote control that cancreate sequences of commands.

P/N

The “P/N” button provides a shortcut for changingthe “TV System” from PAL to NTSC toMulti-system. Normally this setting only needs tobe changed if the display is replaced. To preventaccidental activation, the button must be held forfive seconds with no disc playing. For moreinformation, please refer to “TV System” on page69.

Resolution

The “Resolution” button provides a shortcut forchanging the “Output Resolution”. Normally thissetting only needs to be changed when the display isreplaced. For more information, please refer to“Output Resolution” on page 70.

55

Zoom

The “Zoom” button zooms in or out of the displayedframe and also changes the aspect ratio (imagewidth vs. Height). To change the zoom level, pressthe “Zoom” button on the remote control. Eachpress of the “Zoom” button will switch the zoomlevel in the following sequence:

• 1:1 (No zooming.)The zoom level is reset to 1:1 when the disc isejected, or when the player is turned off.

• Stretch – This zoom mode stretches and distortsthe image. It is not recommended except in onespecific situation.

When playing a widescreen (16:9) disc and theplayer is set to 16:9 Wide/Auto, the image isvertically stretched by 1.33 times. For movieswith 2.35:1 aspect ratio, this zoom level cuts offthe black borders at the top and bottom of theimage. This mode is only for users of projectorswith an anamorphic lens.

• Full Screen – This zoom mode stretches theimage in both the horizontal and verticaldimensions, thereby cutting off part of theoriginal picture. It is not recommended exceptin one specific situation.

Some early DVD titles (released from 1997until early 2000’s) use a 4:3 non-anamorphicwidescreen aspect ratio (“letterbox” format).When the player is set to 16:9 Wide/Auto, thecontent is shown in a small window with black

56

borders on all four sides. The top and bottomborders are encoded into the video. The left andright borders are added by the player tomaintain the correct aspect ratio. For this typeof discs the “Full Screen” zoom mode can beused to eliminate the borders.

• Under Scan – The “Under Scan” zoom levelshrinks the image by 5%. This zoom level maybe used to compensate for displays that overscan (typically direct-view CRTs and CRT rearprojectors), so the viewer can see the entireimage area with no cropping.

• 1.2, 1.3, 1.5, 2.0, ½ – These zoom levels areindicated by their respective zoom ratio. Thereis little practical use for these zoom levels.

• Return to 1:1

Source

The “Source” button duplicates the function of the“Home” button and brings up the “Home Menu”for playback of media files. For more information,please refer to “Media File Playback” on page 29.

57

On-Screen

Setup Menu

The Ayre DX-5DSD has an On-Screen Setup Menuthat allows you to adjust a variety of system settingsto ensure compatibility with your system. The basicmenu items have normally already been set up withthe Video Setup (see page 13). Following isinformation regarding the more detailed items foradvanced users.

To access the On-Screen Setup Menu, press the“Setup” button located above the “Red” button onthe remote control.

Use the cursor buttons on the remote control tonavigate the On-Screen Setup Menu. Once you havemade the desired changes, press the “Setup” buttonagain to exit the On-Screen Setup Menu.

If a disc is playing, some of the On-Screen SetupMenu choices will be unavailable and greyed-out.In this case, stop the disc before entering the“Setup” mode.

58

Navigating the On-Screen Setup Menu

After entering the On-Screen Setup Menu, you willsee that there are six main categories at the left,along with the “Exit” choice. As you use the “Up”and “Down” arrow buttons to navigate these SetupMenu choices, you will see various Menu Itemsappear for each choice.

If there are more Menu Items than will fit on thescreen, triangular arrow “Scroll” icons will bedisplayed at the top or bottom of the Setup Menuscreen, indicating that additional choices exist.

Use the arrows buttons to select a Menu Item, andyou will then see the options available for thatchoice. The currently active choice has a colored dotnext to it, while the possible choice will behighlighted with the cursor. To change the option,highlight the desired choice and press the “Enter”button.

59

Press the “Setup” button again to exit theOn-Screen Setup Menu or select “Exit” from theSetup Menu options. The settings are permanentlychanged when the player is turned off.

Playback Setup

The “Playback Setup” section is designed toconfigure playback preferences for various content.

SACD Priority

Select which audio area to play for SACD. Virtuallyall multi-channel SACDs also have a stereo area.Many, but not all, SACDs also have a second layerwith standard CD data. The options are:

• Multi-Channel – Play the multi-channel audiolayer. Select this option if you have asurround-sound system connected via theHDMI link.

60

• Stereo (default) – Play the two-channel audiolayer. Select this option if you have atwo-channel audio system (normally connectedvia the analog audio outputs).

• CD Mode – Play the CD layer of a hybridSACD disc. The only reason to select this optionis if you have a two-channel audio system andyou are playing one of a handful of discs thatdoesn’t have a stereo SACD layer.

The “Audio” button on the remote controlprovides a shortcut that can toggle between themulti-channel and stereo areas of an SACD, but itcannot toggle between the SACD and CD layersof a hybrid disc.

DVD-Audio Mode

Select which portion of a DVD-Audio disc to play.The options are:

• DVD-Audio (default) – Play the DVD-Audioportion of the disc with high-resolution audio.Select this option if you are using either theanalog audio outputs or the HDMI outputconnected to a surround-sound processor withcapability to accept high-resolution digitalaudio data streams.

• DVD-Video – Play the DVD-Video portion ofthe disc with Dolby Digital or DTS audio.Select this option if you have an oldersurround-sound processor that won’t accepthigh sample rates.

61

Auto Play Mode

Select whether the player shall start playing anaudio CD or SACD automatically.

• On – These discs will start playing uponinsertion into the player. This allows audio discsto mimic the behavior of video discs.

• Off (default) – The player will wait for the userto start playback by pressing the “Play” button.This allows audio discs to behave as theynormally would in an audio-only player.

PBC

Enable/disable Play Back Control. PBC is a discmenu used on VCDs (Video CDs). Few users willever make use of this option. The selections are:

• On (default) – If the disc contains Play BackControl, show the menu.

• Off – Play back the content by sequence.

Parental Control

Parental control ratings prevent minors fromwatching inappropriate content. This functiondepends on the disc being properly encoded.

To adjust the parental control settings, you mustenter the current parental control password. If youhave not set a parental control password yet, thedefault password is “0000”.

62

• BD Ratings - Press the “Up” and “Down”buttons to select the rating. “Off” means alldiscs are allowed. Numbers 1 to 21 correspondto the age limit. Any rating above the selectedage will be blocked.

• DVD Ratings - Press the “Up” and “Down”buttons to select the rating. The availableratings are Kid, G, PG, PG-13, PGR, R, NC17,Adult, and Off. The selected rating and beloware allowed. “Off” means all discs are allowed.

• Area Code – Some Blu-ray discs have differentparental control ratings for differentgeographical areas. At this time the player onlysupports the ratings used in the United States.

• Change Password – To change the parentalcontrol password, enter a 4-digit number as thenew password. Enter it again to confirm.

Language

Allows you to configure language preferences.:

• Player Language – To choose the language forthe On-Screen Setup Menu and on-screendisplay. At this time only English is available.

• Disc Menu Language – To choose the preferredlanguage for video disc menus. If a disc menu ofthe selected language is available, that menuwill be shown instead of the default disc menu.

• Audio Language – To choose the preferred audiolanguage for video discs. If the selectedlanguage is available, it will be played back.

63

• Subtitle Language – To choose the preferredsubtitle language for DVD. If a subtitle of theselected language is available, it will bedisplayed. When “Auto” is selected, the subtitledisplay is decided by the disc.

The most common language choices (English,French, Spanish, Chinese) are available directly fromthe on-screen menu. Many other language choicesare also available by selecting “Other” and enteringthe four-digit language code. A list of availablelanguages can be found at the end of this chapter.

Video Setup

The “Video Setup” section of the On-Screen SetupMenu system allows you to configure the videooutput options.

64

Picture Adjustment

The DX-5DSD contains a powerful video processingengine. Its output parameters can be adjusted byaccessing the “Picture Adjustment” menu.However, in general these adjustments should beavoided. Any processing runs the risk of reducingthe signal quality.

• Brightness: Adjusts the brightness (black level)of the video output.

• Contrast: Adjusts the contrast (white level) ofthe video output.

Brightness and contrast must be properly adjustedto achieve the best picture from your display.However the adjustments should be made fromthe display, preferably with the aid of a videosetup (test) disc. Only adjust the brightness andcontrast of your source components if they aremiscalibrated, which is not possible with thepurely digital signal path used in the Ayre DX-5DSD.

• Hue: Adjusts the hue (tint) of the analog videooutput only.

As this control applies only to the compositeoutput used for troubleshooting measures, it issafe to ignore this control altogether.

• Saturation: Adjusts the saturation (colorintensity level) of the video output.

This control is unnecessary when the video discprovides a high-quality signal. Its use should belimited to attempts to improve low-quality discs.

65

• Detail Enhancement (Sharpness): Adjusts thesharpness of video output. Detail enhancementlevel can be set between -16 and +16. Thedefault is level 0, which turns off detailenhancement.

This control is unnecessary when the video discprovides a high-quality signal. Its use should belimited to attempts to improve low-quality discs.

• Edge Enhancement: Adjusts the sharpness ofobject edges in the video. Edge enhancementlevel can be set between -16 and +16. Thedefault is level 0. Level 0 turns off edgeenhancement.

This control is unnecessary when the video discprovides a high-quality signal. Its use should belimited to attempts to improve low-quality discs.

• Noise Reduction: Adjusts the video noisereduction processing. Noise reduction levels canbe set between 0 and 8. The default is level 0,which turns off noise reduction.

This control is unnecessary when the video discprovides a high-quality signal. Its use should belimited to attempts to improve low-quality discs.

• YC Delay: Adjusts the time difference betweenthe Luminance (Y) and Chrominance (Cr)channels of the video signal. The YC delaysetting applies to the HDMI output only.

This control is unnecessary when the video discprovides a high-quality signal. Its use should belimited to attempts to improve low-quality discs.

66

• Border Level: Sets the brightness level of theborder area when borders are inserted by theplayer to maintain correct aspect ratio. Thedefault level is 0, which corresponds to totalblack. If you set it to a positive level, the barsgradually become lighter grey instead of black.

This setting may be useful for users with plasmaor CRT TVs that are sensitive to “burn-in”. Agrey border setting allows the phosphor in thebar area to be moderately used, matching theactive portion of the screen and can alleviate theburn-in problem.

The Border Level setting only applies to theHDMI output, and only affects borders insertedby the player. If the borders are encoded in theoriginal video, the border brightness level will notbe affected by this setting.

Primary Output

Selects the primary video output port. The optionsare:

• HDMI (default) – Use HDMI as the primaryvideo output port. This setting will ensure thatthe display receives a purely digital signal forthe best possible picture quality.

The Anchor Bay Technology VRS video processorwill be used unless “Source Direct” outputresolution is selected, in which case VRS videoprocessing is bypassed.

• Component – The component analog videooutputs have been removed from the AyreDX-5DSD.

67

Selecting this setting will result in onlya low-quality signal at the compositevideo output. Do not use this setting.

TV Aspect Ratio

Sets the aspect ratio of the player’s output image.The options are:

• 4:3 Letterbox – Choose this when the display isstandard 4:3. A widescreen image is displayedin “letterbox” format with black borders on topand bottom.

• 4:3 Pan & Scan – Choose this when the displayis standard 4:3. A widescreen image will bestretched vertically, filling the screen butdistorting the image.

• 16:9 Wide – Choose this when the display iswidescreen 16:9. 16:9 materials will bedisplayed in its native aspect ratio, and 4:3materials will be stretched horizontally, fillingthe screen but distorting the image.

• 16:9 Wide/Auto (default) – Choose this whenthe display is widescreen 16:9. 16:9 materialswill be displayed in its native aspect ratio, and4:3 materials will be displayed with blackborders on both sides in order to maintain theoriginal 4:3 aspect ratio.

Only two choices will preserve the original imagewithout distortion – 4:3 Letterbox for older“standard” displays and 16:9 Wide/Auto fornewer “widescreen” displays. These are the onlyrecommended selections.

68

TV System

You also may wish to play video discs from othercountries. In this situation you must considerwhether the video standards match between the discand your video display. There are two commonlyused video standards, NTSC and PAL. NTSC is usedin North America and Japan, while PAL is used inEurope, Asia (except Japan), Australia, SouthAmerica, and Africa. Select the output videostandard to match your display. The options are:

• Multi-system (default) – No system conversionis performed. The output video system is thesame as that encoded on the disc. Requires a TVthat supports both NTSC and PAL systems.Blu-ray discs encoded with 24Hz frame rate areconverted to 60Hz frame rate if neither1080p24 Output nor Source Direct outputresolution is enabled.

• NTSC – When playing NTSC-encoded discs, nosystem conversion is performed. PAL-encodedcontent is converted to NTSC output. Blu-raydiscs encoded with 24Hz frame rate areconverted to 60Hz frame rate if neither1080p24 Output nor Source Direct outputresolution is enabled.

• PAL – When playing PAL-encoded discs, nosystem conversion is performed. NTSC encodedcontent is converted to PAL output. Blu-raydiscs encoded with 24Hz frame rate areconverted to 50Hz frame rate if neither1080p24 Output nor Source Direct outputresolution is enabled.

69

If your display is compatible with both videostandards, select “Multi-system”. Then when playingan NTSC disc the player will output an NTSCsignal, and when playing a PAL disc the player willoutput a PAL signal. This ability to display the“native” format of the source material provides thevery highest picture quality.

However, many video displays will only accept onetype of signal and not the other. In this case theDX-5DSD is capable of transcoding from one videoformat to the other. You may select either “NTSC”or “PAL” from the On-Screen Setup Menu and allsource material will be presented in the formatrequired by your display device. The conversion isperformed at the highest level of quality possible bythe Anchor Bay VRS digital video engine.

Output Resolution

The Ayre DX-5DSD offers several video outputresolutions. To achieve the best visual result, it isimportant to select the output resolution that bestmatches the “native resolution” of your displaydevice.

For the latest generation of 1080p, “Full HD” or“True HD” displays, the best output resolution willbe 1080p. (A few early model 1080p displays donot accept 1080p signal. For these displays the bestoutput resolution to use is 1080i.) For all otherdigital televisions this will likely be 720p. For CRTtube or rear projection televisions this will likely be1080i. These are general recommendations thatwork for most users, but there can be exceptions.

70

There is also an “Auto” mode that depends onthe display communicating properly with theDX-5DSD. It should usually provide good results butin some cases there may be incompatibilities.

The DX-5DSD also supports a special Source Directoutput resolution. This resolution is onlyrecommended for use with high-performanceexternal video processors. In Source Direct mode,the player works as a “transport”. It decodes videofrom the discs and then sends the raw video signalin its native resolution and format, without extraprocessing, to the external video processor.

Very few external video processors can match theperformance of the Anchor Bay VRS videoprocessing engine in the Ayre DX-5DSD. “SourceDirect” is recommended only for use withexternal processors of the very highest quality.

1080p24 Output

Sets the 1080p 24Hz output options. This optiononly applies to the HDMI output at 1080presolution. If the TV properly supports 1080p24Hz, smoother motion can be achieved byenabling 1080p24 output for such discs.

Many Blu-ray discs that originated from theatricalmovies are encoded using 24Hz frame rate, the samenumber of frames per second as the originaltheatrical film. In a theater, each frame is flashedtwice to achieve a frame rate of 48Hz.

This relatively low frame rate works well in acompletely darkened theater where the projector can

71

display the entire frame simultaneously and with asmall fraction of “dead time”. However a homevideo display operates under different conditionsand normally uses a refresh rate of 60Hz in NTSCcountries (North America and Japan) to providesmooth motion.

Since 60Hz is not an even multiple of the 24Hz rateused in theatrical movies, the frame rate must bemultiplied by 2.5. This is achieved by displayingone frame twice and the next frame three times, aprocess called “2:3 pulldown”.

This uneven display of the original frames can causea slight jerkiness to motion displayed in the movie,called “judder”. To provide smoother rendition ofmotion, some displays can operate at an evenmultiple of 24Hz, for example 72Hz. If fed theoriginal 24Hz signal, they simply show each framethree times in succession.

The available options are:

• Auto – Video encoded in 24Hz frame rate willbe output as 1080p 24Hz if the TV informs theplayer that it can support the 1080p24 signal.

• On – Video encoded in 24Hz frame rate will beoutput as 1080p 24Hz without regard towhether the TV can support the 1080p24 signalor not. Please note that if the TV cannotsupport 1080p24, selecting this option willresult in no video.

• Off (default) – Video encoded in 24Hz framerate will be converted to 60Hz (“TV System” setto NTSC) or 50Hz (“TV System” set to PAL).

72

DVD 24p Conversion

Sets 24Hz frame rate conversion for DVD. Thisoption only applies to the HDMI output and isavailable only when “1080p24 Output” is enabled(set to Auto or On).

Many DVDs that originated from theatrical moviesare encoded using a method called “2:3 telecine” toconvert the 24 frames per second film to 60Hz videosignal. The Ayre DX-5DSD can convert the 60Hzvideo signal back to 24 frames per second andoutput as 1080p 24Hz.

Smoother motion can be achieved by enabling thisoption, provided that both the display can operate atan even multiple of 24Hz and the disc was sourcedfrom a theatrical release using “2:3 telecine”. Theavailable options are:

• On – Convert DVD to 24Hz frame rate whenpossible.

• Off (default) – Do not convert DVD to 24Hzframe rate.

The result of DVD 24p Conversion dependsheavily on the quality of the content. If the videoencoded on the DVD contains incorrect 2:3cadence, cadence breaks caused by edits, orheavy compression noise that can affect cadencedetection, the result may have motion judder orframe tearing. Should this happen, you shouldturn off DVD 24p Conversion and watch theDVD in its original frame rate.

73

HDMI Options

Configures video options for the HDMI output.There is a sub-menu with the following settings:

• De-interlacing Mode – Selects the deinterlacingalgorithm that the player should use to convertinterlaced video on a disc to progressive output.The proper mode will ensure the output video isfree of artifacts. The available options are:

• Auto (default) – Source adaptive deinterlacing ison. This is the recommended setting as the playerwill optimally process a variety of signals.

• Film Bias Mode – The Film Bias Mode mayimprove film mode detection in some cases.

• Video Mode – Turn off film mode detection andtreat all content as video origin. Use this setting ifyou are certain the disc is made from footageoriginally shot with a video camera, and not witha film camera.

• 2:2 Even - This mode should be used when youknow that the source is high-quality 2:2 pulldown(i.e., film-based content from a country with a50Hz video standard). This mode weaves twoadjacent fields together starting with an even fieldand combining it with the following odd field. Thismay provide a higher quality overall signal thanthe ‘Auto’ or ‘Film Bias Mode’ settings, providingthat the source really is a 2:2 pull-down and doesnot have bad edits.

• 2:2 Odd - This mode is very similar to “2:2 Even”except that this weaves two adjacent fieldstogether starting with an odd field and combiningit with the following even field. Only one of the2:2 de-interlacing settings is correct for any given

74

source and the correct mode can be chosen bysimply trying both of them and selecting the onewhich does not result in combing artifacts.

The “Auto” setting is highly recommended. Thevideo processing engine designed by Anchor BayTechnology has enough “intelligence” to selectthe best deinterlacing mode automatically.

• CUE Correction – Selects whether the playershould apply filtering to remove ChromaUpsampling Errors (CUE) and the InterlacedChroma Problem (ICP). CUE is caused byimproper decoding and deinterlacing of MPEGvideo. The Ayre DX-5DSD is completely free ofthe CUE problem. ICP is an inherent byproductof the encoding process for interlaced video, soyou may encounter it on some video discs. TheCUE Correction function can detect and filterout the errors. The available options are:

• Auto (default) – Automatic chroma errordetection and correction. Use this setting for allnormal circumstances.

• On – Chroma filtering is always on. Use thissetting if the disc is known to have chroma errors.

• Off – No chroma filtering is applied. Use thissetting if the disc is known not have chromaerrors.

The “Auto” setting is highly recommended. Thevideo processing engine designed by Anchor BayTechnology has enough “intelligence” to selectthe best chroma correction mode automatically.

• Color Space – Selects the color space for theHDMI output. The available options are:

75

• Auto (default) – The player communicates withthe display to automatically determine what colorspace to use. If the display device supports YCbCr4:4:4, then it will be used to avoid additional colorspace conversions.

• RGB Video Level – The HDMI output uses RGBcolor space and normal signal range suitable forvideo displays.

• RGB PC Level – The HDMI output uses RGBcolor space and expands the signal range forpersonal computer (PC) displays. Some TVs aredesigned to be used as a PC monitor, and expectsignal in expanded RGB range when the DVI inputis selected. For these displays if the video signaluses the normal RGB range, the contrast will bereduced. You can select the RGB PC Level outputand restore proper contrast.

• YCbCr 4:4:4 – The HDMI output uses YCbCr4:4:4 color space.

• YCbCr 4:2:2 – The HDMI output uses YCbCr4:2:2 color space. Generally this is the color spacethat is closest to the color space encoded on thediscs. (All discs are encoded in YCbCr 4:2:0 colorspace, and the video decoder in the playerextrapolates it to YCbCr 4:2:2.)

• HDMI Deep Color – Deep Color is an optionfor some newer displays. Normally, each pixel ofthe video image is transmitted using 24-bitdata (8-bit per color channel). If Deep Color issupported, each pixel of the video image can betransmitted using 30-bit (10-bit per colorchannel) or 36-bit (12-bit per color channel)data. The increased bit depth should result insmoother color transitions and better gradients,but only under specific circumstances. If thedisplay does not support 36-bit deep color,

76

dithering 36-bit to 30-bit or 24-bit mayproduce an image that is visually smoother thanrounding 36-bit to 30- or 24-bit. The availableoptions are:

• 36 Bits – Use 36-bit per pixel Deep Color.

• 30 Bits (Dithered) – Use 30-bit per pixel DeepColor with dithering applied.

• 30 Bits – Use 30-bit per pixel Deep Color.

• Off (Dithered) – Do not use Deep Color butapply dithering to the color signal.

• Off (default) – Do not use Deep Color.

Enabling Deep Color while connected to a displaywithout this feature will result in no effect (orpossibly) no video. At this time, no disc isencoded with Deep Color.

Enabling Deep Color with a compliant display willnot magically make colors richer, but will helppreserve the maximum color precision as a resultof any video processing or picture controladjustment. However, simply leaving the playercontrols at their default will achieve the sameresult.

• Demo Mode

Enables a special split-screen demonstrationmode. This is designed for the demonstration ofthe Anchor Bay VRS video processingtechnology. It can also be used as an aid forsetting picture control adjustments for DetailEnhancement, Edge Enhancement and NoiseReduction. It should not be used for normalmovie watching. The available options are:

77

• On – The video screen will be split in half. The leftside demonstrates the result of the VRS videoprocessing, and the right side shows video withoutthe help VRS video processing.

• Off (default) – Normal viewing mode.

• A/V Sync – Adds a delay to the audio portion ofthe HDMI A/V Output. It is not recommendedto use the audio portion of the HDMI A/VOutput. Improved sound quality is obtained byusing the HDMI Audio Output.

Display Options

Configures video options that affect the format ofthe display. This item contains a sub-menu with thefollowing settings:

• Subtitle Shift – Shifts the subtitles verticallyfrom their original position. The range ofadjustment is from -5 to +5, with 0 being thedefault.

• OSD Position – Shifts the position of theOn-Screen Display (time and track/chapterinformation) vertically. The range of adjustmentis from 0 to +5, with 0 being the default.

• OSD Mode – Selects how long the on-screendisplay information, such as elapsed orremaining time, stays on the TV screen. Theavailable options are:

• Normal (default) – On-screen display informationremains until the user cancels it.

78

• Silent – On-screen display information shows onthe screen for a few seconds and then disappears.The front panel display still maintains the selecteddisplay information.

• Remaining – On-screen display information stayson the screen until the user cancels it. However, itdisplays remaining time instead of elapsed time.

• Angle Mark – Turn on/off the display of anangle mark when a video disc with multipleavailable angles is played. Keeping the anglemark off avoids distraction from normal moviewatching.

• Picture-In-Picture Mark – Turn on/off thedisplay of a Picture-in-Picture (PIP) mark whena Blu-ray disc with secondary video is played.Keeping the PIP mark off avoids distractionfrom normal movie watching.

• Secondary Audio Program Mark – Turn on/offthe display of a Secondary Audio Program markwhen a Blu-ray disc with secondary video andaudio is played. Keeping the SAP mark offavoids distraction from normal movie watching.

• Screen Saver – Turn on/off the screen saverfunction. The screen saver is designed tominimize burn-in concerns for plasma and CRTdisplay devices. The available options are:

• On – After 3 minutes of inactivity, the player willshow a logo moving on a black background. Thisallows most areas of the screen to rest and givesall areas an equal opportunity to refresh. Use thisoption for displays that are susceptible to burn-in(e.g., CRT, plasma, et cetera).

79

• Off – The screen saver will not be activated. Usethis option if your display does not have burn-inissues (e.g., DLP, D-ILA, LCD).

• Energy Saver – Video output will be turned offafter 3 minutes of inactivity. Many projectors andLCD displays will go into a standby or sleep modeand turn off their projection or backlight lamp,thus saving energy and prolonging the lamp life.When you press any button on the DX-5DSD frontpanel or remote control, the screen saver will becanceled and video output will be restored. Ifyour display is in standby or sleep mode, you mayneed to wake up the display by pressing a buttonon its remote or control panel.

Audio Format Setup

The “Audio Format Setup” section allows you toconfigure preferences for audio output formats. Themenu items in this section are:

80

Secondary Audio

Sets the Secondary Audio Program (SAP) mixingoption. Some Blu-ray discs contain a secondaryprogram, such as a director’s commentary or menusounds. This menu item allows you to mix the SAPsounds into the primary audio. The options are:

• On – The Secondary Audio Program and menusounds are mixed into the primary audio. Highresolution primary audio will be converted tonormal resolution in order to mix with thesecondary audio.

• Off (default) – The Secondary Audio Programand menu sounds are turned off. This settingpreserves the highest possible audio quality forthe primary audio.

It is recommended to turn the Secondary Audio“Off”. This provides the highest sound quality forthe main soundtrack.

HDMI Audio

Selects digital audio output format from the HDMIA/V Output. The options are:

• Auto – The audio format will be selectedautomatically, based on communications withthe surround-sound processor.

• LPCM – Digital audio output will be LinearPCM, and compressed audio bit streams will bedecoded by the player.

81

• Bitstream – Digital audio output will be in theformat encoded on the disc.

• Off (default) – No digital audio output via theHDMI A/V Output. This is the recommendedsetting.

The HDMI Audio Output will provide higherperformance than the audio output of the HDMIA/V Output. It is recommended to use the HDMIAudio Output and set the HDMI Audio option to“Off”.

If the HDMI Audio is set to anyselection besides “Off”, when theHDMI A/V Output is connected to anyequipment that cannot accept DSDthen all signals (internal and externaloutputs) will be forced to PCM whenplaying SACD, regardless of the otherplayer settings.

SACD Output

Selects audio output format for SACD. The optionsare:

• PCM – Audio data on SACDs (“DSD”) isconverted into PCM at 88.2 kHz/24 bits. ThePCM data is then output through both HDMIports and also used for the analog audio outputs.

• DSD (default) – “DSD” data from an SACD isoutput over both HDMI ports and also used forthe analog audio outputs without anyconversion.

82

Nearly all systems will achieve higher soundquality with this selection set to “DSD”. The onlytime to select “PCM” is if you wish to listen toSACDs in multi-channel while using asurround-sound processor that is new enough tohave an HDMI input for audio but old enoughthat it does not support DSD.

HDCD Decoding

There are four audio outputs on the Ayre DX-5DSD;the Analog Audio Outputs and the HDMI AudioOutput, which are the main outputs, and the HDMIA/V Output and the Digital Audio Output, whichare secondary outputs only to be used if your systemis not equipped to connect with the main outputs.

When “HDCD Decoding” is set to “On”, the signalfor the main outputs (Analog Audio and HDMIAudio) will be decoded inside the DX-5DSD. Thebehavior of the secondary outputs (HDMI A/V andDigital Audio) depends on the setting for eachrespective output (“HDMI Audio” and“Coaxial/Optical Output”). When set to “LPCM”that output will present a decoded signal, but whenset to “Bitstream” that output will present theundecoded signal that requires HDCD decoding bythe downstream device. When the decoding is “Off”the undecoded data will be sent to all four outputsregardless of any other setting.

It is strongly recommended to set the “HDCDDecoding” to “On”, as this is the only way thatthe Analog Audio Outputs can decode an HDCDdisc properly.

83

Coaxial/Optical Output

Sets the output format for the (AES/EBU) DigitalAudio Output for use with Dolby Digital andDTS-compatible surround-sound processors. Theoptions are:

• LPCM – Creates downmixed two-channeldigital audio output. However, no externalconverter will outperform the one built into theunit that drives the Analog Audio Outputs.

• Bitstream (default) – Passes audio as compressedbitstream format to the receiver/amplifier.Choose this setting if your receiver/amplifier iscapable of decoding Dolby Digital and/or DTS.

Certain audio discs will achieve higher soundquality with this selection set to “Bitstream”. Thisallows pre-emphasized CDs to be equalized withthe high-quality minimum-phase digital filter builtinto the internal Ayre D/A converter andconnected to the Analog Audio Output.You may also use this setting when connecting toa very old surround-sound processor that doesnot accept an HDMI audio connection. There isno reason to ever select “LPCM”.

LPCM Rate Limit

Sets the maximum Linear PCM output frequency forthe AES/EBU Digital Audio Output. Highersample rate material will be down-sampled to staywithin the maximum rate. The player does notup-sample audio to higher sample rates. The optionsare:

84

• 48K – Supported by most equipment.

• 96K – Allows a higher sampling rate for betteraudio quality. Ensure that the receiver/amplifiercan support it.

• 192K (default) – Allows the highest samplingrate for best audio quality. Ensure that thereceiver/amplifier can support it.

This output will only be used with oldersurround-sound processors that lack an HDMIinput. Select the highest sample rate supported byyour processor.

Audio Processing

The “Audio Processing Setup” section of theOn-Screen Setup Menu system allows you toconfigure how the player will process audio signals.

85

Speaker Configuration

“Speaker Configuration” applies only to the HDMIAudio Output and LFE Mixdown mode. The otherdigital outputs and normal operation of the AnalogAudio Outputs are unaffected by these settings.

For proper performance of the HDMIAudio Output and LFE Mixdownmode, it is critical that the settings beadjusted exactly as they werepre-configured at the factory. If theyshould ever be changed, be sure torevert them to their original settings asexplained below.

Enter the “Speaker Configuration” menu. There willbe a picture of a listening room with speakers. Atthe bottom of the yellow floor, the Down Mix Modeis indicated. This should be 7.1Ch.

If it is not 7.1Ch, use the “Right”/“Left” arrowbuttons to highlight the Down mix sign behind thecouch. Press “Enter”, use the “Up”/“Down” arrowbuttons to select 7.1Ch and then press the “Left”arrow button to return to the picture of thelistening room.

Next, select a speaker, press “Enter” and adjust theSize to Large, the Distance to 0 ft, and the Trim to0.0 dB. Select the Next Speaker, and apply thesame settings to all speakers except the Subwoofer.

For the Subwoofer (SW), select the Size as On, theDistance as 0 ft, and the Trim as 5.0 dB.

86

Do not ever change these settings, asthis will adversely affect the soundfrom the HDMI Audio Output or if theLFE Mixdown mode is engaged.

The operation “Reset FactoryDefaults” will automatically changethese settings, requiring you to resetthe “Speaker Configuration” settingsfor proper operation of the HDMIAudio Output and LFE Mixdownmode.

Dynamic Range Control

Sets the audio Dynamic Range Control (DRC).DRC tends to make all sounds play back at a similarloudness. This is useful when listening while othersmay be sleeping, as it prevents the loud sounds fromplaying back at a high level and it becomes easier tohear the dialog during quiet scenes. Otherwise theDRC should be turned off to hear the sonicdynamics present in the original recording. Theavailable options are:

• Auto – Play at the dynamic range specified bythe disc. This option applies to Blu-ray discsonly. For other disc types no dynamic rangecompression is applied.

• On – Turn on dynamic range compression.

• Off (default) – Turn off dynamic rangecompression.

87

Device Setup

The “Device Setup” section of the On-Screen SetupMenu system allows you to configure additionalplayer options related to the hardware and controlfunctions. The menu items in this section are:

Firmware Information

Displays the currently installed firmware version.

Firmware Upgrade

Upgrades the player’s firmware. This operation isonly available when the playback is completelystopped. The firmware is the system software thatcontrols the features and functions of the player. Toensure the best possible viewing experience, theplayer may need a firmware update from time totime. Please visit Ayre’s web site “www.ayre.com”

88

to check for firmware updates and instructions oninstalling the updates. There are three ways toupgrade the player’s firmware. The options are:

• Via USB – You may download the firmwarefiles from Ayre’s web site to a solid-state USB(“thumb”) drive and use the drive to upgradethe player. Please follow the instructions on thefirmware download web page.

• Via Disc – You may request a firmware upgradedisc from Ayre or download a disc image fromAyre’s web site and burn an upgrade disc withyour computer. Please follow the instructionsthat come with the upgrade disc.

• Via Network – If the player has a workinginternet connection, you may upgrade theplayer directly over the internet. Please followthe instructions on your display device screen.

Firmware Notification

Sets whether the player should automatically checkif new firmware versions are available on theinternet server and notify the user about newfirmware. The options are:

• On (default) – Check for new firmware versionautomatically and notify the user. Requires aworking internet connection.

• Off – Do not check for new firmware versionautomatically.

89

Remote Control Code

The Ayre DX-5DSD can respond to one of 4 sets ofremote control codes. The default is “Code 1”. If youhave other products that respond to the DX-5DSD

remote control, you can select a different remotecode to avoid conflicts. The available codes are:

• Code 1 (default) – Remote code set 1. This isthe normal remote code.

• Code 2 – Remote code set 2. Use this code ifyou have other products that conflict with theAyre DX-5DSD.

• Code 3 – Remote code set 3. Use this code ifyou have other products that conflict with theAyre DX-5DSD.

• Alt. Code – Alternative remote code. Thealternative remote control code enables users toprogram universal remote controls that comewith a display or A/V receiver to operate theAyre DX-5DSD player. If the universal remotecontrol has a DVD player control function,program it with the code for Toshiba, Philips,Magnavox, Marantz, or Zenith DVD players.You may need to try several times usingdifferent codes to find a working code.

If you have selected a new remote code, you must setthe remote control handset to use the same code.Please refer to “Remote Code” section on page 39 ofthis manual for details. If you have selected “Alt.Code”, the supplied handset will not operate theplayer, and you must use a universal remote controlwith the properly configured code set.

90

HDMI CEC

Sets the HDMI Consumer Electronics Control(CEC) mode. CEC is an optional HDMI feature thatenables remote control and automatic setup ofconsumer electronics over the HDMI connection.

The remote control function allows you to use asingle remote handset to operate multiple devicesconnected via HDMI. For example, you may use theTV remote to control playback of the Blu-ray discplayer.

The automatic setup function can automaticallyturn on the TV and change to the proper inputwhen you start playing a disc in the Blu-ray discplayer. It can also turn off the player automaticallywhen you turn off the TV.

The implementation and compatibility of thisfeature varies by device manufacturer. Each mayonly implement part of the features or add their ownproprietary functions. The manufacturer-specificimplementation of the HDMI CEC function is oftengiven a proprietary name of “…Link” or “…Sync”.The Ayre DX-5DSD provides three modes for theHDMI CEC function:

• On – HDMI CEC is enabled. Use this mode ifyour other devices are compatible with theplayer.

• Limited – HDMI CEC is enabled but theDX-5DSD will only respond to playback controlcommands. It will not respond or issue poweron/off and input selection commands. Use this

91

mode if you do not want the automatic setupfunction to turn on/off your devices.

• Off (default) – HDMI CEC feature is turned off.The player will not respond to HDMI CECcommands from other devices, nor will it setupother devices automatically.

The HDMI CEC feature only operates with themain HDMI video port. It does not operate withthe separate HDMI Audio Output.

Dimmer Control

Controls the display intensity of the front panelVacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD) informationwindow. In case you feel that the display becomes adistraction to your enjoyment of the video, thisoption allows you to dim it or turn it off. Theavailable options are:

• On (default) - The VFD is at normal brightness.

• Dim - The VFD is at reduced brightness.

• Off – The VFD is turned off. In this mode thedisplay resumes momentarily when there is anyuser operation.

The “Dimmer” button on the remote controlprovides a short-cut to this function. It is mucheasier to change the display brightness directlywith this button.

92

Persistent Storage

Manages the persistent storage for BD-Videocontent. The persistent storage is a data storage areathat holds additional content for BonusView andBD-Live features. The data will be kept even if youturn off the player. The following persistent storagemanagement options are available:

• Storage Device – Selects which storage deviceshould be used as the persistent storage. TheAyre DX-5DSD is equipped with 1GB of internalflash memory. There are two USB ports on theplayer that can accept a USB drive to be used asthe persistent storage. The choices are:

• Internal Flash (default) – Use the internal flashmemory for persistent storage.

• USB Drive – Use a USB drive for persistentstorage. To meet the specification for BD-Live, aUSB drive of 1GB or larger is required.

The power available at the USB portsis limited. It is recommended to use asolid-state “flash” or “thumb” drive. Ifyou use a USB hard disk, be sure touse one with its own external powersupply. The use of a USB hard drivewithout a power supply may damagethe USB ports of the DX-5DSD.

The new storage device choice becomes effectiveonly after the player is restarted. Make sure thatyou turn off the player and then turn it back onafter changing the “Storage Device” option.

93

• Total Space – To display the total space of thepersistent storage.

• Available Space – To display the currentlyavailable space of the persistent storage. If theavailable space becomes too low, some Blu-raydiscs may not play properly.

• Erase BD-Video Data – To erase the BD-Videodata from the persistent storage.

Reset Factory Defaults

Resets all settings to the factory default value. Theremote control code, parental control password, andratings will not be reset. This operation is onlyavailable when the playback is completely stoppedor when there is no disc loaded.

Warning! The factory default settingsare not correct for the Ayre DX-5DSD,particularly the “SpeakerConfiguration” that affects the HDMIAudio Output and LFE Mixdownmode.

If the menu settings are reset to thefactory default, you will need tomanually change many of the settingsto restore proper operation. Pleaserefer to the chapter “On-Screen MenuSettings Checklist”.

94

Network Setup

The “Network Setup” section of the Setup Menusystem allows you to configure the parameters forthe internet connection of the player, test theconnection and restrict BD-Live access. An internetconnection is strictly optional. It allows for easyfirmware updates and also access to additionalmaterial on some newer Blu-ray discs. The menuitems in this section are:

IP Configuration

Determines how the player obtains its IP (InternetProtocol) address. The available options are:

• Auto (DHCP) (default) - The playerautomatically obtains its IP address informationusing DHCP (Dynamic Host ConfigurationProtocol). This is the default setting. In mostcases, automatic IP configuration can be used.

95

• Manual – Manually enter the numeric IPaddress information. Set the IP configurationmanually only when the router has no DHCPserver functions or when the router’s DHCPserver function is disabled. For moreinformation on how to manually configure theinternet connection and what values to use,please consult your router/modem instructionmanuals or call your internet service provider.

IP Address

Displays the Internet Protocol (IP) address of theplayer. When “IP Configuration” is set to “Auto(DHCP)”, the value displayed here is obtained usingDHCP and cannot be changed.

Subnet Mask

Each IP address has an associated subnet mask. It isused by the player to decide whether to routenetwork traffic through the router or directly toanother device on the same network. When “IPConfiguration” is set to “Auto (DHCP)”, the valuedisplayed here is obtained using DHCP and cannotbe changed.

Gateway

Displays the IP address of the router. It is also called“default gateway” or “default router”. When “IPConfiguration” is set to “Auto (DHCP)”, the valuedisplayed here is obtained using DHCP and cannotbe changed.

96

DNS 1

Displays the IP address of the first (primary) DNS(Domain Name System) server. DNS is themechanism to translate human-readable addresses(such as “www.ayre.com”) to numeric IP addresses.When “IP Configuration” is set to “Auto (DHCP)”,the value displayed here is obtained using DHCPand cannot be changed.

DNS 2

Displays the IP address of the second (secondary)DNS server. When “IP Configuration” is set to“Auto (DHCP)”, the value displayed here isobtained using DHCP and cannot be changed.

BD-Live Network Access

Controls BD-Live content access. The availableoptions are:

• On – BD-Live access is permitted.

• Limited – BD-Live access is permitted only forcontent that has a valid content ownercertificate. Internet access is prohibited if theBD-Live content does not have a certificate.This option ensures that you are accessing onlyauthentic content, although it may block youraccess to smaller independent content providers.

• Off (default) – BD-Live access is prohibited.

97

Connection Test

Tests the internet connection. It is recommendedthat you test the connection when you initiallyconnect the player to the internet, or wheneverchanges to “IP Configuration” and other networkparameters are made.

MAC Address

This read-only field displays the MAC (MediaAccess Control) address of the player. Eachnetworked device has a unique MAC address. It isused by network controllers (such as a router or PC)on the same network to provide identification andfacilitate communication.

Language Code List

When selecting language preferences for subtitlesand audio soundtracks, the frequently usedlanguages have names that show in the On-ScreenSetup Menu. Other languages must be entered byusing a numeric code.

Frequently Used Languages

Chinese (zh), 9072English (en), 6978French (fr), 7082Spanish (es), 6983

98

Complete Language List

Abkhazian (ab), 6566Afar (aa), 6565Afrikaans (af), 6570Albanian (sq), 8381Amharic (am), 6577Arabic (ar), 6582Armenian (hy), 7289Assamese (as), 6583Aymara (ay), 6588Azerbaijani (az), 6590Bashkir (ba), 6665Basque (eu), 6985Bengali (bn), 6678Bhutani (dz), 6890Bihari (bh), 6672Breton (br), 6682Bulgarian (bg), 6671Burmese (my), 7789Byelorussian (be), 6669Cambodian (km), 7577Catalan (ca), 6765Chinese (zh), 9072Corsican (co), 6779Croatian (hr), 7282Czech (cs), 6783Danish (da), 6865Dutch (nl), 7876English (en), 6978Esperanto (eo), 6979Estonian (et), 6984Faroese (fo), 7079Fiji (fj), 7074Finnish (fi), 7073French (fr), 7082Frisian (fy), 7089Galician (gl), 7176Georgian (ka), 7565German (de), 6869Greek (el), 6976Greenlandic (kl), 7576

99

Guarani (gn), 7178Gujarati (gu), 7185Hausa (ha), 7265Hindi (hi), 7273Hungarian (hu), 7285Icelandic (is), 7383Indonesian (in), 7378Interlingua (ia), 7365Irish (ga), 7165Italian (it), 7384Hebrew (iw), 7387Japanese (ja), 7465Javanese (jw), 7487Kazakh (kk), 7575Kannada (kn), 7578Kashmiri (ks), 7583Kirghiz (ky), 7589Korean (ko), 7579Kurdish (ku), 7585Laothian (lo), 7679Latin (la), 7665Lingala (ln), 7678Lithuanian (lt), 7684Latvian (lv), 7686Macedonian (mk), 7775Malagasy (mg), 7771Malay (ms), 7783Malayalam (ml), 7776Maltese (mt), 7784Maori (mi), 7773Marathi (mr), 7782Moldavian (mo), 7779Mongolian (mn), 7778Nauru (na), 7865Nepali (ne), 7869Norwegian (no), 7879Oriya (or), 7982Panjabi (pa), 8065Pashto, Pushto (ps), 8083Persian (fa), 7065Polish (pl), 8076Portuguese (pt), 8084Quechua (qu), 8185

100

Rhaeto-Romance (rm), 8277Romanian (ro), 8279Russian (ru), 8285Samoan (sm), 8377Sanskrit (sa), 8365Scots-Gaelic (gd), 7168Serbian (sr), 8382Serbo-Croatian (sh), 8372Shona (sn), 8378Sindhi (sd), 8368Singhalese (si), 8373Slovak (sk), 8375Slovenian (sl), 8376Somali (so), 8379Spanish (es), 6983Sundanese (su), 8385Swahili (sw), 8387Swedish (sv), 8386Tagalog (tl), 8476Tajik (tg), 8471Tamil (ta), 8465Tatar (tt), 8484Telugu (te), 8469Thai (th), 8472Tibetan (bo), 6679Tigrinya (ti), 8473Tonga (to), 8479Turkish (tr), 8482Turkmen (tk), 8475Twi (tw), 8487Ukrainian (uk), 8575Urdu (ur), 8582Uzbek (uz), 8590Vietnamese (vi), 8673Volapük (vo), 8679Welsh (cy), 6789Wolof (wo), 8779Xhosa (xh), 8872Yiddish (ji), 7473Yoruba (yo), 8979Zulu (zu), 9085

101

On-Screen Menu

Settings Checklist

In case the On-Screen Menu settings are accidentallychanged, it is important to return the settings to thecorrect values. There is an On-Screen Menu optionReset Factory Defaults, but these settings will notgive the proper results for the HDMI Audio Outputand LFE Mixdown mode. There is also an “InitialWizard” that will quickly set up many menu items,but it also will not provide the correct settings forthe HDMI Audio Output and LFE Mixdown mode.It is critically important that the settings berestored manually.

This chapter contains a checklist of all of thesettings in the On-Screen Setup Menu. It providesa simple way to check the settings should theneed arise.

Menu options are in [ brackets ], “Reset FactoryDefaults” values are in italics, correct defaultsettings for the Ayre DX-5DSD are in bold. A settingthat is both a value from the “Reset FactoryDefaults” and a default for the DX-5DSD will be inbold italics.

102

Initial Wizard

The Initial Wizard only appears after the “ResetFactory Defaults” menu setting has been run. It isuseful for selecting a few of the basic settings, butmany other On-Screen Menu Settings will have tobe changed manually.

Primary video output [ HDMI | Component ](HDMI is the only video output on the Ayre DX-5DSD.Selecting “Component” will result in no picture.)

Output Resolution [ Auto | 1080p | 1080i | 720p |480p/576p | 480i/576i | Source Direct ](Select the proper output for your display as explained onpage 70.)

Aspect Ratio [ 4:3 Letterbox | 4:3 Pan & Scan | 16:9 Wide |16:9 Wide/Auto ](“4:3 Letterbox” is the correct setting for a standard 4:3display. “16:9 Wide/Auto” is the correct setting for awidescreen 16:9 display.)

Audio Setting [ Compatible | Advanced ]

Playback Setup

SACD Priority [ Multi-Channel | Stereo | CD Mode ](Select “Multi-Channel” to use the HDMI Audio Output witha surround-sound system. Select “Stereo” to use the AnalogAudio Outputs with a two-channel system.)

DVD-Audio Mode [ DVD-Audio | DVD-Video ]

Auto Play Mode [ On | Off ](This applies only to audio discs.)

PBC [ On | Off ] (This applies only to old VCD/SVCD discs.)

103

Parental Control(None of these are changed by “Reset Factory Default”.)

Password [ 0 0 0 0 ]

BD Ratings [ Off | 1–21 ]

DVD Ratings [ Off | Kid | G | PG | PG-13 | PGR | R |NC17 | Adult ]

Area Code [ United States ]

Change Password

Language

Player Language [ English ]

Disc Menu Language [ English | French | Spanish |Chinese | Other: _ _ _ _ ]

Audio Language [ English | French | Spanish | Chinese |Other: _ _ _ _ ]

Subtitle Language [ Auto | Off | English | French |Spanish | Chinese | Other: _ _ _ _ ]

Video Setup

Picture Adjustment

Brightness [ -16–0–16 ]

Contrast [ -16–0–16 ]

Hue (Analog) [ -16–0–16 ](does not affect HDMI)

Saturation [ -16–0–16 ]

Detail Enhancement [ -16–0–16 ]

104

Edge Enhancement [ -16–0–16 ]

Noise Reduction [ 0–8 ]

Y© Delay [ -16–0–16 ]

Border Level [ 0–16 ]

Primary Output [ HDMI | Component ](The only video output on the Ayre DX-5DSD is the HDMIA/V Output. Selecting “Component” will yield no picture.)

TV Aspect Ratio [ 4:3 Letterbox | 4:3 Pan & Scan |16:9 Wide | 16:9 Wide/Auto ](“4:3 Letterbox” is correct for a standard 4:3 display. “16:9Wide/Auto” is correct for a widescreen 16:9 display.)

TV System [ NTSC | PAL | Multi-system ](”Multi-system” provides no format conversion. Video discsof each television system will be output in their native format.If your display does not accept both NTSC and PALformatted signals, select the proper format for your display.)

Output Resolution [ Auto | 1080p | 1080i | 720p |480p/576p | 480i/576i | Source Direct ](Select the proper output as explained on page 70.)

1080p24 Output [ Auto | On | Off ]

DVD 24p Conversion [ On | Off ]

HDMI Options

De-interlacing Mode [ Auto | Film Bias Mode |Video Mode | 2:2 Even | 2:2 Odd ]

CUE Correction [ Auto | On | Off ]

Color Space [ Auto | RGB Video Level | RGB PC Level |YCbCr 4:4:4 | YCbCr 4:2:2 ]

HDMI Deep Color [ 36 Bits | 30 Bits (dithered) |30 Bits | Off (dithered) | Off ]

105

Demo Mode [ On | Off ]

A/V Sync [ 0–200 ](Only for HDMI.)

Display Options

Subtitle Shift [ -5–0–5 ]

OSD Position [ 0–5 ]

OSD Mode [ Normal | Silent | Remaining ]

Angle Mark [ Off | On ]

PIP Mark [ Off | On ]

SAP Mark [ Off | On ]

Screen Saver [ On | Off | Energy Saver ]

Audio Format Setup

Secondary Audio [ On | Off ](Default = On when Initial Wizard: Compatible.)

HDMI Audio [ Auto | LPCM | Bitstream | Off ](Default = Auto when Initial Wizard: Compatible.)

SACD Output [ PCM | DSD ](Default = PCM when Initial Wizard: Compatible.)

HDCD Decoding [ On | Off ]

Coaxial/Optical Output [ LPCM | Bitstream ](Default = LPCM when Initial Wizard: Compatible.)

LPCM Rate Limit [ 48k | 96k | 192k ](Default = 48k when Initial Wizard: Compatible.)(LPCM Rate Limit applies only to Digital Audio Output)

106

Audio Processing

Speaker Configuration(These settings affect the HDMI Audio Output and LFEMixdown. They must be set correctly for proper operation.)

FLSize [ Small | Large ]Distance [ 0–12–60 ] (Same as FR.)Trim [ -10.0–0.0–10.0 ]

SWSize [ On | Off ]Distance [ 0–12–60 ]Trim [ -10.0–0.0–5.0–10.0 ]

CSize [ Small | Large | Off ]Distance [ 0–12–60 ]Trim [ -10.0–0.0–10.0 ]

FRSize [ Small | Large ]Distance [ 0–12–60 ] (Same as FL.)Trim [ -10.0–0.0–10.0 ]

SRSize [ Small | Large | Off ]Distance [ 0–12–60 ] (Same as SL.)Trim [ -10.0–0.0–10.0 ]

SBRSize [ Small | Large | Off ]Distance [ 0–12–60 ] (Same as SBL.)Trim [ -10.0–0.0–10.0 ]

SBLSize [ Small | Large | Off ]Distance [ 0–12–60 ] (Same as SBR.)Trim [ -10.0–0.0–10.0 ]

SLSize [ Small | Large | Off ]Distance [ 0–12–60 ] (Same as SR.)Trim [ -10.0–0.0–10.0 ]

Down Mix Mode [ LT/RT | Stereo | 5.1ch | 7.1ch ]

107

Dynamic Range Control [ Auto | On | Off ]

Device Setup

Firmware Information

Firmware Upgrade

Firmware Notification [ On | Off ]

Remote Control Code [ Code 1 | Code 2 | Code 3 |Alt. Code ](”Remote Control Code” is not changed by “Reset FactoryDefault”.)

HDMI CEC [ On | Limited | Off ]

Dimmer Control [ On | Dim | Off ]

Persistent Storage

Storage Device [ Internal Flash | USB Drive ]

Total Space

Available Space

Erase BD-Video Data

Reset Factory Default(Warning! Using the “Reset Factory Default” will result in the“Speaker Configuration” being set to the incorrect values. Ifthe “Reset Factory Default” is used, the “SpeakerConfiguration” settings must be restored to their correctvalues for the HDMI Audio Output and LFE Mixdown modeto operate properly.)

108

Network Setup

IP Configuration [ Auto (DHCP) | Manual ]

IP Address [ _ . _ . _ . _ ](Only when IP Configuration = Manual.)

Subnet Mask [ _ . _ . _ . _ ](Only when IP Configuration = Manual.)

Gateway [ _ . _ . _ . _ ](Only when IP Configuration = Manual.)

DNS 1 [ _ . _ . _ . _ ](Only when IP Configuration = Manual.)

DNS 2 [ _ . _ . _ . _ ](Only when IP Configuration = Manual.)

BD-Live Network Access [ On | Limited | Off ]

Connection Test

MAC Address

109

Numbers and

Specifications

HDMI Video Output Selectable output formats:

RGB, video levels (16 - 235) RGB, PC levels (0 - 255) YCbCr, 4:4:4, video levels (16 - 235) YCbCr, 4:2:2, video levels (16 - 235) “Deep Color” – 10 bits per color “Deep Color” – 12 bits per color

NTSC: 480i/480p/720p/1080i/1080p/1080p24PAL: 576i/576p/720p/1080i/1080p/1080p24

HDMI Audio Output Selectable output formats:

PCM (standard discs) DSD or PCM (SACDs)

(All compressed formats decoded to PCM)

Analog Audio – MaximumOutput Level

4.00 V rms – balanced outputs2.00 V rms – single-ended outputs

110

Analog Audio – XLROutput Polarity

Pin 1 = GroundPin 2 = Non-inverting (Positive)Pin 3 = Inverting (Negative)

Analog Audio – FrequencyResponse (“Measure” Mode)

DC - 20 kHz (44.1 kHz sample rate)DC - 22 kHz (48 kHz sample rate)DC - 40 kHz (88.2 kHz sample rate)DC - 44 kHz (96 kHz sample rate)DC - 80 kHz (176.4 kHz sample rate)DC - 88 kHz (192 kHz sample rate)DC - 100 kHz (2.8224 MHz sample rate)

Disc Types BD-Video, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, AVCHD,SACD, CD, HDCD, Kodak Picture CD,CD-R/RW, DVD±R/RW, DVD±R DL, BD-R/RE

Power Consumption 60 watts20 watts, low power consumption mode

Dimensions 17-¼" W x 12-½" D x 3-¾" H44 cm x 32 cm x 9.5 cm

Weight 23 pounds10.4 kg

111

Statement of

Warranty

North American Warranty

Your Ayre DX-5DSD universal stereo player iswarranted against defects in workmanship andmaterials for a period of ninety days from the date oforiginal purchase. This ninety-day coverage isautomatic upon acceptance of delivery and noregistration is required.

Additionally you have the option, at no cost, toextend the warranty for a period of five years fromthe date of purchase (except for the disc transportmechanism, which will be warrantied for a period oftwo years from the date of purchase) by returningthe completed Warranty Registration Card and aphotocopy of your original purchase receipt in theenclosed postage-paid envelope to Ayre withinthirty days of product delivery. This optionalwarranty is only available within the thirty-dayregistration period.

112

North American Warranty Statement

1. If any defects are found in the materials orworkmanship of this Ayre product within thewarranty period, the unit will be repaired orreplaced by Ayre Acoustics, Inc. (Ayre) or itsauthorized agent.

2. Purchaser must return the product, packed in theoriginal shipping carton, freight prepaid to:

Ayre Acoustics, Inc.2300-B Central AvenueBoulder, Colorado 80301

or to Ayre’s authorized agent. The product must beaccompanied by a written description of the defectand a photocopy of your original purchase receipt.Ayre will not be responsible for any shippingdamage and strongly recommends the purchase ofshipping insurance.

3. Ayre reserves the right to inspect any productthat is the subject of any warranty claim prior torepairing or replacing it. Final determination ofwarranty coverage lies solely with Ayre.

Out-of-warranty claims will be billed for labor,materials, return freight, and insurance as required.Any product for which a warranty claim is acceptedwill be returned to the purchaser and the cost ofshipping and insurance will be factory prepaidwithin the boundaries of the USA. Units to beshipped outside of the USA will be shipped freightcollect only.

115

4. Ayre strives to manufacture the finest possibleequipment, and therefore reserves the right to makeimprovements on its products, without necessarilyassuming any obligation to retrofit such changesupon its previously manufactured models.

5. The above warranty is the sole warranty given byAyre, and is in lieu of all other warranties. Allimplied warranties, including warranties ofmerchantability or fitness for any particular purposeshall be strictly limited to the duration of the abovewarranty. Ayre shall have no further obligation ofany kind, whether express or implied. Further, Ayreshall in no event be obligated for any incidental orconsequential damages as a result of any defect orany warranty claim, whether express or implied.

6. Ayre does not authorize any third party,including any dealer or sales representative, toassume any liability of Ayre or make any warrantyfor Ayre. The unit must not have been altered orimproperly serviced. The serial number on the unitmust not have been altered or removed.

7. The remaining period of this warranty is onlytransferable to subsequent purchasers if the productis resold by an authorized Ayre dealer.

International Warranty

Warranty terms outside of North America mayvary. Please contact the authorized Ayre distributorin your country of purchase for the terms ofwarranty and also the service itself.

116

A Technical

Glossary

480i Shorthand for an interlaced NTSC signal, where“480” refers to the number of actual picture linesand “I” refers to Interlaced. This is the resolutionnormally available from North American DVDssourced directly from video cameras.

480p Shorthand for a progressive NTSC signal, where“480” refers to the number of actual picture linesand “p” refers to Progressive. This is the resolutionnormally available from North American DVDssourced from film.

576i Shorthand for an interlaced PAL signal, where“576” refers to the number of actual picture linesand “I” refers to Interlaced. This is the resolutionnormally available from European DVDs sourceddirectly from video cameras.

576p Shorthand for a progressive PAL signal, where“576” refers to the number of actual picture linesand “p” refers to Progressive. This is the resolutionnormally available from European DVDs sourcedfrom film.

115

720p Shorthand for a progressive ATSC high-definitionsignal, where “720” refers to the number of actualpicture lines and “p” refers to Progressive. Somebroadcasts use 720p resolution, and the DX-5DSD canscale all video discs to 720p if that matches yourdisplay best.

1080i Shorthand for an interlaced ATSC high-definitionsignal, where “1080” refers to the number of actualpicture lines and “I” refers to Interlaced. Somebroadcasts use 1080i resolution, and the DX-5 canscale all video discs to 1080i if that matches yourdisplay best.

1080p Shorthand for a progressive ATSC high-definitionsignal, where “1080” refers to the number of actualpicture lines and “p” refers to Progressive. MostBlu-ray discs offer 1080p resolution, and mostmodern display do also. This is the highestresolution format available for the home cinema,and the DX-5 can scale all video discs to 1080p ifthat matches your display best.

AES/EBU The Audio Engineering Society and EuropeanBroadcast Union are standards organizations in theUS and Europe, respectively. The term “AES/EBU”is commonly used to refer to the system oftransmitting digital audio signals used inprofessional studios. This format is very similar tothe S/PDIF digital audio standard, although theperformance is higher due to the use of balancedcables employing three-pin XLR connectors.

116

Aspect Ratio The ratio of the video display’s width to its height.The two common aspect ratios used for videodisplays are 16:9 (1.78:1), also known as“widescreen”, and 4:3 (1.33:1), also known as“standard”.

ATSC The Advanced Television Systems Committee wasestablished in the USA to oversee the transitionfrom the original analog broadcast system to thecurrent digital high-definition broadcast system.

AVC AVC (Advanced Video Coding) is a videocompression algorithm used in the some Blu-raydiscs.

CRT The Cathode Ray Tube is the original analogtechnology used in video displays. It is rarely usedtoday.

Composite An Interlaced analog video signal that combinesbrightness (black-and-white) information togetherwith color information. Performance is reducedcompared to other transmission formats, as the twovideo signals cannot be perfectly separated again asrequired by the display device.

Compressed Audio To allow storage of more video information on aDVD, the digital audio surround soundtrack istypically compressed to take up less room. Theoriginal PCM digital audio data is compressed bydiscarding data that is deemed to be of lessimportance. Various companies have developedproprietary schemes for reducing the quantity ofaudio data while attempting to minimize theimpact on sound quality. See also Dolby Digital,DTS, and MPEG Audio

117

With the advent of Blu-ray, the additional storagespace has allowed for lossless audio compressionschemes. While the compression ratio is typicallyfive times lower than lossy compression, losslesscompression allows for the exact reproduction of theoriginal PCM signal.

Compressed Video Full-motion video requires a monumental amountof information to be stored. All digital consumerformats compress the video signal to allow it to fiton the disc. Luckily, digital video lends itself well tocompression and both DVD and Blu-ray can providesuperb picture quality using various videocompression schemes.

D-ILA Digital-Imaging Light Amplifier is a type of LCOSvideo display technology developed by JVC. This isone example of a Fixed Pixel display.

DLP Digital Light Processing is the name of TexasInstruments’ movable micro-mirror technology usedin video displays. This is one example of a FixedPixel display.

Dolby Digital A Compressed Audio format developed by Dolby Labs,this is found on virtually all DVDs. For higherquality audio on Blu-ray discs Dolby Labs hasdeveloped Dolby True HD, a Lossless Audiocompression format.

DoP DSD over PCM is a method of packetizingstreaming DSD audio data so that it appears toaudio devices as a standard PCM format.

118

DSD Direct Stream Digital is the name for a PulseDemsity Modulation (PDM) digital encodingscheme.

DTS A Compressed Audio format developed by DigitalTheater Systems. A DTS soundtrack is found onsome DVDs, and in generally considered to soundbetter than the Dolby Digital soundtrack, in partdue to the higher data rates used. For higher qualityaudio on Blu-ray discs DTS has developed DTS-HDMaster Audio, a Lossless Audio compression format.

DVI The Digital Visual Interface was developed as a wayto send digital video signals to a Fixed-Pixel (i.e.,digital) display without any additional conversionsto or from analog.

Fixed Pixel In a CRT video display the cathode ray, or beam,can be focused at any arbitrary point on the viewingsurface. Thus multiple Resolutions are easilysupported. In contrast, Fixed Pixel (i.e., digital)displays have the individual Pixels in predeterminedlocations. Incoming signals must be converted tothe native resolution of the display element itself.This conversion process, called Scaling, canintroduce visible artifacts if not performed at a highperformance level. All fixed pixel displays haveinternal scalers incorporated internally.

HDMI The High Definition Multimedia Interface is anextension of the DVI interface that adds HDCP,digital audio, and an inter-device communicationlink, all in a smaller connector.

119

HDCP High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection is amethod of scrambling the HDMI video and audiosignals in an attempt to avoid copying ofcopyrighted material.

Interlaced An interlaced video system draws half of the picturelines on the video display at a time. Theodd-numbered lines are displayed in one pass andthe even numbered lines in the next. The interlacedformat was developed as a means of reducing thebandwidth required for television broadcasting, butcan result in visible artifacts in the picturecompared to Progressive video.

LCD A Liquid Crystal Display is the familiar display asfound on laptop computers. These are most oftentransmissive displays, where a white light sourcebehind the display element shines through coloredPixels to create an image. This is one example of aFixed Pixel display.

LCOS Liquid Crystal On Silicon places the LCD displayelement directly on the silicon wafer that forms theelectronic control circuitry. A transmissive displayelement cannot be used as the silicon is nottransparent. Instead, a reflective display element isused. This is one example of a Fixed Pixel display.

Lossless Audio Unlike commonplace Compressed Audio that sacrificessound quality in order to minimize storagerequirements, Lossless Audio only offers moderatecompression of the original PCM audio soundtrack,but still allows bit-perfect reproduction. Also seeDolby Digital and DTS.

120

MPEG Moving Picture Experts Group is an internationalstandards organization that developed the MPEG-2video compression algorithm used in the DVDformat and some Blu-ray discs.

MPEG Audio One type of Compressed Audio developed by Philips.This was originally proposed as the audio format tobe used on European DVDs, in a politicalcompromise designed to share royalty revenuesbetween Philips and Dolby. Philips was late tomarket with this format, and it has now largelybeen supplanted by Dolby Digital.

NTSC The National Television Standards Committee wasthe body that defined the analog television videosignal format originally used in the North America.Japan also used a variation of this signal. Thisformat has a total of 525 lines, of which 480 areused for the actual picture information.

PAL Phase Alternating Line was the analog video signalformat used in Europe, Asia (except Japan),Australia, Africa, and South America. This formathas a total of 625 lines, of which 576 are used forthe actual picture information.

PCM Pulse Code Modulation is a method of encoding theamplitude of audio or video signals as digitalnumbers. This is the highest performing method ofstoring audio, and is the system used on CDs,Blu-ray discs, and some DVDs.

PDM Pulse Density Modulation is a method of encodingthe amplitude of audio signals as the density of astring of digital pulses. The only commercial systemto use PDM is DSD audio.

121

Pixel As digital formats, DVD and Blu-ray reproducevideo image as a grid of very fine colored dots. Thesmallest element of this video image is called apixel, which is a shortened form of “pictureelement”.

Plasma A plasma video display uses ionized gases to excitecolored phosphors, similar to the way that afluorescent light bulb operates. This is one exampleof a Fixed Pixel display.

Progressive A progressive video system draws all of the picturelines on the video display in one pass. Commonlyused for computer displays, progressive video resultsin a more stable, flicker-free picture than doesInterlaced video.

Region Coding In an attempt to control the distribution of videodiscs, the DVD Forum has designated eightdifferent regions and the Blu-ray Disc Associationhas designated three different regions throughoutthe world. Discs from any given region are normallyonly playable on players purchased from that sameregion.

Resolution Every video display device or video format has amaximum number of Pixels that can be displayed.This resolution is specified as the number ofhorizontal pixels by the number of vertical pixels.The resolution of a DVD is 720x480 for NTSC discsand 720x576 for PAL discs. Scaling must be used toconvert this resolution to the resolution of a FixedPixel display. The horizontal resolution of a CRT(i.e., analog) is somewhat ambiguous, as there are nodiscrete pixels used in this technology.

122

Scaling Scaling is the process of converting a video signalfrom one Resolution to another. As with any type ofsignal processing, care must be taken to ensure thatthe signal is not degraded by the processing itself.

S/PDIF The Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format iscommonly used to transmit digital audioinformation from a source (such as a DVD player) toa receiver (such as a surround-sound processor). Theconnectors used for S/PDIF are common RCA(Cinch) connectors. Also see AES/EBU.

UOP Video disc formats allows the disc itself to sendcommands to the player. A User OperationProhibition is a disc-based command that tells theplayer to ignore commands issued by the user. Forexample, many video discs will display an FBIwarning at the beginning of the disc and issue aUOP that temporarily disables most usercommands.

VC-1 VC-1 is a higher-performance video compressionalgorithm used in the some Blu-ray discs.

Video Decoder The Video Decoder is a highly complex integratedcircuit that decodes the video and audio informationstored on optical discs.

123

A Place for

Notes

Serial Number:

Purchase Date:

Dealer:

Salesperson:

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

124 Rev 2.0

Ayre Acoustics, Inc.2300-B Central Avenue

Boulder, Colorado 80301

www.ayre.com+1-303-442-7300