Official Harman/Kardon AVR x54: Problems and Solutions Thread - Page 56

Okay, assuming I went about checking my current speaker settings properly (clicked the AVR button on the remote, then chose "Speaker Setup"/"Manual Setup" then clicked the up and down buttons to scroll through the settings), my system shows the two front R/L speakers as +3 db, while the center is -3 db. Could this be the issue? It also shows the distance of the front, center and right speakers as 0 feet. I'm not sure if it shows 0 feet because I chose "Manual Setup" though? Should I be going somewhere else to check for the settings that were saved when I ran the automatic mic setup?

No, after running the auto setup it will program your distances in. If it says 0 feet then perhaps you didn't run the auto setup correctly or need to run it again. It should state the distance between the mic and your speaker...so unless you held the mic right infront of the speaker something went wrong. I would run auto setup again. If that doesn't work set it up yourself manually.

Run the setup with the Mic on a stand of some sort about ear level in your preferred seating position and let it run. Then check your settings once again.

I just input the distance measurements manually to make sure they're accurate. I also went ahead and bumped the CC to +3 db since the other two front speakers are set to this (seemed odd the CC would be set to -3db). I'll see if that helps.

You seem to know your stuff so if you don't mind, I'd like to get your input on the following...

The only thing I still have to do is set the size of my speakers properly. Since HK uses Hz to measure speaker size, I assume it's looking for the largest number in the specs of the speakers I'm using, correct? For example, if my speakers (Boston Acoustics Micro 110x) are all capable of output down to 150 Hz, is this the number I should input under "speaker size"?

Also, my sub is a Boston Acoustics PV350, and has a couple knobs and a switch on the back. One knob is for Crossover an can be turned between 75 (all the way left), 100, 125, and bypass (all the way right). The other knob is volume (self explanatory). The switch is for Polarity and can set to either 0 degrees or 180 degrees. I see nothing in the documentation for the sub or the 354 what to set the sub settings to. Any thoughts?

Thanks!
dzyner

Before you run the auto setup set the volume on your sub to about 6. Turn your crossover to bypass. Run the auto setup, it will adjust your speaker size, distance and crossover accordingly. After it's done check the settings manually for reference or to change them if you want to tweak it.

If the sub is facing the same direction as your front speakers then the phase is set to '0'.

Well, I did that twice with my setup - first time having some fiends in the next room that couldn't keep it quiet for 5 min
next run was perfect one but the auto didin't work. CC very low, all distances messed up - most of them 0. I just put my distances manually and I'm happy with the result. Might have to mess with the sub some - it's really loud on some movies and cases my HVAC and firplace to rumble
Not sure if it's PS3 thingy.

Well, Monday morning came around and I called the Harman Kardon customer service. I will say that each time I've called them, they've been great on the phone. The representative picked up after only a few seconds. I told him about my 354 not doing anything at this point. The only button that does anything is the power/standby button. Even the front panel buttons wont change the display, and a hard reset didn't work. He said the unit is definitely dead. I told him that this is the 3rd AVR 354 that has died on me since December. He didn't really have any excuse or suggestions. He did say that replacements at this point from HK would be for the AVR 3550HD, which he said is basically the same unit, rounded corners, and A-Bus. Otherwise, he said the internals were the same.

Oh well, I'm packing it up and will try Best Buy first (suggested by the CSR), and if they won't take it back then send to HK. I really don't want to pay shipping on this thing.

This may have been covered before but I searched for awhile to no effect.

My new AVR254 is giving me a weird fan buzz type noise a short while after it has been on. Maybe two minutes. It is pretty loud. Anybody know what this could be. The firmware is up to date.

the fan inside the 254 is going bad, lot's of people had this complaint, some got the unit replaced, as eventually it'll lead to the unit over heating I think.

hth

Despite the problems I've read about, I decided to pick up an AVR-254 (the price was right). Still, I'm a bit concerned after reading about all of these odd issues it seems to be having. Should I expect hassles right away?

I'm going to run an XBOX360 and PS3 via HDMI and a couple other game devices via component. I'm going to continue inputting my PC directly through the TV and use the analog multi-channel cables for audio. I don't use a cable box of any sort so that won't come into play.

Is there a link available for the latest firmware? I'm hoping it will already contain the latest firmware at this point, but who knows.

Does it really run that hot?

This happened only an hour after setting up the product. It is refurbished but that shouldnt make a diffrence. The fan is seriously already going bad? It is for sure the fan because I watched it. the unit wasnt that hot and it was a loud fan noise. If I put a regular fan blowing on the unit it was fine. Also my stand is open and not enclosed so their shouldnt be a reason for it to be over heating. Do I just call Harman up?

Well, I have ps3 and wii connected to my avr254 and I took a whole week to get to one of the problems reported here (no clicks sound) and I'm on 93 version which is not the latest.
My rack is open and I don't have anything on top of the avr - it only gets hot on the top not on the sides. My ps3 makes more noise (fan) than the avr and the avr was on for a whole day playing music non stop. It wasn't any hotter than using it for an hour.
Once I have more time I might mess with it to update it but since the only thing that bothers me is some artefacts in the video but nothing too bad and the sub level from ps3. Will wait for the new fw and comments on it before I go ahead and mess with it - not tempted to do it as of yet

Sounds pretty good, for the most part.

What kind of video problems did you see? I'm using a Pioneer 5020fd so video quality is very important to me. If I were feeding the TV a 1080p signal from the PS3 (say, from a Blu-ray) are you telling me that the video quality will suffer?

Hello again. I've got the new receiver set back up. I never had problems with EZ set with any of the 3 previous models, but this time I'm running into problems. Step 1 with EZset fires my left front and sub (5.1 system). The sub is obviously firing well (and shaking my windows), but at the end of step one, it says "connection missing, no Sub detected. Please check connection." I'm paraphrasing, but that's the gist. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong. The sub connection is from the sub (pre-out area) to the Right Audio in on the sub with phase set to 180 and LFE knob turned to max (as per the manual), this is a Polk PSW110.

It might be my tv's processing as well (eventhogh I've never seen such artefacts - keep in mind that I'm not up to date on the fw on my avr, which might be the reason I'm seeing this) - haven't had time to test that but just for reference - it's on iron man br in the opening scene where they take picture with Stark in the humvee - there is a blotch on the index finger of the soldier making a piece sign - showed up twice in a row (replay it just to make sure).
Might test direct conection to the tv with the same movie.
Actually the PQ seems to be improved going thru the avr more saturated colors contrast and such.
I'll update you once I have a chace to do direct conection to my tv.

hadrian,

I had this exact same experience with my AVR-254 and PSW110. I doubt it is related to the sub, however, and was suspicious of the latest firmware. (I'm running 95).

What firmware version are you using?

OK, so has anyone tried using the 96 firmware on a US AVR-254? It seems like it should work, but at the same time, I wouldn't want to cause any problems by using it.

I'm running the 95. This is my 4th AVR 354 now. I didn't have this problem with the previous 3, and for numbers 2 and 3, I definitely updated to the 95 firmware first, and then did the EZSet. So, I'm not sure what the problem is, but it doesn't seem version dependent.

Well, I've been using the 254 for an hour now and most everything is working well.

I had an initial issue with component video conversion, but it seems that the shadows resulted in my swapping the green and blue input. All is good now.

One thing that surprises me is the quality of the upconversion. I actually have found that 720p PS3 games scaled by the receiver to 1080p and displayed in dot-by-dot mode on the TV are sharper than they would otherwise be. Interesting to find that it does a slightly nicer job than the Pioneer Kuro I'm using (of course, I'm sure additional lag is present).

Yep it's doing good job.
Had friends over and they have all kind of big tvs sony led projection (I think) and Kuro and althogh I've borrowed the movie from them and we were just chating they couldn't get off their eyes of the tv (they've seen the tv before)

hello..im a rookie and i need some help...

i just finished setting up my 254 ( ran the eq with the microphone and all speakers are working) and i was watching Star Wars:Epire Strikes BAck and i think im only getting a 2 channel signal.....even when i set the dvd to 5.1 .

i have a 3/2/.0 system and when i look at the receiver display i see all the little speakers but only the front L and R have the little letters lit up... ive been using the dobly pro logic II option...... all the speakers are working and it sounds great.......... but how do i know if im getting a 5 channel signal from the dvd? i think ishould se the letters lit up in all of the speakers in the receiver display...right?

Hey guys, just purchased a 354 for amazon. It came with firmware 93.1.1 so I upgraded it with little to no problem other than at the final step when it said the light should be amber mine was still white. Called HK they said continue anyway and when I pressed and held OK it went to amber prior to turning back on. Anyway, it now says firmware 95.1.1.

Now I have an issue with playing music via the playstation 3. My previous AVR, the Denon 1909 would automatically see the music as stereo and turn the center channel off. The 354 leaves the center channel on. I have the surround mode in automatically select. Am I doing something wrong?

Same exact story with my kuro.

guys, I am between the avr 255 (euro model for 254) and the Denon 1909.
The harman is the better product, and the Denon the problem-free one...
In these situations my heart usually beats my logic and I go for the better product, but this time, I need to be more certain because I will not have any local support for the receiver. (this will sound strange to you in the US, to explain it in a few words, in Europe you can buy from any country you want within the EU, but the local dealer has the right not to give you support if you haven't bought from him. So in my country (Greece) the Harman costs 680 euros, and I can buy it from Germany for 450 euros....obviously I won't buy it locally, but I will also lose my local support this way). So by not having the ability to return the product, exchange it for another 255, or eventually exchange it for the Denon if I can't make it work the way I want, I need to be sure it will work the way I want.

What I am going to so is connect an HTPC with HDMI, and an Xbox360 also with HDMI. Maybe later on a PS3 too. I will use my HTPC as a player for everything (including bluray). Now a trickier part is, that I want the signal sent to 2 devices, a Projector, but also an LCD-TV. Both are 1080p. So At the AVR255 output I will put an hdmi splitter box and send hdmi cables to those 2 devices. So when I am at the receiver room (HT room) I want to see bluray from the HTPC with HD audio and all, or play Xbox on the projector. When I am at the LCD-TV room (my bedroom) I want to be able to get the HTPC signal/xbox to my LCD-TV including sound (I won't use any bluray I know the TV cant handle HD audio) so I merely want the harman to work as a repeater.

As far as I understant I can turn off video processing now, but not scaling (I will only be sending 1080p signal anyway so no scaling right? But what if instead of my LCD-TV I connect a 1920x1200 monitor? will the harman try to scale 1080p to this resolution? this would be disaster).

So, will it do the above, or not? here's the question

For the last several weeks I have been (literally) going back and forth between the 254 and Denon 2309 (basically the same as the 1909). I have them both and have been swapping back and forth to decide which one to keep. I really wish I could combine them both into one receiver. I really like the HK's excellent onscreen display (with overlay) and nice, big front panel display. However, in the end I prefer the sound quality in the Denon because of Audyssey (including the Dynamic EQ and Volume which took some getting used to but now is what I prefer). The Denon also runs much cooler which is a bonus to me.

By, the way the HK can only do standard resolutions so it will only output what you set it to (720p,1080i,1080p).

Well, my 254 finally came in. Only complaint I have at this point was the shipping time, lol. Got it for $325 from H/K's eBay store and it came loaded with FW 95.1.1. So far I have had ZERO problems. Works like a charm and setup on this thing is a breeze. In fact, it's so easy, I think I'm missing something, lol. Reading through the manual still to get to know the unit through and through. Just thought I'd leave a POSITIVE post about this AVR to bring balance back to the universe :P

SpartacusMagnus - you turned me on to the 254 on the BIC america F12 thread. Thankyou for that. - I've been reading the threads and am convinced that most of the issues have been fixed - but the one thing holding me back is the question of whether it can pass through video without messing with it (even as well as it apparently upscales) The thing that started me on this home theater build is my PS3 - and I want minimal lag for obvious reasons. Please let me and everyone know if you can now turn off the video processing with the 95 update - and/or the 96 if you get it. Thankyou in advance. (looking forward to your impressions of the PA-120 sub too!)

What order should I power on my devices? All are connected via hdmi

AVR 354, DirecTv HR-21, Samsung LN40A550

eyerob,

It is my understanding that video processing, as defined by HK anyway, is color, brightness or other such picture tweaks. These can indeed be turned off so that the AVR will not mess with the picture settings. However it is not a true passthrough. I don't think anyone really knows exactly WHAT the receiver does to the signal, but most would agree it does indeed "mess" with it somewhat. On my equipment, I can see no difference in PQ or lag between a direct connection (to a projector) and going through the AVR with the inputs set at "processing off" and output at 1080p. I have a 360 and PS3 and have noticed no lag between my controller and on-screen actions.

I was leery about no true video pass through as well, but my fears were allayed and I really like this receiver. I think the pros far, far , far outweigh the cons and truth be told, in the AVR market, there really is no "perfect" product- they all have caveats.

I'll be posting my preliminary impressions of the PA-120 today. Hope it is of some help!

I'm going to upgrade the firmware on mine today and see what happens. I suspect that there will always be some sort of processing going on simply due to the use of the on-screen menu. If you were to bypass the video processing completely, it would not work (which would have been a nice option, I suppose). The problem I have is that, with the older firmware at least, my Kuro only picks up a 30-bit signal and won't allow for a wider colorspace. From what I've read, however, that should be fixed in the 95 firmware, but I will know later on.

My AVR 254 has become completely silent. I have tried all the digital/analog inputs and it makes no difference.

The problem started a couple of days ago when I paused my DVR and returned to it some time later. When I resumed playback, there was no sound. I also have a XBOX 360 and a BR player which exhibited the same problem.

I followed the troubleshooting directions in the manual by first power cycling the unit and then a complete reset. However, the problem is still there.

I haven't had a chance to get in touch with HK yet. Does anyone have any idea what is wrong with the unit based on my description? Would reinstalling the firmware have any chance of fixing it?