OK. You've just got your Casablanca 2. But all those on screen setup pages leave you perplexed and bewildered and you don't have any sound. What do you do?
Easy. Follow the below procedure and think just a bit and you'll have it down easy!!!
At the start, now that you have connected all of your cables to the back of the Casablanca 2, if you want, you can relabel the jacks. Or you can come back to this later if you're in a hurry to get your sound up! Press "Setup" on the remote. Then press #2 "Global Settings". Then press #2 "Jack Names". Then relabel your jacks, usually you do this to match the audio/video sources. E.G., say for "Input 1", my Theta Voyager, I have relabeled Glass 3, AES/EBU 1, and S-Video 1 to "Voyager" for my Theta Voyager DVD/CD/LD player. ANd be sure to label both audio and video jacks
if you have a video card).
1. First, on the remote, hit the "Input 1" button. You will now be programming whatever source you decide to use for Input 1 on the remote. Lets say you use DVD for this source. So turn on your DVD player and just let it play. At some point, believe it or not, you will have sound. HA!
2. Next, press the "Setup" button near bottom of the remote. This will bring up the first page of the setup menu for that input - at top of page it will say "Setup Input Page 1".
3. Press #1 "Active Input Settings".
4. Press #1 "Speaker Configuration". (You will now set your system for your speakers and digital crossovers for frequency in Hz and slope in dB, as well as type of crossover.)
5. As an example, once you are in the "Speaker Configuration" menu,
press #1 for "Left/Right" (front) speakers.
Choose the crossover type you want to use by pressing #2, 3 or 4. Each speaker is designed with a crossover type in mind, so you may want to consult your speaker's manufacturer
on advice on where to start. However, this would just be a starting place, as every speaker may act differently in every room, so experimentation is key, and the changes you make in this speaker menu are LIVE, so as you're making the changes you can listen to live music and determine for yourself what sounds best in your setup. As a quick way to get your sound up, since I like #4 "Butterworth" in my system because you can independently set high and low pass digital crossover slopes by this, press #4 to humor me to use the "Butterworth" crossovers. Then press in the values for the high pass filter (frequencies above the crossover are filtered from the speakers), in Hz and dB; and do the same for the low pass filter (frequencies below the crossover are filtered to be sent out the subwoofer outputs of the CB2). When you're done, press the "Setup" button on the remote to get back to the "Speaker Configuration" menu.
Then repeat this procedure for each set of speakers on the list of the "Speaker Configuration" menu. And when you get to "Subwoofers", set to the number of subwoofer outputs that you have subwoofers actually connected to the subwoofer outputs of the CB2. One sub is front left and right channels combined, also gets all low passed filtered bass (if you use the Butterworth crossover) from other channels crossed over, and also gets LFE. Two subs are one for front left, one for front right, each gets its own corresponding speaker's low bass filtered bass, and each of two subs gets one-half of LFE. For three subs, add to front left and front right a surround sub (surround left and right combined), and each of 3 subs gets 1/3 of the LFE signal. (That's what I have, three Aerial SW12 subwoofers). For four subs, add to front left, front right, left surround and right surround, and each of 4 subs gets 1/4 of the LFE signal.
Each subwoofer, in the Casablanca menu, has the choice of "Full Range" or "Crossover". It is preferable to use the "Crossover" setting, Casablanca's digital crossover and not to use the subwoofer's crossover. (For example, my Aerial SW12 subwoofer has a "Direct" setting which totally bypasses its subwoofer crossover.) If your subwoofer doesn't have a "Direct" or similar setting, then set its low pass crossover to 120 Hz or higher to effectively defeat the crossover. Only if you can't bypass or defeat the subwoofer's own low pass crossover would you set the Casablanca's subwoofer to "Full Range".
Done with speaker setup. Great. Now press the "setup" button on remote to get back to the page "Setup Input Page 1".
6. Now to set speaker levels. Get out your trusty analog Radio Shack meter. You better know the drill by now. Press #2 "Speaker Levels" and then press the "A-D" button to toggle between "Source", "Noise All" and "Noise One". I normally choose "Noise One", choose the first speaker, use the Right and Left Pie buttons to bring to volume level to about 80 dB. Then, sitting in the main listening position with the meter at ear level facing straight forward (basically an extension of your nose) toggle between the front three speakers, adjusting their levels with the up and down pie buttons, until all read the same dB level. For the right side and/or surround, change the direction of the meter to the right, leaving it at ear level (so it hears what your ear hears). Repeat for left side and/or surround. For sub level, keep meter facing forward. I generally use this menu to rough in the sub, and then fine-tune the sub by ear on each input select button, depending on its purpose, such as whether music, movie, tv, etc.
7. Next, to set speaker delay. Press "setup" on the remote to get back to "Setup Input Page 1". Then press #3 "Speaker Delays" and set appropriate delays for your speakers. You will need to hit the "A-D" button if you need to go to the 2nd page for more speakers, too. Use the chart in the manual. In a multichannel home theater setup with a center speaker, you should experiment with the center speaker delay. It is usually preferable for the center channel to be delayed from 2 to 4 milliseconds (combination of physical and digital delay) vs the main front left and right speakers. Experiment with center channel delay to determine when vocals and dialogue sounds at its best.
8. Press "setup" on the remote to get back to "Setup Input Page 1". Now, to set the mode (E.G., Circle Surround, Dolby Digital, DTS, etc.) that upon turn-on, your CB2 will default to for that input source.
9. Now, you are ready to go to page 2 of the setup menu, "Setup Input Page 2". Press "setup" to get back to page 1, and then press "A-D" to go to Page 2.
10. Now you are ready to get some sound. HA! You are next going to program which audio and video input jacks are to be used for this input. You are in "Setup Input Page 2", right? Press #2 "Source". Then press #1 and use the up/down button to select the correct source.
Since I use Theta Single Mode, which is Glass 3, that's what I select. Then press "setup" to get back to. My backup is AES/EBU digital, so I press #2 and select that. For #3 on, I simply set to "off". Then when you use the CB2, you simply hit the "A-D" button to toggle between the digital (this feature allows you to route up to 6 sources to each input select button - any mix of analog and digital) sources that you've programmed. And the default digital source upon turn-on is the one you've selected for #1.
Next, to program your video inputs if you have a video card, from the audio portion of the source menu, press "A-D" to go to the next page, the video sources, and program them in. (I only use my video switcher with one outgoing composite video cable from the Main Out, for a small 13" tv under my screen for my on screen display, as I don't like the logjam behind my CB2 with video cables crossing all over - I use a Dwin Transcanner 2 and Extron S-VHS switcher for video switching and thereby keep the video cables away from the CB2.)
11. Next, press "setup" and get back to "Setup Input Page 2". Now, you're going to set characteristics peculiar to Dolby Digital, by pressing #3 "Dolby Digital". Then go in the menu and enter the appropriate settings. Here you can make adjustments to the speaker delay for when you're in Dolby Digital. [Since my center front listening position is equidistant from four front and surround Aerial 10T speakers, I enter -15 ms here, which deducted from the 15 ms delay entered in the main speaker level menu results in 0 delay for surrounds in dolby digital. Also, in this menu you can set the default listening mode to translate Dolby Digital 2.0. For DVD, I set this to CSCN (Circle Cinema). For CD, I set this to CSNE (Circle Non-Encoded)].
The settings in these sub-menus for Dolby Digital, DTS, and Circle Surround OVERLAY the settings we already established in the levels and delays menus. Also, the Dolby Digital 2.0 option has two choices, "encoded" and "non-encoded" DD 2.0. "Encoded" is for stereo signals in which the mastering engineer put in a flag to "apply Pro Logic". "Non-encoded" is for signal in which no flag is inserted, or the flag is "play in stereo". You may choose from any installed mode to play Dolby Digital 2.0. (In my system, with equal speakers and electronics at each vector, I find Circle Cinema sounds best for movies and tv programs, and Circle Non-Encoded sounds best if its a video concert.)
12. Press "setup" as necessary, get back to "Setup Input Page 2" and press #4 "DTS" and program it accordingly, and set speaker delays identical to what you did for discrete Dolby Digital.
13. Press "setup" as necessary, get back to "Setup Input Page 2" and press #5 "Circle Surround" and program for Circle Surround.
(Don't worry now about #6 "Post Processes" under "Setup Input Page 2" - once you're done with everything and have a bit of extra time, you can go experiment there.)
14. Press "setup" as necessary and get back to "Setup Input Page 2". Then press "A-D" to get to page 3 of the setup menu, "Setup Input
Page 3. WOW! Page 3. You're getting there.
To enter your input source name on the CB2 front panel and on the on screen display (your video monitor), press #1 "Name" and press the "A-D" button to toggle between the CB2 face display and the video on screen display, and enter the input source name. Since the example source is DVD, enter "DVD".
CONGRATULATIONS!!! YOU HAVE FULLY PROGRAMMED YOUR FIRST INPUT SOURCE,in this example DVD. Now its totally downhill.
15. Press "Setup" a few times as necesssary to totally exit the Menu.
Then press Setup and again your at "Setup Input Page 1". Press #3 "Macros". Press #1 "Copy All Input Parameters". Press #2 "All Inputs". And follow the instructions. You will now have entered your speaker configurations, speaker delays, DD & DTS & CS programming, etc. from Input #1 (DVD in the example) to all other input sources, saving you massive amounts of programming time.
16. Now you just need to enter a few settings for each additonal input source that you have.
Press "setup" as many times as needed to fully exit the menu. Then press input #2 on the remote. NOw you'll enter some specific settings for input #2. Lets say input #2 is DirecTV.
17. Press setup to enter the "Setup Menu Page 1". Press #4 "Mode" and enter the correct audio mode (DD, DTS, CS, etc.). Then press "setup" and from page 1, press "A-D" to go to page 2 of setup menu, "Setup Menu Page 2". Then press #2 "Source" and enter the audio sources, then the video sources if any, for this input. Then press "setup" to go back to page 2, then press "A-D" to go to Page 3 "Setup Menu Page 3". Then Press #1 "Miscellaneous", and press #1 "Name" and using the "D-A" button to toggle between the CB2 face display and the video on screen display, enter the input name (I entered "DTV" on CB2 face and "DirecTV" on video on screen display).
18. Repeat steps above #15-17 for the rest of your input sources! You can keep your input sources simple, E.G., in my case, DirecTV, DISH, CD, SACD,DVD, LD, VCR. Or you can name your input by the make/model of the input component. Also, you can get fancy, say you want to watch satellite and change channels while listening to your AM-FM tuner stock quotes - in which case you label the input "Stock" and you set the audio source to the appropriate jack for the tuner, and you set the video source to the appropriate jack for the satellite receiver (see paragraph 10 above for details on setting your sources).
19. Last, but not least, for each analog input source, press the input number on the remote; press "setup" to enter first page of setup menu; press #2 "Global Settings"; and press #1 "Analog Levels" and set analog level so the analog indicator on the front, which flashes green lights, gets as close as possible without ever entering the red.
THAT's IT THETA FOLKS!!!!
You can later play with other features in menu. This gets you up and running.
**Copyright 2001 by Steven J. Bruzonsky, Attorney-At-Law, volunteer Moderator of Audio Video Improvement and AVS Special Guests forums at
www.avsforum.com , AV Science on the web.
***You may republish this with my permission, which you have so long as you include these last two paragraphs so folks know I spent MANY hours to write this to help you!!!
[This message has been edited by Steve Bruzonsky (edited 06-02-2001).]
