Harman Kardon AVR 247 & 347 discussion thread. - Page 10

My TV does...so long as I connect my console directly to the TV. But when I send it through the receiver, the option to view the image in 4:3 gets grayed-out. One can deduce that this is because the receiver outputs a 1280x720 image, and my TV (Sony E42A10) cannot "unstretch" a widescreen input. From a TV manufacturer's point of view, I don't think it would make any sense to include this type of feature anyway.

Edit: It is a shame, because 16:9 content looks really good. DVDs on my PS2 used to look like crap, but through the 247 they look pretty darn good.

I just hooked up my new HK 247... I have to say great sound very warm feeling. I have two Athena AS-F2's (big towers)

BUT

when I hooked up my Apple via Componenet at 720P it shows a picture then it will blank out?

Does any one have an Apple TV and the 247?


TIA
John

I have an AppleTV and also used a 247 (I have the 745 now). I think it worked. It was a while ago. I can try using the Apple TV with my 745 and let you know. Right now I have it plugged directly to the TV since my two HDMI ports on the 745 are used up for my HD-DVR and my PS3.

I have an AVR240 but i figure you guys can help anyways

Why doesnt the "direct" button on my remote work? I have my computer hooked up to my avr240 via 3.5mm --> interconnects --> tape input, and sometimes i like to turn on my hsu subwoofer, and sometimes i just like to run my monitor audio RS6s by themselves in a 2.0 setup. On my onkyo 603x i could just press direct and it bypasses everything and sends the audio straight as it is, so straight 2 channel, but on my avr240 direct does nothing. I have to set it up so i have no subwoofer on that input, and cant ever use my sub without going through several menus.

Anybody have a Wii hooked up to one of these over component (480p)? I'm assuming the receiver would still upsample that to 720p over HDMI? Any issues there?

Has anyone ever hooked a 247 up to a set of DefTech BP8s or BP6s? I love the sound of the HK receiver and these speakers but I have never heard the 2 together. Thanks in advance.

- Bill

The direct button on the remote is for a completely different purpose. It might have to do with the AM/FM tuner I think.

As far as I know, H/K does not have a direct feature. Instead it uses the bass management that you have programmed in. It is not simulating anything by sending stuff to the sub. It is sending stuff to the sub because you set it up that way. If you don't want your sub, set your speakers to large and set the sub to just LFE, not LFE+L/R. Then you will not get anything over the sub for 2.0 content. If you set your speakers to small, you are instructing the receiver to send all frequencies lower than the crossover to the sub. You can't expect the receiver to now cutoff the sub content - you will be missing stuff in the music.

if you don't mind trying it with the component (vs HDMI)

I don't understand it at all? If I reboot the Apple TV i will work fine - I have even bumped the resolution down to 480i or p from 1080i... after it reboots it will go blank (sound works). I didn't think component sent any "data" just raw analog feed?

as stated before I tried the other two sets of component jacks - actually my HR20 is in one of those jacks and it works fine!

again any input would be great. As I want to keep this receiver....

John

Is there anyway to plug in a turntable to the AVR 347?

Can somebody who owns a 247 do me a huge favor and measure the depth for me including the volume knob? I have my eye on this receiver, but the media stand the wife insisted on is pretty shallow -- probably won't be able to squeeze it in if it goes much over the 15" depth quoted in the specs.

Thanks!

I know how to make it so my music is 2.0 or 2.1, the problem is its STUPIDLY hard to change it.

I have been eyeing the H/K 247 for a while now and I think it might work for my needs. I have a Sony Bravia with native resolution of 1366x768(KDL-40S2010), so the fact that this only upscales to 720p would not affect my situation. Is that correct?

I have this receiver and the Samsung HP-T5064 with a native resolution of 1366x768 and I switch through the AVR fine. I've set my HD-DVD player at 720p and the AVR to 720p and it works great. My understanding is the 247 set to 720p doesn't do any scaling to the video. When I purchased this receiver I wanted to pair it with other 720p/1080i capable systems. I figured the Toshiba HD-A2 with the 247 and the Samsung would be a great combination. So far I haven't been disappointed at all! I also have a 360 that I've set for 720p and I've had no issues with it either.

I'm trying to decide between this unit and the 147. The big draw to me for this unit is the upconverting of analog signals to 720p. I have a standard DVD player and a Sony DHG-HDD500 (Cable box/DVR) that I would upconvert. Would there a discernable difference when the upconversion is applied to these two sources? Thanks in advance for your help.

The 247 is more useful for the HDMI audio processing and more power than the 147. The conversion of analog signals to HDMI is also a good perk. The quality itself may not give you a huge boost if the TV already has a good scaler built-in. It depends. However, the convenience of one cable is a good thing.

I have a DHG-HDD250 and a 1080i TV and the AVR 745 (which upscales to 1080i). I have seen 480i shows upscaled internally using the HD-DVR as well as let the 745 do the scaling - they look pretty even. I guess my TV has a pretty good scaler.

Now when you say the 247 is more useful for audio processing, is that only for 7.1 or would the audio be better for 5.1 also. This is going in my main living room so I will not be using a 7.1 setup, only 5.1.

FWIW the TV is a Samsung LNS4692.

The AVR247 is an excellent 5.1 receiver, and in fact, only takes in 5.1 sources via HDMI. The only way to get 7.1 input at the moment is via multi-channel analog.

Just thought id toss in my info.
I finally bought a 247 last week, started class this week so didnt get to play with it much.
The LFE are lower than my 240... which I took care of by using my old phoenix gold crossover Wish I didnt have too but cant complain for how much I paid for the receiver. I am using the HK as a prepro as my Rotel supplies the power. It sounds the same on DTS and Digital tracks, but the PCM audio from the PS3 is sick

On a side note, does a TiVo series 3 kick out 5.1 via HDMI?

I measured mine and these are the depth specs:

1. Unit plus volume knob is 14.25 inches.
2. I have about two inches of cables connected to the back of the device including the speaker connectors.
3. My total depth is 16.25 inches.

Thanks for the reply. Glad to hear your setup is working well and I hope the same goes for my setup as well

HDMI audio processing has the following benefits

1) One cable does it all - no need to hook up optical/coax cable
2) supports 2 channel, 5.1, 7.1, bitstream, LPCM, etc.
3) 5.1 and 7.1 LPCM require HDMI and cannot be obtained through optical/coax
These formats are ONLY available on HD-DVD and Bluray.

It does 6.1 DTS and in fact, feeds the back channel to both back channels. I can't remember if it allowed overlaying or not, but with both channels fired up, who cares?

My contact told me to contact him again at the end of August, so I'm still hoping...

BTW, we 745 owners are also waiting for another firmware upgrade. H/K confirmed that there is a LFE bug in the Logic7 processing in the 745. So, I am relying on DD PL IIx right now. I love Logic7 and hope to turn it back on once the firmware is released.

How does the 247 & 347 compare to the 445?

I see the price of the 445 is mostly in betwen the 247 & 347 and am wondering what the pros/cons of it and how it compares. I see there is a little bit more power per channel in the 445.

247: 50w x 7 channels, 65w x 2 channels
445: 65w x 7 channels, 75w x 2 channels

That's most likely not going to do him any good. Motorolla boxes in general have a problem with HDCP repeaters. If anything connect your cable box into your reciever via components and let the reciever do the upscaling of content. I had the same problem and did extensive research on it. The only fix so far is a firmware update through the cable company, mine apparently doesn't have it yet. You're going to have to spend hours on the line with your cable company jumping from one tech to the other for that update if comcast does have it. They're probably going to say they never heard of it before ( such lies) but if you do come across management they might be able to help you out.

445 does not process audio thru HDMI. The advantages of the 445 as I can see are more power, the ability to overlay Logic 7 over Dolby Digital and DTS (via optical or coax), a USB input, and 3 coax and optical inputs on the rear. The 247 only has 2 of each.

From the 445 FAQ on the HK website.

Question: I've connected the HDMI™ output on my DVD player, set-top box or other source device to one of the receiver's HDMI inputs, and I've connected the receiver's HDMI output to an input on my video display or TV. Although I am able to see the picture on the display and I can hear audio through the TV's speakers, why can't I hear any audio through the speakers connected to the receiver, even when I disable the TV's speakers?

Answer: Your receiver is capable of switching HDMI signals, but it cannot access the data and process it. Thus, the receiver is passing the audio and video information through to your video display without processing it in any way.

In order to benefit from the receiver's superior audio reproduction capabilities, make a separate digital audio connection from either the coaxial or optical digital audio output on your source device to the corresponding digital audio input on the receiver. Then adjust the audio input setting in the receiver's on-screen menu system (usually found in the Input Setup or In/Out Setup submenu) to assign the correct audio input to your source.

ok
i am officially confused.i bought this 247 to go with my ps3 and panny 1080p plasma.
page 7 in the manual says it will do 1080p passthrough
page 39 says high resolution video signals 1080i/p are not available at the hdmi output and are downconverted to 720p for the component video monitor outs.
can someone please make sense of this to me.
i dont want my 1080i/p downconverted to 720p.i thought thats waht passthrough meant.it could pass through unchanged??

It will passthru 1080p over HDMI

Page 39 is refering to devices that put 1080i/p signals over Component....Like the XBOX 360. The 247 cannot pass 1080i/p signal that come in over component out thru the HDMI output. Only 1080i/p that come in via HDMI1/2 get passed out thru the HDMI output.

Plugged my PS3 via HDMI to the receiver. The receiver is plugged into the TV (Samsung DLP5687) via HDMI. I lose picture and sound, or get a vertical green bar on the right side of the screen, when loading a game or video from the PS3 start page. Only unplugging and replugging the HDMI cable in game seems to solve the problem. When plugged into the TV my PS3 works fine. Is there something I am missing here? Tech support said it was a resizing issue with the PS3 but all the output setting appear to be fine. Has anyone seen this before?