Proceed PMDT User Manual
Owner’s Manual
PMDT
Modular DVD
Transport
PR O C E E D
R
WARNING: TO REDUCE THE RISK OF FIRE OR ELECTRIC SHOCK, DO
NOT EXPOSE THIS APPLIANCE TO RAIN OR MOISTURE.
CAUTION
RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK
DO NOT OPEN
CAUTION: TO REDUCE THE RISK OF ELECTRICAL SHOCK, DO
NOT REMOVE COVER. NO USER-SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE.
REFER SERVICING TO QUALIFIED PERSONNEL.
The lightning flash with arrowhead symbol, within an equilateral triangle, is intended to
alert the user to the presence of uninsulated “dangerous voltage” within the product’s enclosure that may be of sufficient magnitude to constitute a risk of electric shock to persons.
The exclamation point within an equilateral triangle is intended to alert the user to the
presence of important operating and maintenance (servicing) instructions in the literature
accompanying the appliance.
2
Marking by the “CE” symbol (shown left) indicates compliance of this device with the EMC
(Electromagnetic Compatibility) and LVD (Low Voltage Directive) standards of the
European Community.
NOTICES
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the
FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential
installation. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in
accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee
that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause interference to radio or television
reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment on and off, the user is encouraged to try to correct the
interference by one or more of the following measures:
• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna;
• Increase the separation between the equipment and the receiver;
• Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected;
• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.
CAUTION: Changes or modifications to this equipment not expressly approved by the manufacturer could void the user’s
authority to operate the equipment.
This product incorporates copyright protection technology that is protected by method claims of certain U.S. patents and
other intellectual property rights owned by Macrovision Corporation and other rights owners. Use of this copyright
protection technology must be authorized by Macrovision Corporation, and is intended for home and other limited viewing
uses only unless otherwise authorized by Macrovision Corporation. Reverse engineering or disassembly is prohibited.
The information contained in the manual is subject to change without notice. The most current version of this manual will
be posted on our web site at http://www.madrigal.com.
Important Safety Instructions
Please read all instructions and precautions carefully and completely before operating your Proceed power
amplifier.
1. ALWAYS disconnect your entire system from the AC mains before connecting or disconnecting
any cables, or when cleaning any component.
2. This product is equipped with a three-conductor AC mains power cord which includes an earth
ground connection. To prevent shock hazard, all three connections must ALWAYS be used. If your
electrical outlets will not accept this type of plug, an adapter may be purchased. If an adapter is
necessary, be sure it is an approved type and is used properly, supplying an earth ground. If you
are not sure of the integrity of your home electrical system, contact a licensed electrician for assistance.
3. AC extension cords are not recommended for use with this product. If an extension cord must be
used, be sure it is an approved type and has sufficient current-carrying capacity to power this
product.
4. NEVER use flammable or combustible chemicals for cleaning audio components.
5. NEVER operate this product with any covers removed.
6. NEVER wet the inside of this product with any liquid.
7. NEVER pour or spill liquids directly onto this unit.
8. NEVER block air flow through ventilation slots or heatsinks.
9. NEVER bypass any fuse.
10. NEVER replace any fuse with a value or type other than those specified.
11. NEVER attempt to repair this product. If a problem occurs, contact your Proceed
12. NEVER expose this product to extremely high or low temperatures.
13. NEVER operate this product in an explosive atmosphere.
14. ALWAYS keep electrical equipment out of the reach of children.
15. ALWAYS unplug sensitive electronic equipment during lightning storms.
®
retailer.
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From all of us at Madrigal Audio Laboratories, thank you for choosing this
Proceed product.
4
A great deal of effort went into the design and construction of this precision
device. Used properly, it will give you many years of enjoyment.
Table of Contents
Unpacking and Placement ........................................................................ 7
Unpacking the PMDT .......................................................................................... 7
Placement of the PMDT ..................................................................................... 7
Operating Voltage & Frequency ................................................................ 8
Voltage label ............................................................................................... 8
A Quick Start… ............................................................................................ 9
check & connect ac power ...................................................................... 9
Quick video connection ............................................................................ 9
quick audio connection............................................................................. 9
loading a disc ............................................................................................. 9
Warm up/break-in period ................................................................................. 9
Special Design Features ............................................................................ 11
Modular hardware ............................................................................................ 11
Updatable software .......................................................................................... 11
No-compromise audio ..................................................................................... 11
Unexcelled video techniques .......................................................................... 12
Ease of use .........................................................................................................12
Industrial Design................................................................................................ 13
Front Panel, PMDT....................................................................................... 14
Rear Panel, PMDT ....................................................................................... 20
trigger tip polarity....................................................................................... 21
IR input tip polarity .....................................................................................21
building a link cable ..................................................................................21
The PMDT Remote Control ......................................................................... 25
The PMDT Menus ......................................................................................... 31
Using the menus ................................................................................................ 31
Video setup ...................................................................................................... 32
TV type ....................................................................................................... 32
black setup ................................................................................................ 32
black level ................................................................................................. 32
white level .................................................................................................. 32
chroma ...................................................................................................... 33
video outs .................................................................................................. 33
dvd pause ................................................................................................. 33
Audio Setup ...................................................................................................... 34
spoken........................................................................................................ 34
subtitles....................................................................................................... 34
favorite multichannel ................................................................................ 35
alternative sound ...................................................................................... 35
audio delay ............................................................................................... 35
output 96kHz.............................................................................................. 36
Disc behavior .................................................................................................... 36
after load… ............................................................................................... 36
play key...................................................................................................... 37
, keys ................................................................................................. 37
stop dvd ..................................................................................................... 38
power user tip............................................................................................ 38
use ESP ....................................................................................................... 38
User preferences ............................................................................................... 38
key feedback ............................................................................................ 39
OSD position .............................................................................................. 39
background............................................................................................... 39
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link options ................................................................................................. 39
display time ............................................................................................... 40
auto standby ............................................................................................. 40
screen saver ............................................................................................... 41
Information preferences .................................................................................... 41
disc time ..................................................................................................... 41
sound type ................................................................................................. 41
camera angle ........................................................................................... 42
a/v processor ............................................................................................ 42
play status .................................................................................................. 42
time of day ................................................................................................ 42
set clock ..................................................................................................... 42
Technical menu ................................................................................................ 43
video menu ............................................................................................... 43
teach IR commands ................................................................................. 43
restore defaults .......................................................................................... 44
delete programs ........................................................................................ 44
parental control ......................................................................................... 44
Programming the PMDT ............................................................................. 45
electronically saved preferences (ESP™) ....................................................... 45
audio, language ........................................................................................ 46
subtitles....................................................................................................... 46
subtitle on/off ............................................................................................ 46
camera angle ........................................................................................... 46
aspect ratio ............................................................................................... 46
black level ................................................................................................. 46
delay offset ................................................................................................ 47
lock settings ............................................................................................... 47
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ad hoc programming ...................................................................................... 47
ad hoc program menu ............................................................................ 47
Troubleshooting ......................................................................................... 50
Care & Maintenance ................................................................................ 52
U.S. and Canadian Warranty .................................................................... 53
90-Day Limited Warranty .................................................................................. 53
Five Year Extended Warranty ........................................................................... 53
Obtaining Service ..................................................................................... 54
Specifications ............................................................................................ 55
Dimensions: PMDT ..................................................................................... 56
Rack Mount Kit .......................................................................................... 57
Unpacking and Placement
Unpacking the PMDT Unpack your PMDT Modular DVD Transport and remove all accessories from the
carton.
The accessories include:
• an AC mains cable
• the PMDT remote control
• 4 AAA alkaline batteries for the remote control
• a 2 meter Link cable for use with the Proceed AVP (necessary only
for interoperation between the two units)
Important! Keep all packing materials for future transport of your PMDT.
Shipping your new component in anything other than its
purpose-designed packing material may result in damage
that is not covered by the warranty.
Placement of the PMDT The PMDT should be placed close to your audio and video processors, thus
keeping interconnect cabling reasonably short. It may be placed on a shelf or in
a cabinet where it is convenient to operate.
Drawings are included in this manual to facilitate special installations and custom
cabinetry (see Dimensions).
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Voltage label
Operating Voltage
& Frequency
The PMDT is set at the factory (internally) for 100V, 120V, 200V, 220V, or 240V AC
mains operation as appropriate for the country in which it is to be sold. (230V/
50Hz only in European Union countries, in compliance with CE regulations.)
Make sure that the label on the rear panel of the PMDT (beside the AC input receptacle) indicates the correct AC operating voltage for your location. Attempting
to operate the PMDT at an incorrect voltage can damage the unit.
The PMDT Modular DVD Transport is also set at the factory for operation on either 50 or 60 Hz AC line frequencies, as appropriate for the country in which it is
to be sold. It will not operate if it senses an incorrect line frequency.
Neither the voltage nor the line frequency setting may be changed by the user.
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If the AC mains voltage or frequency indicated on your PMDT is incorrect, please
contact your local, authorized Proceed dealer or distributor.
The PMDT can easily be powered by a normal 15-ampere AC mains line. If other
devices are also powered from the same AC line, their additional power consumption should be taken into account.
A Quick Start…
Out of the box, the PMDT is designed to operate much as a fully-featured CD
transport when playing Compact Discs, and much like other DVD players when
playing DVD discs (with the exception, of course, that the PMDT is a transport– it
has only digital audio outputs).
check & connect ac power
Quick video connection
quick audio connection
If you have not already done so, check the voltage label on the rear of your
PMDT to ensure that it matches the AC mains supply in your area. (See previous
page.) If your PMDT matches the power in your AC outlets, attach the detachable
power cord to the rear panel recepticle of your PMDT, and then to the AC mains
plug in the wall.
Once this is accomplished, depress the latching power switch mounted in the
base (or plinth) of the PMDT, on the right side. The PMDT will run through some
self-testing diagnostics, and enter standby when satified that all is well.
All the video outputs on your PMDT are active when you first unpack it. Select
component (YPbPr), S-Video, or composite (on either RCA or BNC), as needed
by your display device, and make the appropriate connection(s). For example, if
you have an S-Video equipped Proceed AVP, you would probably want to set up
an S-video input on the AVP, and rely on the AVP to then get the signal to the
television. If your television also has component (YPbPr) inputs, you should take
advantage of the higher quality that connection standard offers and also run a
direct connection from the PMDT to your television. Then, when you want the
best possible picture quality from your PMDT, remember to switch your TV to its
component input.
All the digital audio outputs on your PMDT are active at all times. Select the one
that matches the available input on your A/V processor, and make the audio connection. If you have a choice, the best options are either the AES/EBU output (the
one using an XLR connector), or the BNC output. These digital transmission inter-
faces have a slight performance edge over S/PDI F on an RCA, and a larger edge over
EIA-J (sometimes called “Toslink™”)
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loading a disc
Warm up/break-in period Although your Proceed PMDT Modular DVD Transport delivers outstanding per-
Pressing drawer at this point, on either the front panel or the remote control, will
“wake up” the PMDT (bring it out of standby) and open the drawer so you can
load a disc. Select either a CD or a DVD and press play to start enjoying your
PMDT.
formance straight out of the box, you should expect to hear it continue to improve as it reaches its normal operating temperatures and its various components
“break-in.” It has been our experience that the greatest changes occur within the
first few hours as the PMDT reaches thermal equilibrium. Depending on how
cold the PMDT was when you first connected it to AC power, full thermal equilibrium might take as long as a day or so. After this initial break-in period, its
performance will remain quite constant, assuming that the unit is toggled between operate and standby (rather than being turned fully off).
The only exception to this rule is if power is removed from the unit for a few
hours, allowing it to cool down. Depending on the degree of cooling involved,
you should expect a brief warm-up period before the PMDT’s sound quality is at
its best. Unless your PMDT was allowed to become quite chilled, subsequent
thermal re-stabilization should not take long.
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Special Design Features
Modular hardware Perhaps the most obvious distinction of the PMDT is its card-cage design. With
seven slots on a powerful and flexible backplane, the PMDT represents an investment in avoiding premature obsolescence in state of the art DVD playback. With
the exception of the power supplies (there are four of them), all important circuitry resides on these easily-replaced cards.
These cards include the MPEG decoder and transport interface (immediately adjacent to the transport loader); a component video output card; a composite and
S-video output card; a digital audio output card; and the communications/control
card. This leaves two slots open for future expansion. After all, what good does
an “expandable” design such as this do if there is no room to expand?
Updatable software Less obvious, but every bit as important, is the degree of software modularity
built into the PMDT. We chose not to accept the standard DVD navigation software that comes with a laser transport mechanism, with all its limitations and
confusion. Instead, we re-wrote all of the software from an extremely low level
on up. While this represents a huge undertaking for a small company, the benefits seemed more than worth the effort: we would be able to address many of
the failings found in the typical DVD user experience, making the PMDT a pleasure to use; we would also be able to incorporate new technologies more easily
as they were developed.
Thus, if standards evolve to the point that a new transport is required to read
new data formats on discs, we can swap out the necessary hardware, and make
some new “connections” between it and our own software. Rather than having to
start all over again, we can continue to use the infrastructure we have developed,
and our customers can continue to enjoy the benefits of what we hope you’ll
agree is a superior user experience. Just as important, no one has to throw away
everything they own and start over—something that cannot be said for any product that does not have equivalent hardware and software modularity.
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No-compromise audio For DVD machines, audio is usually an afterthought. The usual assumption is that
people are buying DVD for the video quality and that the audio is good enough.
The result is that little effort is put into optimizing DVD systems for best audio
performance.
Madrigal’s roots and its reputation are derived from knowing and caring about
audio. The PMDT uses techniques developed for Mark Levinson Reference products to ensure the best possible recovery and transmission of digital audio signals. The PMDT is a digital audio transport – it has no analog audio outputs. It is
designed to read DVD video discs (including 24-bit/96 kHz music recordings on
this format) as well as standard Compact Discs. The transport is compatible with
Dolby Digital® and DTS®. With hardware and software changes, the PMDT can be
reconfigured to read future DVD Audio discs.
Madrigal’s CLJR™ (Closed Loop Jitter Reduction™) system is employed to optimize
performance by minimizing jitter in the digital output, regardless of whether from
CD or DVD sources. In other machines, the audio clock is slaved to the video –
not to the audio data. This is done to keep audio synchronized with video. In the
PMDT, the audio is optimized, independent of the video, while maintaining
proper synchronization. The PMDT even lets you delay audio to compensate for
recordings where the video is not synchronized with the audio. This same feature
can correct for systems where video processors delay the video signal by such a
degree that the audio is no longer in sync.
Digital audio outputs are provided on four different connector standards: EIAJ
(Toslink‘), SPDIF on RCA and BNC, and AES/EBU on XLR.
Unexcelled video techniques Many people think good video performance is a given when it comes to DVD.
And while it’s true that even the most basic DVD players deliver much higher
performance than VHS tape, they also fall short of the full potential of the format.
The PMDT is designed to extract video information from the disc with the greatest fidelity, preserving the digital signal, converting to analog and buffering the
analog output with the greatest care. The PMDT achieves superior video performance through attention to detail. Careful selection of parts and construction details – such as trimming circuit elements by hand – allow us to achieve better results. This is the same approach that distinguishes our audio designs and contributes to both their cost and their value.
The PMDT uses a 5 part-per-million TCXO (temperature controlled crystal oscillator – the same type used for our digital audio) to ensure low-jitter recovery of
the digital video signal.
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The PMDT uses 10-bit, oversampled video DACs (rather than the standard 8-bit
variety) for highest resolution. An active I-V (current-to-voltage) converter, phaseaccurate analog filters and broadcast-quality analog output buffers combine to
form a system where all aspects of the video path are well balanced.
Analog video outputs include composite on RCA and BNC, S-Video, and Component (BNC). A progressive output card will be made available as an option in the
future. The PMDT’s card-cage chassis simplifies the addition of this and other features.
Ease of use For all of the advantages that DVD can bring to audio and video performance, the
frustrating difficulty of the format has been its user interface. DVD players tend to
be difficult and awkward to use – and no two seem to work the same way. The
operation of most players even varies from disc to disc, complicating the operation of an otherwise familiar player.
The PMDT makes significant progress in this area. It allows the setting of system
defaults to help automate basic selections such as language, surround format and
aspect ratio. System defaults are easily overridden for individual discs with different, preferred settings. What’s more, the PMDT can automatically recall the settings
of a DVD from the last time it was used – with no additional programming required.
People around the world are listening to DVDs with Dolby Pro Logic® because
they don’t know that they need to select Dolby Digital®, sometimes for their
player, sometimes for each disc they play, sometimes each time they play it.
This simple example points to the problem the PMDT solves. System defaults are
used to bypass the usual navigation of DVDs as much as possible. You could simply tell the PMDT that if English, Dolby Digital and 16:9 Wide are available, those
are your preferences. Load your discs and press play – the PMDT “navigates” for
you.
Since some discs will undoubtedly be played using different options than your
system defaults (such as subtitles on the occasional foreign film), the PMDT will
remember the settings in place at the time the disc is removed from the machine.
The next time this disc is loaded, the PMDT overrides the system defaults and
plays the disc using its last settings. The PMDT remembers how you want to play
each disc. These Electronically Saved Preferences (ESP) eliminate much of the
day-to-day annoyance of using DVD players.
Programming is also available to permanently record settings for individual discs.
This method allows the PMDT to recognize when you have preferences that you
want remembered, regardless of how the disc was last used. Other programming
features, such as re-ordering or skipping titles/chapters/tracks, are included as
well.
On screen menus simplify the navigation of discs and programming of system
and disc defaults. A help menu is offered to guide users through more advanced
functions. Dealers who find particular messages to be most useful for their customers may edit help menus.
The PMDT is intuitive to use. It works like a CD player (with advanced features)
when playing CDs, and like a well-designed DVD player when playing DVDs. Our
goal has been to allow the use of multiple formats without requiring the user to
fully understand the navigation and confusing options on different discs. Load the
disc, press play and get what you want – that’s the way the PMDT works. That is
a high-performance user interface.
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Industrial Design The PMDT shares the handsome industrial design of other Proceed components
such as the AVP audio/video processor. Dark buttons against a light face simplify
the operation of the PMDT, even in a dimly-lit room.
The large, easily read display provides information as to the operational status of
the PMDT from across the room, making the supplied remote control more genuinely useful than on products lacking such a display.
In keeping with its sophisticated design, the PMDT also incorporates a Madrigaldesigned loading mechanism. Contrasting strongly with the bulky, plastic drawers
commonly used, the slim drawer is machined from a solid piece of aluminum
and rides on highly polished steel and Teflon™ bearings. Its variable-speed design
opens and closes quickly, but without jarring the disc contained within, nor risking a jam from dislodging it.
쐃 쐇쐋 쐏 쐄 쐂 쐆 쐊 쐎 쐅 쐈 씈씉씊씋씌
쐉
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standby stop
PR O C E E D
modular DVD transport
previous play next pause
drawer
title/track chap/index
display
intensity
Front Panel, PMDT
1 STANDBY BUTTON AND INDICATOR
Pressing this button places the PMDT in standby mode, turning off the dis-
play, disengaging all control functions, and turning off all outputs to the
main zone (remote zone functions are still available). The internal circuitry
remains on in order to maximize performance on demand by virtue of all
circuits remaining thermally stable. Lest you think this wasteful, you should
know that the PMDT draws about the same power as a light bulb, whether
in standby or fully on. The benefits of having it always warmed up and
ready to go (and always able to respond to remote control commands) far
outweigh the small amount of power used. We recommend using the front
panel power switch (19 ) only when you will be away from the house for
extended period of time, such as during a vacation.
menu
씎씍
power
power
enter
program
repeat
씏
return
time
display mode
modular DVD transport face art part#501xxx
fonts used: Avant Garde 5.28.98
for color and material information see mechanical print
shuffle
2 DRAWER
The PMDT employs an elegant, slim drawer that is machined from a solid
piece of aluminum. It is opened and closed by pressing the drawer button,
either on the front panel or on the remote control. If opened, it may also
be closed simply by gently pushing the front edge inward (as though you
were going to close it manually). The PMDT will interpret this as a request
to close the drawer and take over for you, smoothly closing the drawer.
If the PMDT senses an obstruction during opening of the drawer mechanism, it will attempt to re-close. If successful, it will read the disc’s table of
contents and display the disc’s number of titles & chapters (or tracks on a
CD) and total time (followed by the playlist’s track and time information, if
one exists). If for any reason the drawer does not close fully, it will stop
where it is and wait for your intervention. After removing the obstruction,
press the drawer button again to close the drawer normally.
Similarly, if the PMDT senses an obstruction during the closing of its drawer
(as might be caused by an inquisitive child’s finger), it will stop immediately and attempt to reopen. If the nature of the obstruction prevents this
also, it will stop where it is and wait for your intervention. After removing
the obstruction, press the drawer button again to close the drawer.
3STOP BUTTON
Unfortunately, DVD players and CD players often treat the
stop button dif-
ferent. This can be confusing. We allow you to make the PMDT work the
way you think it should (see the section on The Player Menu later in this
manual). However, by default,
• Pressing stop once with a CD will actually stop the disc from
spinning (introducing a slight delay upon pressing play, as the
disc spins up).
• Pressing stop once with a DVD will actually pause the disc with
a blank screen, allowing you to resume where you left off in a
movie quickly and easily by pressing play.
4 PREVIOUS BUTTON
Pressing this button momentarily will return you to the beginning of the
current DVD chapter (or CD track). Pressing it repeatedly will move you
backward through the available chapters/tracks, one at a time. Note that
some DVD discs may prevent you from using this button (and others) at
certain times.
5PLAY BUTTON
Press this button in order to play a disc. If a programmed sequence of
tracks exists for that particular disc, the program will be played from its beginning. Also, as you might expect, you may press the play button immediately after placing a disc in the PMDT’s drawer; the drawer will close and
the PMDT will enter the play mode as soon as it has read the disc’s table of
contents.
6 NEX T BUT TON
Pressing the next button momentarily will advance the PMDT to the begin-
ning of the next track. Pressing it repeatedly will move you forward through
the available chapters/tracks, one at a time. Note that some DVD discs may
prevent you from using this button (and others) at certain times.
7PAUSE BUTTON
Pressing this button during play will pause the PMDT at that point within
the track; the time display will show a “double quotation mark” (") as a reminder that you are in the pause mode.
8 DRAWER BUTTON
The PMDT employs an elegant, slim drawer that is machined from a solid
piece of aluminum. It is normally opened and closed by pressing the
drawer button located to its right. If opened, it may also be closed simply
by gently pushing the front edge inward (as though you were going to
close it manually). The PMDT will interpret this as a request to close the
drawer and take over for you, smoothly closing the drawer.
15
If the PMDT senses an obstruction during opening of the drawer mechanism, it will stop where it is and wait for your intervention. After removing
the obstruction, press either the play or the drawer button again to close
the drawer normally.
Similarly, if the PMDT senses an obstruction during the closing of its drawer
(as might be caused by an inquisitive child’s finger), it will stop immediately and attempt to reopen. If the nature of the obstruction prevents this
also, it will stop where it is and wait for your intervention. After removing
the obstruction, press the
drawer button again to close the drawer.
9 DISPLAY INTENSITY BUTTON
Pressing the display intensity button will cycle the PMDT’s display through
the four available levels of brightness: high, medium, low, and off. For example, during bright daytime hours you may wish to use high; in the
evening, in a dimly-lit room, a low setting is probably easier on the eyes.
10 D ISPL AY WIND OW
This window contains eight large and eight smaller alphanumeric characters
that provide information on the current status of the PMDT. The information
it displays depends on the type of disc being played:
• with DVDs, it provides the title, chapter, and time information for
the disc being played;
• withCDs, it provides track, index and time information.
16
There is a legend above the display window that describes the information
normally displayed.
In addition, this window displays a number of messages designed to keep
you informed as to the status of the PMDT, including SELFTEST(during initial
connection to the AC mains), LOADING (with a spinning slash, during disc
spinup), and other cues to help you get along with the onscreen display
should you be playing a CD without the television on.
11 DISPLAY MODE BUTTON
The time section of the display can be set to display any of the following
four indications of time in minutes and seconds: time elapsed on title/disc,
time remaining on title/disc, time elapsed on chapter/track, time remaining on chapter/track
(depending on whether you have loaded a DVD or a
CD). These four options are accessed by pressing the display mode button,
which cycles through the four modes of time display, using both the
onscreen display and the front panel display window to indicate which
mode is chosen at any moment.
12 INFRARED TRANSMITTER (WITHIN DISPLAY)
The PMDT has the ability to teach a learning remote control its own commands from an IR transmitter located in this area. (See Using Learning Re-
mote Controls for more information.)
13 RETURN BUTTON
Used in DVD navigation, the return button will also return you to where
you were on the disc after a stop command, unless the authoring of the
DVD in question explicitly prohibits doing so. It may also be used by a
DVD disc author for part of their onscreen menu system.
14 MENU BUT TON
In the DVD standard, there are provisions for both disc menus and player
menus, which can get confusing. When you first press the
menu button,
you will be presented with a choice on the onscreen display:
Disc Menu
Player Menu
Help Menu
About…
(In the front panel display window, you will see only the currently selected
menu.)
Subsequent presses of the menu button will cycle through your options.
When you have highlighted the one you want to use, press enter.
Note that using this system, you can (for example) access the player menu
to check on your PMDT’s setup at any time, without having to stop the disc.
Once you are working in the player’s menu system, the menu button acts
like a “cancel” button on your computer, allowing you to exit a particular
menu item without having made any changes.
Since some DVD discs use the menu button as part of their internal
navagation, when you are already within a disc menu, the list of choices
presented on screen will change to:
Send MENU command to disc
Player Menu
Help Menu
About…
Pressing enter while the first item on the above menu is highlighted will
issue the menu command that some discs require for navigation. Note that
the menu shown immediately above only appears when you are within the
DVD’s own menu structure—not while watching a movie, or while stopped,
or while listening to a CD. The PMDT is smart enough to be context-sensitive. That is, it will give you access to the things you might need, when you
might need them.
15 ENTER BUTTON
As you might expect, the enter button allows you to explicitly save any
changes you might make in the menu system. It may also be used by DVD
discs as part of their own navigation system.
17
16 PROGRAM BUTTON AND INDICATOR
The program button on the front panel duplicates the function of the prog
button on the remote control. Pressing either generates a popup menu on
the on screen display containing the following:
Add Item
Delete Item
Save Program
Delete Program
Program On
(or Program Off, depending on which mode you are in)
Pressing program repeatedly cycles you through the listed options. The currently selected option is highlighted on the screen, and appears in the front
panel display. For more information on programming your PMDT, see Pro-
gramming the PMDT later in this manual.
The program indicator LED is lit when the PMDT’s program mode is en-
gaged, e.g., while a programmed playlist is being played. If a program has
been saved for the current disc, you may toggle the program on and off by
pressing program (or prog on the remote), moving the highlight to Pro-
gram On
ter.
or Program Off (the last item on the popup list), and pressing en-
For more information on programming your PMDT, see Programming
the PMDT later in this manual.
18
17 SHUFFLE INDICATOR
By pressing shuffle on the remote control, the PMDT will enter a random
play mode in which the order of the current disc’s playlist is scrambled, and
then played. The shuffle LED on the front panel will illuminate to indicate
this random play mode. Moreover, placing the PMDT into random play
mode while the disc repeat function is engaged will cause it to play the
various tracks on the disc randomly indefinitely (until you stop it). This can
be a great way to provide background music during a dinner party, for example.
18 NAVIGATION CLUSTER (UP/DOWN, LEFT/RIGHT) & IR SENSOR
This cluster of four buttons (up, down, left, right) duplicates the same set of
buttons on your remote control, allowing you to operate the PMDT fully
from the front panel whenever that is more convenient (such as when the
remote has gone astray between the cushions on the couch). In addition,
during normal play (as opposed to when you are in a menu), left and right
can be used to access scan reverse and scan forward, respectively.
The space on the inside of this cluster is used for the infrared receiver. Infrared commands transmitted from the remote control are received by a
receiver behind this section of the display. Remote control of the PMDT may
be unreliable if there is not a clear line of sight between the remote control
and the receiver (if the remote is far off-axis, or if the PMDT is within a
cabinet, for example). In such a case consider using a third-party IR repeater to route the signal to the IR input jack on the rear panel (see Rear
Panel, PMDT, below).
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