TerraTec DR Box 1 User Manual
English Manual
Version: 03.01.02
CE Declaration
We:
TerraTec Electronic GmbH, Herrenpfad 38, D-41334 Nettetal, Germany
hereby declare that the product:
DR Box 1
to which this declaration refers is in compliance with the following standards or standardizing
documents:
1. EN 55022 Class B
2. EN 55024
The following are the stipulated operating and environmental conditions necessary for compliance:
Residential, business and commercial environments and small-company environments.
This declaration is based on:
Test report(s) of the EMC testing laboratory
TerraTec® ProMedia, SoundSystem Gold, SoundSystem Maestro, SoundSystem Base 1, SoundSystem
DMX, SoundSystemDMX XFire 1024, AudioSystem EWS
EWX24/96, XLerate, XLerate Pro, Base2PCI, TerraTec 128iPCI, TerraTec 512i digital, TerraTV+, TerraTV
Radio+, TerraTValue, VideoSystem Cameo 600 DV, WaveSystem, TerraCAM USB, TerraCAM USB Pro,
TerraCAM iLook, m3po, Phono PreAmp, MIDI Smart and MIDI Master Pro are registered trademarks of
®
TerraTec
In most cases, the designations used in this handbook for software and hardware are also registered
trademarks and are subject to the relevant regulations.
©TerraTec
Electronic GmbH Nettetal, Germany.
®
Electronic GmbH, 1994-2002. All rights reserved (03.01.02).
®
64, AudioSystem EWS88, AudioSystem
Meticulous care has been exercised in the preparation of all text passages and illustrations in this User
Guide. TerraTec Electronic GmbH and its authors, however, accept no liability, legal or otherwise, for any
errors or the consequences of such errors. We reserve the right to technical modifications.
All text passages in this documentation are copyrighted. All rights reserved. No part of this documentation may be reproduced in any form whatsoever, by photography, microfilming or other process or rendered into a language/form usable by computers without the prior written consent of the authors. All
rights for use and propagation by presentation, radio and television are also reserved.
2 DR Box 1 (English)
Contents
Setup and Connection .......................................................................................................... 4
Unpacking and getting started Quick starting guide...............................................................5
Reception problems? ........................................................................................................5
Operation on the road...........................................................................................................6
Program selection and station buttons..............................................................................7
A detailed view of the menus ............................................................................................7
Operation with stereo equipment ........................................................................................ 12
Operation with the PC .......................................................................................................... 13
Installation and deinstallation of drivers and software ....................................................... 13
Driver installation under Windows 98 SE......................................................................... 13
Driver installation under Windows ME ............................................................................. 15
Driver installation under Windows 2000 ......................................................................... 17
Installing the DR Box application ................................................................................... 20
Deinstalling the DR Box application ............................................................................... 20
Starting the program .......................................................................................................21
Sound reproduction via PC.............................................................................................. 21
User interface................................................................................................................. 22
Digital recordings with DR Box 1 .........................................................................................25
Timer-controlled recordings ............................................................................................27
Listening to a program while recording........................................................................... 28
“Color Settings” dialog box............................................................................................ 29
Version query................................................................................................................. 30
Audio recordings with standard software ....................................................................... 30
Service at TerraTec.............................................................................................................. 36
DR Box 1 (English) 3
Setup and Connection
Front view
Power: On/Off switch
: 3.5 mm stereo jack headphones connection
Bank: Selection of four memory banks, each with 6 program memory locations
1-6: Selection of program memory location 1 through 6
Cursor buttons: Menu operation, initial state:
p q Program selection within an ensemble
t u Headphone volume control
Rear view
Antenna: BNC connector for antenna band III and L band (1.4 GHz)
USB: USB port for PC connection
Digital Out: Digital SPDIF connection for stereo equipment
Line Out: Analog connection (cinch jack) for stereo equipment
Power: 12 V/500 mA stabilized, + on internal conductor
4 DR Box 1 (English)
Unpacking and getting started Quick starting guide
Are you the type of customer who first examines everything with curiosity, intuitively connects
the parts, and consults the manual only after reaching a state of helplessness? We recommend the following steps for a quick start:
· Connect the headphones to the headphone jack.
· Place the antenna with magnetic base on the unit and connect it to the rear of the unit.
· Connect the power supply to the 12 V socket at the rear of the unit and to supply voltage.
· Turn it on! (“Power”)
Four red LEDs next to the “Bank” switch should light up and, except for one, extinguish again.
Next, start the station search by pressing the menu button three times within 3 seconds, followed by t for “Band III” receiving range or u for “L band” receiving range. The unit starts to
play automatically and displays the name of the station chain as well as the current program.
The t and u buttons are used to adjust the headphones volume and p q to scroll through
the programs.
Reception problems?
If reception is poor, only a channel number (number and letter, such as 12D) is displayed at
the end. The unit remains silent since there is no noise in Digital Radio. In this case, you
should find a better location for your antenna by first placing it near a window. If the reception
was previously poor but present, the unit should play. Otherwise, the station search must be
repeated. The search is started as described above by pressing the menu button three times
within 3 seconds, followed by t for “Band III” receiving range or u for “L band” receiving
range. If you still do not have reception, please check to see if your region is serviced by Digital Radio. If your dealer does not have any information about the reception in your region, you
can check online (in English) at http://www.worlddab.org (menu item “DAB worldwide”) and,
in particular for Germany, at http://www.digitalradio-info.de/verbreitung/, how far the expansion of stations in your area has advanced and which programs are available.
Whether an adequately strong signal was received for decoding purposes, can be checked
using the information page (press menu once): The first value in the second row indicates the
reception quality:
DR Box 1 (English) 5
Q1-Q2 should allow for perfect reception.
Q3-Q4 indicates weak reception, which may cause sound interferences.
However, it is possible to have perfect reception with Q3.
Q5-Q6 indicates that a signal is present, but that it is not sufficiently strong for decoding
purposes.
Q7 indicates absolutely no reception.
The bars to the right of the quality number also show the reception quality – the more, the
better. These bars can be used to align the antenna more easily than using the Q value. Adjustment by ear is not possible with Digital Radio since it operates practically interference-free
at a certain threshold – like all digital systems – and not at all below that threshold. A Q3
reception quality with indoor antenna may, therefore, lead to intermittent disruptions while
walking back and forth in front of the antenna. Placing the antenna at a higher location – such
as on a closet – may solve this problem.
Operation on the road
Because the DR Box 1, antenna and magnetic base are so compact, you can always take the
unit with you on a trip. Please connect only the unit's power supply. Damages from operation
with unsuitable power supplies are not covered under warranty. It is possible to operate the
unit using the 12 V car supply voltage via the cigarette lighter; the unit is protected against
overvoltages that may occur in the car supply network.
On principle, Digital Radio is well-suited for reception in moving vehicles. Within a service
area, all stations utilize the same frequency so that it is possible to drive from, for example,
Sheffield to Hull without having to set up a new station. But if you are traveling from Yorkshire
to Lancashire, or if you want to select a local city program, you must first perform a station
search. The unit does not recognize new stations by itself.
To avoid surprises – e,g, the unit “starts blaring” or remains silent – the headphones volume
is always preset to a medium value (42 of 60) when the unit is switched on. Use the t and u
buttons to adjust the headphones volume.
6 DR Box 1 (English)
Program selection and station buttons
After the station search, you can use the p and q buttons to scan the located stations. Each
station chain (“ensemble”) usually contains five to eight stations. A good service with several
ensembles can easily comprise 30+ stations; some of them may be more suitable to your
taste of music or need for information than others. 4 x 6 program memory locations are avaliable for this purpose. Press Bank to select one of the four groups; the unit switches over only
if you also press a program button – until then, however, only the corresponding Bank LED is
flashing.
To store a current station search, press and hold the corresponding program button (2–5 seconds) until Stored! appears on the display.
If you are listening to a stored program, it is indicated on the display during subsequent
scanning; for example, instead of showing P07, the unit displays the bank (A through D) and
the memory location, e.g. A02
Program 01 of the ensemble, but not
stored.
Program stored at Bank A and memory loca-
tion 01.
If you are able to receive several program packages at one location (“ensembles”), you can
call them up sequentially using station search and then scan the stations in the package using p and q. If the station search in the respective band (III or L) displays the same package
again as the one at the start, you have discovered all stations. If you store at least one program from an ensemble, you can later switch more easily between program packages instead
of using the station search function.
A detailed view of the menus
To toggle between the three menus of the unit, press the Menu button at brief intervals. The
unit returns to the default setting if no buttons are pressed for approximately ten seconds,
with the exception of menu item 1, the information page.
Default setting
After switching the unit on, it automatically activates the default setting: The first display row
shows the name of the program package (“ensemble”) on the left and the memory location of
the currently selected station on the right. The second row shows the name of the selected
station.
DR Box 1 (English) 7
Information page (first menu level)
The information page first shows a confusing number of values, but it is a great help for insufficient reception quality. It displays values such as
bit rate, transmission type, reception channel, memory channel
The values in the first row are:
192k is the bit rate at which the current program is transmitted. In this example, the bit rate
is 192 kilobit per second – a relatively high value for Digital Radio which guarantees HiFi stereo reception. Discriminating music is transmitted at this rate. As a rule of thumb: the higher
the bit rate, the higher the sound quality.
TM1 is the transmission mode (1). TM1 through TM4 are available and distinguished through
the internal coding of the signal. Here, the lower mode numbers are located in Band III and
are more immune to interference, while the highest value TM4 does away with interference
immunity the most and, therefore, is used only for satellite and cable reception.
12D is the current reception channel. In VHF television band III, each television channel was
divided into four Digital Radio channels, which explains the channel designations 5A – 5D, 6A
– 6D through 12A – 12D. Only the last channel (13) features 6 subchannels which include 13E
and 13F. In the L band, the unit counts LA through LM.
A01 is the previously selected memory channel. If the station was not saved anywhere, this
field may show P02 for the second program in the currently selected ensemble.
reception quality, status indicator, station identification
The values in the second row are:
Q2 - The Q number represents reception quality with values from 1 to 7:
Q1 and Q2 should always allow for flawless reception: everything should be perfect
Q3 and Q4 indicate weak reception, which may cause sound interferences. Q3 should allow
for flawless reception that may, however, lead to intermittent disruptions during movement in
the room. For this reason, it is recommended experimenting with the placement of the antenna.
8 DR Box 1 (English)
Q5–Q6 indicate that a signal is present (station is located), but that it is not sufficiently strong
for decoding purposes.
Q7 indicates absolutely no reception, that is, a faulty antenna connection, location in an underground parking garage or simply no Digital Radio service in the area in which you are currently located. This may still be the case in remote and rural areas. In mountainous areas,
however, Digital Radio shows significantly better results than regular FM reception since multipath reception due to reflections from mountain ranges does not cause any interferences.
The bars to the right of the quality number also show the reception quality – the more, the
better. These bars can be used to align the antenna more easily than using the Q value. Each
Q value corresponds to two bars, from all bars for Q1 to no bars for Q7. Unfortunately, adjustment by ear is not possible with Digital Radio since it operates practically interference-free at
a certain threshold – like all digital systems – and not at all below that threshold. A Q3 reception quality with indoor antenna may, therefore, lead to intermittent disruptions while walking
back and forth in front of the antenna. Placing the antenna at a higher location – such as on a
closet – may solve this problem.
7 - A single 7 represents a proper synchronized reception – a different value should normally
not appear here.
D319 – is the station identification, which is coordinated throughout Europe. For example,
the Bayern 1 program (which is presently not transmitted on Digital Radio) is D311, Bayern 2 is
D312 up to Bayern 5 which is D315. The special Digital Radio program of the “Bayrische Rundfunk Bayern digital” is D316 and the “Rock-Antenne” as the second program of “Antenne
Bayern” is D319. The regular program of “Antenne Bayern” is D318 and was even broadcast on
DAB during the initial phase of Bavarian Digital Radio.
Memory menu (second menu level)
Pressing “Menu” again on the information page (first menu level) and pressing u once displays the memory menu.
Using p and q, you can call up all of the 24 stored stations with their names.
To change the assignment, use Swap to have two stations swap their memory locations.
To do so, press t for the first one, use p and q to search for the station to be swapped, and
press t again.
DR Box 1 (English) 9
Example:
You would like to swap the memory locations A01 and A02.
To do so, press the Menu button 3 times. Choose Se-
lect by pressing u.
Press t to select Swap.
You can now use p and q to select the first program to
be swapped. The example shows Station 1 at location 1 of memory bank A (A01). Confirm the selection
with t.
The following display shows information about the next
steps.
Use p and q again to select the program which will take
on the memory location of the first one. The example
shows Station 2 at location 2 of memory bank A
(A02). Confirm the selection again with t.
The memory locations have now been swapped.
Station 1 – A02
Station 2 – A01
Press u to display the current memory location, and press “Menu” to leave the menu and
return to normal operation.
The unit will also automatically return to normal operation after a certain period of time from
this level and all other levels.
Station search (third menu level)
Pressing Menu 3 times, followed by u, brings up the station search menu.
Press t to start a station search in band III, press u to do the same in the L band.
Press p to manually enter a receiving channel.
Here, p is used to toggle between band III and L band, t and u to select the desired channel, such as 12D (in band III) or LB (in the L band), and q to switch the receiver to this channel. This allows for specific selection of channels that were not recognized by the station
search.
10 DR Box 1 (English)
Equalizer (fourth menu level)
After pressing u once and then using t and u, this option allows for adjusting individual
settings for:
Bass (low-frequency range),
Mid (mid-frequency range), and
Treble (high-frequency range).
Press “Menu” to advance. Press q to reset the respective level to its original setting.
Fifth menu level: Settings
Pressing u once displays the settings of the unit. Press “Menu” to jump to the different settings.
Digital Output: t and u can be used here to select the type of data to be fur-
nished by the digital output:
Audio pure audio data for the stereo equipment, or
RDI the complete digital data for optional add-on equipment
LCD contrast: Press t and u to adjust the contrast for the display of your DR
Box 1.
The third item shows the version number of DR Box 1 for PC-independent operation.
DR Box 1 (English) 11
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