Pioneer VSX-522-K User Manual

It is possible to listen to two-channel audio using the USB 

interface on the front of this receiver.

•

Pioneer cannot guarantee compatibility (operation and/or 

bus power) with all USB mass storage devices and 

assumes no responsibility for any loss of data that may 

occur when connected to this receiver.

•

This includes playback of WMA/MP3/MPEG-4 AAC files 

(except files with copy-protection or restricted playback).

•

Compatible USB devices include external magnetic hard 

drives, portable flash memory (particularly keydrives) and 

digital audio players (MP3 players) of format FAT16/32. It is 

not possible to connect this receiver to a personal 

computer for USB playback.

•

With large amounts of data, it may take longer for the 

receiver to read the contents of a USB device.

•

If the file selected cannot be played back, this receiver 

automatically skips to the next file playable.

•

When the file currently being played back has no title 

assigned to it, the file name is displayed in the OSD instead; 

when neither the album name nor the artist name is 

present, the row is displayed as a blank space.

•

Note that non-roman characters in the playlist are 

displayed as ‘*’.

•

Make sure the receiver is in standby when disconnecting 

the USB device.

1

Switch on the receiver and your TV.
See 

Connecting a USB device on page 17

.

2

•

Switch the TV input to the input that connects this 

receiver to the TV through the corresponding 

composite cable.

3

 appears in the OSD as this receiver starts 

recognizing the USB device connected. After the 

recognition, a playback screen appears in the OSD and 

playback starts automatically.

This receiver’s remote control buttons can be used for basic 

playback of files stored on USB devices.

•

Press 

 to switch the remote control to the iPod/

USB operation mode.

If a USB Error message lights in the display, try following the 

points below:

•

Switch the receiver off, then on again.

•

Reconnect the USB device with the receiver switched off.

•

Select another input source (like BD), then switch back to 
iPod/USB

.

•

Use a dedicated AC adapter (supplied with the device) for 

USB power.

For more information on error messages, see 

USB messages 

on page 36

.

If this doesn’t remedy the problem, it is likely your USB device 

is incompatible.

Note that although most standard bit/sampling rate 

combinations for compressed audio are compatible, some 

irregularly encoded files may not play back. The list below 

shows compatible formats for compressed audio files:

•

 (MPEG-1/2/2.5 Audio Layer 3) – Sampling rates: 

32 kHz/44.1 kHz/48 kHz; Bit rates: 32 kbps to 320 kbps 

(128 kbps or higher recommended); File extension: .mp3

•

 (Windows Media Audio) – Sampling rates: 32 kHz/

44.1 kHz/48 kHz; Bit rates: 48 kbps to 192 kbps (128 kbps or 

higher recommended); File extension: .wma; WMA9 Pro 

and WMA lossless encoding: No

•

 (MPEG-4 Advanced Audio Coding) – Sampling rates: 

32 kHz/44.1 kHz/48 kHz; Bit rates: 16 kbps to 320 kbps 

(128 kbps or higher recommended); File extension: .m4a; 

Apple lossless encoding: No

•

VBR (variable bit rate) MP3/WMA/MPEG-4 AAC playback: 

Yes (Note that in some cases playback time will not be 

displayed correctly.)

•

DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection compatible: 

Yes (DRM-protected audio files will not play in this 

receiver.)

Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) is at the core of the MPEG-4 

AAC standard, which incorporates MPEG-2 AAC, forming the 

basis of the MPEG-4 audio compression technology. The file 

format and extension used depend on the application used to 

encode the AAC file. This receiver plays back AAC files 

encoded by iTunes

®

 bearing the extension ‘.m4a’. DRM-

protected files will not play, and files encoded with some 

versions of iTunes

®

 may not play.

WMA is an acronym for Windows Media Audio and refers to 

an audio compression technology developed by Microsoft 

Corporation. This receiver plays back WMA files encoded 

using Windows Media

®

 Player bearing the extension ‘.wma’. 

Note that DRM-protected files will not play, and files encoded 

with some versions of Windows Media

®

 Player may not play.