Badly crimped coax cable source of my sound problem? (1 Viewer)

[JaymeF]

Hey everyone, I am new to the forums, wanted to say hey!

I have a Kenwood HTB-505 system that I just got. I upgraded to monster 16 guage wireing right away. Anyways, evertying works fine except when I use surround sound from my RCA DirecTV sat receiver I get background noise through the speakers.

I have a coax cable that wasn't crimped very good running from the dish to the sat receiver. I have S-video from the sat receiver to the TV and regular rca interconnects from the receiver to the kenwood receiver. DVD player is hooked up the same way.

When I play DVDs in surround sound everything is fine, but when I switch over and use prologic with my dish I get this background noise. It works fine in stereo.

Do you think that a badly crimped cable could be the cause of this problem, or what else should I be checking?

Thanks,

Jayme

 

[John-Miles]

First try watchigna dvd selecting stereo or dolby surround (not 5.1) and then apply DPL (prologic) you want to eliminate the possibility of it being the prologic.

also it seems that if the problem is the coax cable being badly crimped then wouldn't you notice problems in other speakers as well? or even in the video?

 

[JaymeF]

I'm new to the whole home theater so please bare with me.

The background noise is there when I use anything that uses all speakers, the "play movie" option or "pro logic" when watching from the sat receiver. All the modes seem fine when watching from the DVD player.


I probably wouldn't be able to pick out video problems, although it doesn't seem as crisp as I thought it would. Using a 32" Sony wega with good quality s-video all around. Sometimes when there is dark or bright area some small parts are a bit blotchy.

Although, I know there must be a problem with the coax cable because a lot of times it searches for the sat signal on certian channels.. I can't get some channels to come in.

The noise isn't even that present really, if I put my ear close to the one of the rear speakers I can hear some type of noise, mostly when there is talking, when people in movies are speaking I can hear some type of background interference of some sort, a bit muffled coupled with a bit of static.

I believe this is happening with all the speakers, although it seems to be more present in the rear speakers.

I thought that it may have been the RCA's so I did the old switch-aroo from the DVD player to the sat and the problem was still there, which leads me to believe that it is not a problem with the RCAs.

The sat cable is probably 50 feet long, I believe its rg6? and the end on it hasn't been crimped very well.

What else can I do to figure out what the source of the problem is?

 

[John-Miles]

Well the obvious switch out the cable for another one... but with a 50 foot cable that will neither be cheap or convenient.

of course you can also call up the sattilite company and complain about the problem with certain channels not comming in. my guess is that it is either the cable or a problem with your reception, in either case somethign your service provider should fix.

 

[JaymeF]

I do definitely plan on getting the cable fixed, but I was just curious if this *could* be the source of the sound problem.. is it very likely, or should I be looking somewhere else?

 

[John-Miles]

It sounds liek the problem is definitely comming from either your dish, the dish receiver, or the cable you knwo somethign along that line.

honestly it could be any of those three.

unfortunatley what looks liek a bad cable may infact be a good one, hard to tell unless you take it apart or test the resistance and conductivity through the cable with a Digital Multi Meter.

 

[Vin]

When I play DVDs in surround sound everything is fine, but when I switch over and use prologic with my dish I get this background noise. It works fine in stereo.

Jayme, I think what you're hearing is fairly common. As far as I can tell, the ability of DPL, DPL II, Circle Surround, etc. to create clean, distortion free surround sound seems to be limited by the source. I've heard it on my system (DirecTV) as well (and have heard others make similar comments in other threads). Some channels are very bad, some not so bad and on some you won't hear it unless you put your ear right up against one of the speakers.

This could also explain why you're not experienceing this with DVD when played back in DPL, i.e., you're starting out with a better source. BTW, based on your statement, "I have S-video from the sat receiver to the TV and regular rca interconnects from the receiver to the kenwood receiver. DVD player is hooked up the same way" ...has me wondering if you've made a digital connection (either optical or coaxial) from your DVD player to the receiver.....????

Vin

 

[JaymeF]

Vin,

I have everything running through the kenwood receiver. Svideo from DVD to the receiver, svideo from sat receiver to the kenwood, and from the kenwood to the TV.

For audio connections I only have two sets of RCA cables. One from the sat receiver to the kenwood and one set from the DVD player to the kenwood. The current DVD player I have does not have optical.

So this may be common depending on the sat receiver quality and the quality of the channel I am watching?

When I am watching a regular TV show like a sitcom, should I just be using Stereo or pro logic?

 

[Vin]

When I am watching a regular TV show like a sitcom, should I just be using Stereo or pro logic?

I usually use DPL II....I don't find the distortion to be that noticeable using DPL II with most programming. I've found that the distortion is worse when using Circle Surround if the audio signal is of poor quality which is often the case with the networks. On the other hand, it seems to work very well for some movies on HBO that aren't broadcast in DD 5.1.

Vin

 

[JaymeF]

Thanks for all the help so far, it is greatly appreciated

So your saying that I should hook up my DVD player a different way? I think I did notice the orange connector there. How do I do this? I notice on my Kenwood receiver that I have a 6 channel audio input? there is like 6 rca inputs? I'm not sure how to hook this up. I guess I have just been playing my movies in Prologic and not noticing.

Can anyone help me hook this part up correctly? right now I just have one set of RCA's from the L/R on the DVD player to the L/R DVD/CD inputs on the kenwood receiver. Do I leave these how they are and hook up a new wire, or what?

 

[John-Miles]

Vin, while that may be common with DPL the channel problem really makes me think it is a problem with the receiver or connection or something.

 

[JaymeF]

I'm pretty sure it's not the receiver itself. I have a dual LNB and the other one is done right, I have used this receiver on that one and worked fine before, i'm pretty postitive that its the cable and/or the connector.. what I am trying to find out is if that could actually cause problems with surround sound?

 

[Vin]

Vin, while that may be common with DPL the channel problem really makes me think it is a problem with the receiver or connection or something.

John, I guess it's possible that Jayme also has a connection or receiver problem.

 

[JaymeF]

So I only have to run the one cable? I still need the L/R RCA's that I already have hooked up though right? What should the input say on the back of the kenwood receiver?

 

[Vin]

?

What should the input say on the back of the kenwood receiver?

It should read "digital coaxial input" or something like that. There will very likely be more than one digital coaxial input on your receiver....make sure you connect to the one that goes with the S-video connection of your DVD player.

Vin

 

[JaymeF]

Thanks a heck of a lot guys, you have been very helpful. When I get off work I will check that out. I will buy a proper cable for it So basically it looks like a regular RCA cable except there is only one end?

 

[John-Miles]

Just ask for a digital coax cable they will get you what you need and yes basicaly it looks liek a single rca connection type cable.

 

[JaymeF]

Something like This ?

 

[Vin]

Here's one you can pick up at RS.

Vin

 

[John-Miles]

Yes Jayme thats exactly it.