Brett_H

Scientific Atlanta Explorer 3100 questions

All,

Here's my problem: last Friday we finally made the switch to digital cable. It';s through Adelphia, and they set us up with a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 3100 (standard def.) box. It's got a COAX digital output on it, so I ASSumed that it would output a digital signal. I went through the hookup to my HK 510 receiver and was stumped for about a half an hour as to why I couldn't get the digital signal to be recognized. I tried hooking up the analog cables and those worked. I had the input assigned correctly on my receiver and everything. Finally, I tried some other channels, and it was then that I realized that the box only puts out a digital signal for channels > 100. Seems that those below that are still analog.

My problem is that the receiver won't automatically switch to the digital input when it senses one, it has to be reconfigured through the on screen menu each time you want to switch from analog->digital. So for now, I'm only using the analog cables, thus missing out on any programming that might be DD encoded.

Does anyone know a way around this? Can the cable box be set to output a digital signal for all channels, or is that akin to a A->D conversion which is out of it's league? If not, can the HK receiver be set to auto-switch between analog and digital for a given input depending on what signal it's seeing?

Thanks,
-Brett.

PS - Another random question about the box and the programming guide, but tis might be provider specific: can you remove channels from the guide's lineup? I could easily cut the list (and therefore the time it takes me to scroll) in half if I could weed out channels we'll never watch. I figured out how to set up the "favorites" list, but that doesn't seem to do anything other than let me cycle through that list.

Don_Berg

I believe those older SA3100 boxes only output digital audio from digital stations, it does not have A/D conversion for the analog channels like the newer model boxes.

Brett_H

Don,

"New model" as in a different revision of the 3100, or a different model number? Is there a chance that I could swap this out for a newer 3100 and get the A/D ability?

Thanks,
-Brett.

Elliott Willschick

I get around this by having it hooked up using the composite and analog outputs to one input on the receiver, and the digital and component outputs to another input. If your receiver doesn't have component switching then you can still accomplish this, just let the tv switch the video and the receiver can do the audio. When I want to watch regular channels I put the receiver to TV and when I want to watch digital I put it to HDTV.

LMK if this is unclear and I'll explain it further.

If this is your first night, you have to fight

Don_Berg

The new model SA box is the SA3250HD I believe.