Using Standard RCA Cable for Coaxial (1 Viewer)

Hellooooooooooooooooooooooo
My receiver and DVD player happen to be 25 feet or so away from each other so I decided to spend some cash on component 3 foot cables instead of investing in extreme sound quality with coaxial or optical..
I got fed up with not having true 5.1 surround and decided to try using a spare 25 foot RCA cable..
Its a gold plated black cable, and im not sure if it was meant for video, audio, or possibly even coaxial..
Is there a way I can tell?
I tried a DVD and the 5.1 decoding signal popped up and the sound was crisp and clean, with no annoying fuzz or anything when you turn it up and theres no sound from the movie (that fuzz drove me so mad)
Im wondering if this is true 5.1, or what? ..
Either way im leaving it because its a tremendous improvement over my lol.. silver plated rca stereo cables

Thanks for the info
PS. I wanted to post a photo of my system but it says I can't yet so ah well

If you have the cable plugged into the digital output of your DVD and the digital input of your reciever, and your Reciever says it's decoding Dolby Digital or DTS then that's what you're getting. With a digital signal, it either works or it doesn't.

The DVD's audio stream may or may not be taking advantage of all of DD's surround channels but that's a different issue altogether.

The only real requirement is that the coax for digital and video has to be 75ohms (the connectors too). Audio cable, however, does not, although some is. Any 75 ohm coax will suffice, but it is not recommended to use audio cable for video or digital connection, because it may or may not be 75 ohm. Unless you are sure it's 75ohm, it's recommended that you find a 75ohm cable. IMO as long as you're using the digital connection, it should work unless the cable is WOEFULLY inadequate. If you're getting sound then it's working. I wouldn't spend time worrying about small potential degradations because of a long cable run. Hell, a regular non-75 ohm cable works just fine for digital, although there may be some very small audible drawbacks.

"I tried a DVD and the 5.1 decoding signal popped up and the sound was crisp and clean, with no annoying fuzz or anything when you turn it up "

Then that's great! You've got digital sound and you're good to go! Without it, you obviously can't get dolby digital or DTS. Go for it!

One thing to beware when using an incorrect cable in the place of a digital coaxial is possible audio dropout (loss of sound for a second or two). I have personally seen this when I split a cheap rca audio cable (L+R) and used one side of it as a digital coaxial cable. The dropouts disappeared when I got myself a dig coax cable. This is not to suggest that you look around for a 25ft dig coax cable, just something for you watch (listen) for.