Quick question concerning Digital Coax connection (1 Viewer)

[Chris Compton]

Basically what I'm trying to do is use a digital coax cable from my cable box to my receiver (Harmon/Kardon AVR 125 receiver). As of right now, I get no sound out of any speakers using that input, but can get sound through the analog connections (cable box to receiver, then the receiver to the TV). I can get digital sound on certain channels (digital movie channels), but not other channels. I thought it was just that my cable provider didn't send out digital sound through those channels, but a friend of mine is getting sound through his. Is it possible that he's just going through analog inputs and somehow has it coming out all of the speakers on these local channels or is there some connection on mine that I need on my setup? If it is just through analog connections, is there a way to make it so that sound can come out in more than 2 channels? The only reason why I ask is because I would like to be able to watch, for example, the NBA Finals with surround sound.

 

[Jeffrey R]

I am not familiar with that receiver, but I know that on my receiver, my four digital inputs overlap with analog inputs as well. In other words, one of my digital inputs is CD/DVD, and there is also an analog input CD/DVD. So, I need to tell my receiver whether it should accept a digital or analog signal so it knows whether to activate the digital or analog input. Your receiver might have a similar set-up, and you would need to set it to digital. Just a thought.

 

[Mike Matheson]

Chris,

How about indicating the actual channels you're having the questions about?

Most digital cable systems offer channels under 100 as ANALOG only. Channels 100 and above have digital and analog outputs.

 

[RobertCharlotte]

My cable box only outputs Dolby Digital on the digital channels (i.e., 100-up) as a rule. Oddly, there are some channels in the double-digit range that do have digital audio. I want to say one of them is AMC, but don't quote me.

 

[Vin]

Is it possible that he's just going through analog inputs and somehow has it coming out all of the speakers on these local channels or is there some connection on mine that I need on my setup? If it is just through analog connections, is there a way to make it so that sound can come out in more than 2 channels?

Any stereo (two channel) source connected to your receiver (including analog cable channels) can be played back in surround sound, i.e, DPL, DPL II, Circle Surround, etc,...it's just a matter of putting your receiver in the desired mode.

As others have pointed out, and as you've discovered, digital cable does not guarantee that all programming will be digital....the lower channels will be analog so you'll need to have the cable box's analog outputs connected to one input on your A/V receiver and the digital coaxial output connected to your receiver's digital coaxial input (to be able to play back any DD programming that may be offered....some of which will be DD 2.0, some DD 5.1).

Vin

 

[Chris Compton]

Well, for instance, say I want to listen to NBC using more than 2 speakers. I'm assuming that the channel (at least locally) is probably analog only. Is there a way to hook up the analog inputs so that I can use more than 2 speakers? Sorry for the very general questions. I'm a newbie here, and it's difficult to figure out how exactly to put the questions that I want answered.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Enable Pro-Logic decoding, that will separate the matrixed mono surround channel from basically all Primetime programming (for sports it's mostly crowd noise) and many other shows as well

 

[Chris Compton]

I think I figured it out. The person that hooked this system up added a few cables that weren't really needed. So I removed them, put the Digital coax cable from the cable box (for the channels that accept it), and connected the analog inputs from the cable box to the receiver. Now, I can get NBC on more than 2 speakers (the original setup had the TV out and input connected in that path somehow, and I think it was confusing the receiver). Anyway, it seems to work now. Thanks for your help.
Now if I could only get the PS2 to work correctly using the Digital optical cable....

 

[Jeffrey R]

If you can't get the PS2 to work properly with optical cable, that should be pretty easy to fix. Again, make sure your receiver is set up to accept the digital signal from the optical cable. And make sure that in the PS2 setup, you set up the audio to output bitstream (the digital signal). That should be it and it should work fine.