Want to receive 5.1 cable (1 Viewer)

[Steve WC]

My cable company has been showing movies lately in Dolby 5.1.

Can I just output my TV sound to my yammie or do I have to come in from the audio outputs on the cable box?

Thanks

Steve

 

[Bill Catherall]

Are the audio outputs on your cable box digital or analog? (In other words...is it a single output labeled digital, or is it a left/right audio output?)

If your cable box doesn't have a digital output then you won't get the 5.1 Dolby Digital signal. If your cable company is indeed offering 5.1 DD on movies then ask them for a new box with a digital audio output.

 

[Steve WC]

Looks like the basic L/R outputs.:frowning:

 

[Selden Ball]

If you're lucky, the stereo outputs on your cable box will provide matrixed surround sound on the channels that are originating in 5.1. Processing the stereo outputs through your receiver with ProLogic will sound quite a bit better than your TV's sound.

 

[Adam_Smith]

In order to listen to the movies broadcast by your cable company in Dolby Digital you need to be a subscriber to digital cable. If you are a digital cable subscriber check the back of your cable box for an optical audio out (this will either be a little square with a black cover sticking out of it or a a litte square with a red light) or a lone (probably orange)digital audio connector. If one of these connectors does no exist contact your cable company for an up to date box, otherwise your are out of luck. If they do exist you can conenct either of those conenctors to its match on your 5.1 A/V receiver. Otherwise your nect best option is to connect the red/white rca type connectors on your cable box to a dolby prologic decoder which can extract a "3.1" channel audio from the analog signal, assuming the source is formatted properly. Otherwise, I hate to say it, you are bum out of luck.

 

[Scott FP]

Wait a minute here, correct me if I'm wrong. I thought RCA jack outputs are capable of carrying digital signal out of a digital set top box.

 

[Selden Ball]

Some digital set-top decoder boxes do indeed provide a coaxial Dolby Digital audio output using an RCA connector. (e.g. Scientific Atlanta Explorer 2000)

Unfortunately, a lot of cable companies do not provide set-top-boxes with digital audio outputs of any kind. They use "digital cable" so they can carry more channels on their system. The decoder boxes they rent only give the subscriber the traditional composite video and stereo audio outputs.

 

[Bob_Nelson]

Some cable boxes have the digital coax or optical outputs on them but most do not. If all you have are the standard red/white audio out then the best you can hope for is Dolby Pro-Logic.