Wiring thoughts! (1 Viewer)

[Christo Ramo]

I am new and would like to say hello to everyone to start!

I currently have one of those home theaters in a box from Kenwood, the VR-309 with DTS. Currently my cable company (Comcast) did not supply me with a coax out on the box but told me that if I got my hands on one it would work. I would imagine they are right but here is my problem. I have a tivo and as much as I would like to have digital sound the tivo will have to have its own sound feed and once I pause or rewind the sound would be out of sync. Is there a way around this? Better yet is there a way to forget about getting the new cable box and buy a digital converter to add right after the sound comes out of the tivo. It would be cool to go from stereo rca's into a converter that made the signal digital and output it through either coax or optical to connect to my reciever. I hope this isnt too confusing - please help!

Regards

 

[Michael Reuben]

Sorry, but there is no way to synchronize the sound on digital cable with the output of a TiVo. The two will be out of synch even if you do not pause or rewind the broadcast, because TiVo introduces a slight delay before it sends the signal to your TV (that's how it can handle pausing and rewinding).

If you get a digital output from your cable box, you'll have to choose between (a) watching through TiVo, using the analog stereo left and right outputs from TiVo itself, and (b) watching a truly "live" broadcast with digital sound from the cable box -- without TiVo.

Better yet is there a way to forget about getting the new cable box and buy a digital converter to add right after the sound comes out of the tivo. It would be cool to go from stereo rca's into a converter that made the signal digital and output it through either coax or optical to connect to my reciever.

It might be "cool", but it wouldn't improve the sound. All you'd be doing is adding several unnecessary stages of digital/analog conversion into a signal that TiVo has already pulled off your cable. It wouldn't improve the sound and might well degrade it.

M.

 

[Christo Ramo]

Is there a device to add to the tivo output to achieve dolby digital?

 

[Bill Lucas]

Christo,

No. The best you can do with an analog signal from a TIVO is something like Dolby Pro-Logic II processing.

 

[Christo Ramo]

I guess I have to wait for tivo to make a digital unit before I can really take advantage of dolby digital. I con't believe they left that out. Thanks for all the quick responses.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Is there a device to add to the tivo output to achieve dolby digital?

I'm not sure what you mean by "achieve dolby digital".

If you mean "convert the 2-channel analog signal to a 2-channel digital signal", then yes, I'm sure there are devices you can buy to do that. But as I said above, there's no advantage in doing so.

If you mean "convert the 2-channel analog signal to a DD 5.1 signal", then the answer is no. As Bill Lucas already said, the best you can do is process the 2-channel signal through something like DPL2.

One other thing you should be aware of: If and when you do get an output for digital sound from cable, most of it will be DD 2.0. Relatively few programs are broadcast in DD 5.1.

M.

 

[Christo Ramo]

Yeah - I was looking to have the signal as it comes out of the tive to go into a "converter" that will flip the signal over to dolby digital and run either a coax or optical to my amp. But I understand that it is not going to happen. I have to make a decision of whether I want tivo or dolby digital sound when it is broadcasted. I think I will stay with the tivo and take advantage of the pro logic when it comes along.

 

[Bob McElfresh]

I con't believe they left that out.

They would have to build an ENCODER to take the analog signal from your CATV system and convert it to digital. This is not cheap/easy and considering the source, not really desirable.

Your local network sends a digital feed to your CATV company. It converts it to ANALOG and the converts it to it's own form of DIGITAL for the trip through your local coax. Your CATV box then converts it to ANALOG which you feed into your TIVO that converts it to it's own form of DIGITAL.

Thats 1,2,3 generations it has to go through just to store things on the Tivo. Converting the internal TIVO digital to Dolby Digital makes it 4 generations. Really bad.

Just because it has the word Digital dont believe it will give you the same quality as a DVD. There are different 'flavors' of Digital and the quality of the source has a lot to do with your final quality.

Hook the ANALOG L/R outputs from your TIVO into your receiver and watch everything this way. It really is the best way.

The other thing to do is to order DirectTivo (from DirectTV) or a PVR system from DishNetwork. These come as part of a sat service that:

• Remains digital until you watch/play something (Yes, the receivers record the exact bit-stream from the sat and do not do the extra conversions).
• The receivers have digital outputs.
• The HBO/Premium stations do offer DolbyDigital on some movies.

Hope this helps.