This is somethin I OUGHT to know, and feel incredibly dumb asking…
Is the fiber-optic link betw a DVD player and my Onkyo theater-in-a-box for sound AND picture, or just for sound?
The only way I can get sound AND picture through to my monitor is to run from the sound through the fiber link, and the video through the video ins and outs. I had assumed that the fiber link would take care of both, but I couldn’t get a picture through it.
Do I have some kind of switching problem/defect, or is my system working as intended?
Just sound. I havent heard of any equipment on the market yet that does a digital picture, but if (and when) there is, that’ll be a separate connection.
Too cool! My wife has let me buy a surround sound system for home and I’m 90% certain I’ve settled on the Onkyo HT-S650. By any chance is this what you have? If so what are your opinions about this system?
Not to make this a complete hijack the optical cable is strictly for audio. However, I’ve heard that the coax connector (if available) is better for short cable runs. The optical cable is superior if your cable run gets longer (I have no idea how long but I would guess over 7-10 feet) as it doesn’t suffer from attenuation as badly as copper wire. I have also heard there are some occasional problems with certain audio when transmitted via an optical cable rather than as an analog signal via a copper cable. This problem (and it’s killing me I can’t remember) only shows itself under very particular circumstances IIRC so it’s not a huge issue but you may want to ask around about it. I’ll see if I can dig up the reference I read while researching my new surround sound system.
I can’t imagine how an analog connection would offer better sound quality then a digital. The analog would have to go through a d/a converter then a a/d converter on the receiver.
I did say ‘analog’ over copper but you are actually correct. It is a digital signal over coax. Sorry about that.
I’m still looking for what I read about that but I’ve been througha ton of material and didn’t keep track of everything. Hopefully I can still dig it up for my own edification if nothing else.
I have a home theater system and the fiber optic , while it produces digital sound, also drops the volume level to near inaudibility. The analog has a louder, more theater like sound IMHO. The whole thing (home theater system) also has a slight humming noise.
One advantage to using the fiber audio cable (or the basically equivalent coax digital cable) is the transmission of additional surround sound information to your receiver. You can only output Dolby Digital (5.1 etc) and DTS if the path between your source (DVD player) and processor/amp (receiver) can transmit a digital signal.
My Onkyo receiver has 2 coax and 2 fiber digital inputs…I find the coax ones easier to work with, as I’m not worried about the minimum radii of the fiber cables.
any suggestions on how to fix the ground? If there is a way to do so, I would be very greatful. I am considering scrapping the whole thing, the hum is so bad (to me, others say they can barely hear it, perhaps that is b/c they did not drop the wad for it).
Thanks for the quick replies. The manual didn’t directly address the question, and as I read it seemed to suggest the the optical link was an alternative to analog rca cables.
Whack-a-Mole, that is EXACTLY the system I bought. I a Toshiba progressive scan DVD, but I don’t yet have a TV good enough to take advantage of that. Circuit City, cost me about $550. I watched my FIRST DTS movie last night. I wanted something with good effects, so I chose Saving Private Ryan. AWESOME! My cats were freaked! I’m impressed, but I haven’t had it long enough yet (obviously) to give a considered opinion.
All the wires are somewhat of a hassle. Anybody know if there’s an IR based home theatre system, with indepently powered speakers? I didn’t come across any, and it’s not something I would buy without trying it out with my own ears.
That seems really odd and if anyone can confirm of deny this I would appreciate it. Nevertheless I’m glad I got to salvage at least a little credibility here.
dvd-a doesn’t get transmited from player to reciver in digital for copyrite issuses. If you could grab the high resolution signal you could make perfect digital copies.To combat this all digital processing must be done in the player and then outputed in analog
You’d think by now the jerkwads would figure that where there’s a will there’s a way and people will defeat their copy protections. I’m not mad that I can’t copy their stuff but I am mad that they are making my already insanely complex wiring scheme at home even more complex. I probably have enough metal in my home theater wiring to build a small car!
Whatever the truth is I am a bit stuck on how this works with my home theater setup. Apparently the digital audio out (fiber or coax) will hamstring any DVD-A disk I play. The only other audio output on the Panasonic DVD-RP91K is a standard 2-channel audio out jack. Even if my new fangled surround sound receiver has analog surround sound inputs how the heck to I get the signal to it?
Help! I’m all excited to go out and buy this stuff tomorrow and now I’m not so sure I’ll be getting what I thought I paid for! Does anyone know how these hookups are supposed to function to get true-blue 5.1 DVD Audio to knock my socks off?
Gotcha, the ‘analog’ threw me off course there. YoJimbo, a system looks a lot cooler if there are miles of spaghetti cable knotted up all over the place
Nevermind answering what’s supposed to be done here as I think it is pretty obvious.
Nevertheless the record company bastards are making me us 12 cables now instead of 7 but why should they care?
[sub]I really wish there was a way for me to send money directly to the artists and bypass the record companies altogether. Music would be cheaper for me and likely the artist would make more as well (hey…a guy can dream can’t he?). [/sub]
