2. home-theater
  3. 1226642693

Cable tv music analogue or digital?

I was trying to improve the quality of the sound coming from my cable tv box, sometimes I like to listen to the jazz station. I ran a regular rca jack from the analogue outs on the cable box to the analogue inputs on my pre-amp, the sound is ok, but I wanted to improve the sound. so I ran a cable from the digital coax output on the cable box to the coaxe input on my Cary 306/200 cdp/dac and then into the pre-amp. guess what, no audio signal coming from the music channels but I do get an audio signal coming from the regular tv channels. Is it possible that regular tv signals are broadcasting in digital but the music channelis still going out in analogue? what else could it be.
joeb
joeb OP
121 posts
 
Jaillo,
I have a "Pace" box, I looked in the menu, on on the box and can't see anyway to ajust this.
jb
danlib1
819 posts
 
Joeb: I believe it stands for Pulse Code Modulation. Let's see what those more knowledgeable come back with.
joeb OP
121 posts
 
Ok, well, while I'm waiting on more info, here's another weak link. I have a cheap dvd. I ran the audio rca outputs from the dvd into my pre-amp, but the music sucks. It does have a digital toslink output, I wonder if I can run that into my Cary digital toslink input and just pipe the audio signal out so I can listen to concerts with some improvement? I gotta bad feeling the upgrade bug is starting to mutate again.
reubent
6,936 posts
 
Joeb,

PCM does indeed stand for "pulse Code Modulation". Basically that the name for a 2-channel stereo signal which is digitally encoded.

Your cable box might have a configuration option in the audio section which allows you to select the type of digital signal it outputs. You may be able to select "PCM" or possibly "stereo" which would be be the correct signal type to output to the DAC in your Cary.

Lastly, yes, you can connect a digital cable from your DVD player to the Cary and use the DAC in your Cary to improve the sound for concert videos. You will need to go into the audio menu in the DVD player and change the digital audio from Dolby Digital to PCM or Stereo.

Enjoy,

TIC
has2be's avatar
has2be
555 posts
 
I wanted as you did to make the sound more listenable coming through the cable box. It was a horrible experience with lousy results. I was going through some odds and ends of stuff in my closet and came across a toslink (optical) cable (audioquest) so I plugged that into the back of my aquos tv. Then plugged that into the input of a little micromega vario dac I forgot I had . I used the rca outputs on the dac and ran them into the aux. inputs(audio quest coral) of my integrated amp (tri vista 300) and now I have excellant sound. I have a home theatre set up in the basement but I don't use it , as much as the kids do anyway. I got turned off home theatre with all the constant changes that seem to just cost more and change quicker than the weather does. So this works well for me.Especially when I remind myself it was all stuff sitting in the bottom of my closet not being used. Cheers
More to discover