Optical Audio/Digital Coax Connections

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Richchad

New Member
I am ditching my Sky HD and a Sony Freeview PVR for a Humax HDR1000s Freesat receiver and a Humax HDR2000T Freeview receiver.

They both only have optical audio outputs and analogue audio jacks, I need to connect both to my Sony Blu-ray BDV-E870 Home Theatre System which has only one optical audio input, one Digital Coax audio input and analogue jacks.

So my question is which is best way to connect both...

I will connect the Freesat receiver to the optical input as will use this most of the time, from reading various websites I could use an optical splitter in reverse, an optical switcher but they only seem to be manual, or possibly an optical to digital coax converter like the CYP AU-D2 which has tempted me.
I assume the analogue jacks are not the best option?
 
Why not audition the analogue connection before rejecting it - zero (or at least very low) cost, and if you can't hear the difference it doesn't matter how "not the best option" it might be. You could, for example, have digital and analogue inputs connected from the same source for the purpose of testing.
 
Black Hole said:
Why not audition the analogue connection before rejecting it - zero (or at least very low) cost, and if you can't hear the difference it doesn't matter how "not the best option" it might be. You could, for example, have digital and analogue inputs connected from the same source for the purpose of testing.
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Yes you are probably right, as my hearing isn't great anyway, after all I remember when it was only analogue, I just automatically thought digital must be better...
I also wondered as the picture was connected via HDMI that maybe the audio should be digital, and would there be any problem with synchronization..?
 
Richchad said:
I looked at similar ones with Amazon, but read mixed reviews, a bit cheaper than the CYP AU-D2, but guess they must be working okay for you..
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The device that I linked to in post #2 has been working very well for me for almost two years, and allows me to listen to 5.1 channel surround from my TV tuner via my AV receiver, which only has one optical and one coax input.
 
Richchad said:
Yes you are probably right, as my hearing isn't great anyway, after all I remember when it was only analogue, I just automatically thought digital must be better...
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Disregarding the surround sound issue, the digital audio data has to be converted to analogue somewhere along the line - it just depends which device makes the best job of the conversion and how good the analogue path is between the conversion and the final output. The big advantage of digital is in the broadcast link, where analogue quality is subject to distortions and noise but digital is not.

Richchad said:
I also wondered as the picture was connected via HDMI that maybe the audio should be digital, and would there be any problem with synchronization..?
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The same applies wherever the conversion is performed. The HDR-FOX has a lip sync adjustment in the settings menus, and as far as I can tell from existing discussion the HDR2000T is almost certain to have the same.

I find it very difficult to set up the lip sync - the old digital test transmissions had a specific test card which was like a clapper board but we don't get those now. The brain expects sound to arrive after vision, so the sound can be a good few tens of milliseconds late without any problems, but make it even one millisecond early and the effect is really weird (speed of sound is approx 1 foot per millisecond).
 
Thanks guys for your help, I think all in all I will keep to digital and convert the optical to coax as want the 5.1 channel sound and like Brian my AV system has only one optical and one coax input.
 
Richchad said:
Thanks guys for your help, I think all in all I will keep to digital and convert the optical to coax as want the 5.1 channel sound and like Brian my AV system has only one optical and one coax input.
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One other option is available depending on your TV, as some makes/models have an optical output that will pass through 5.1 surround from devices connected to it's HDMI inputs, unfortunately my Samsung does not. If yours does, you would only need an optical cable between your TV and home theatre system, this means that you would not need to use your coax input.
 
brian said:
One other option is available depending on your TV, as some makes/models have an optical output that will pass through 5.1 surround from devices connected to it's HDMI inputs, unfortunately my Samsung does not. If yours does, you would only need an optical cable between your TV and home theatre system, this means that you would not need to use your coax input.
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I am afraid my 7 year old Pioneer Plasma TV doesn't have any optical outputs, it only had 1 HDMI input so have had to use a switcher for 3 inputs.... Looking at all the new TV's now, would like to replace it really but hard to justify when working okay at the moment... :(
 
Never mind, so it looks as though your only cost effective solution is to use one of the optical to coax converters.
 
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