UPDATE; it turned out the coax and toslink outputs on the motorola cable box were defective. the cable co. said they had a whole shipment of them on the streets. He swaped it out with a "Pace" unit. BUT.. the digital coax output works fine sending the audio signal to my Cary cd/dac out to pre/amp/speakers on the regular tv channels. BUT, the cable music channels do not work using the coax, I can only get sound out of them going through the analogue rca output jacks to my pre-amp. I wonder if Face was right, the music chanells are only transmitted in "low rez signal"...analogue??? jb |
Hey Bry, sorry it took so long to get back. anyway, yea, my motorola # is: DCT 6416 III
anyway, I'm just getting around to trying this out. I found the little "trap door" you mentioned, it's labeled "optical spdif", so I am going to get a coaxe cable and try going from there to the Cary coaxe in and see how it is. There is also a separate orange rca jack labeled "spdif" sandwiched in between the rca audio and video input jacks. I can't tell if that's an input or output jack. |
also,
Y,Pb,Pr are the analog video outputs which also have a red & white rca audio output to go with them. The toslink or fiber-optic port is not easy to see until you see the tiny little plastic flap/door the covers the output laser. Does your dvr have a model number on the front or back.........ie. DCT**** or DCH**** |
Jb,
Yes, I would go from the Motorola spdif out to the Cary coax in with a moderately priced digital coax cable. If you have one on hand, if not grab one from a big box retailer that you can return.
Bruce |
First try a better cable....a Monster 3 f-connector cable is what I use. But I have Direct TV which has XM radio.
I run my Hughes receiver to my DAC using a Nordost glass optical cable....the sound is CD quality....especially on the HD sorround channels. The monster cable is a night and day difference over a generic cable. |
It will sound better than using the cable box's DAC's, but it's still low res music. Same as putting lipstick on a pig. :D |
Bruce, the Motorola does hae something labeled: optical SPDIF, it is an orange rca jack but it next to the "audio in" jacks. in a row underneath the SPDIF jack are 3 rca jacks; a green one labeled "y", a blue one labeled "Pb" and a red one labeled "Pr" but no toslink output.
On the back of theCary unit there are both in/out puts labeled coaxial (rca jack), a toslink, and a balanced AES/EBU (what does that stand for?) any way, on the front you can switch from the CDP to any of the 3 digital sources: AES?EBU, coaxial or toslink. So, what do you think? Should I just try hooking up from the Motorolan RCA SPDIF jack to the Cary coaxial jack? thanks, jb |
Hi Joeb,
If it is a Comcast Motorola HD/DVR then it has spdif (usually an orange colored rca type) digital output as well as toslink (fiber optic) digital output. I looked at your Cary 306/200 online via manufacturers pdf and it appears that you have digital inputs on the back and a selection option on the front for type of digital input?
IF THIS info is correct then you would use either a single toslink or digital coaxial cable from the output on DVR to matching input on the 306/200, then when you are ready to listen to cable supplied music just switch the cd players input to toslink or coax to receive cable digital signal through the Cary's digital converter.
This is definately the way I would do it as long as the online owners manual is correct.
Hope this helps and feel free to ask me any questions.
Bruce |
Hi Zen,
the unit is just a Motorola cable box. It's labeled "dual tuner: dvr/hdtv" It just has rca jacks.
jb |
To Zenblaster:
I just have the At&t U-verse provider installed for my TV.And they have a channel with old and recent video concerts...very interesting.Now i have this AT&T digital box that i would like to connect to my system.If i will get a cheap good DAC,is the quality of the music will change dramatically or even better but not expecting too much of course.
I apologized for interupting your questions to Joeb.
Thanks.pescolar
|
I have had good results sending the cable signal "digital out" thru a digital coax to my Krell DAC and then to my pre amp, much better than directly from cable box rca out (analog)to pre amp. You should be able to run any digital cable box to a dac first. What type of cable box do you have? |
They're transmitting very low rez music files, there's no way to improve it. |
Hey Avrij, I don't follow you, what do you mean by "pre/pro". I just assumed the rca jack output on the cable box was a digital out and my pre amp converted it to analogue. Are you saying I need a separate DAC?
jb |
My digital Coax doesnt solund too bad, sure its not like a direct source but very pleasing all the same. I know I tried to run signal into a DAC a few years ago and it doesnt work. |
i run mine through the dacs in a pre/pro, sounds pretty good, better than the analog outs. |
