Mercury II SPDIF problem

[red2grass]

I could not get the AC-3 pass thru work from my Mercury II. I connected the optical cable from Mercury II to my Denon receiver which has built-in DD decoder. I tuned to RetroJam channel and no sound from the Denon receiver. I disconnected the optical cable from Merc II and connected it to my LCD TV's SPDIF out, DD is working fine. So the link cable and Denon receiver is good.
Then I connected the optical cable back to Mercury II, and change channel to a non AC3, then Denon receiver is able to produce stereo sound. I also toggle the SPDIF on/off menu in MercuryII and it does not make any difference. If I tune Merc II to a non-AC3 channel, I always get the audio from the optical cable no matter the SDPIF menu is on or off.
Is there something wrong this Merc II receiver? SPDIF menu on/off has no effect. It always passes thru non AC-3 audio and never passes AC-3.

 

[ACRadio]

I could not get the AC-3 pass thru work from my Mercury II. I connected the optical cable from Mercury II to my Denon receiver which has built-in DD decoder. I tuned to RetroJam channel and no sound from the Denon receiver. I disconnected the optical cable from Merc II and connected it to my LCD TV's SPDIF out, DD is working fine. So the link cable and Denon receiver is good.
Then I connected the optical cable back to Mercury II, and change channel to a non AC3, then Denon receiver is able to produce stereo sound. I also toggle the SPDIF on/off menu in MercuryII and it does not make any difference. If I tune Merc II to a non-AC3 channel, I always get the audio from the optical cable no matter the SDPIF menu is on or off.
Is there something wrong this Merc II receiver? SPDIF menu on/off has no effect. It always passes thru non AC-3 audio and never passes AC-3.

AC3 is sent on a different PID. I don't have a Merc but on the remote there should be an "audio" button. After tuning a channel that is transmitting AC3, go into that menu and you should be able to change the audio PID to the AC3 PID.

 

[cracklincrotch]

Funny this topic comes up. My Viewsat Extreme does the exact same thing. I hit the audio button and I get Dolby in the audio list when on Retrojams but never get any audio. But any other non AC3 channel the audio is fine through the optical out to my stereo receiver. A couple of the Spanish channels act the same way. No audio though hooked up to a decoder.

I just checked KWBF on G10 and when I switch to Dolby in the audio list I do get audio. And I do get audio with the PBS channels on AMC3.

 

[brentb636]

Sometimes, the receivers scan in a false audio PID on dolby channels, click the info button twice on Retro Jams, and make sure your apid is 102 . I have occasionally had to manually create the channel I want with the correct PID installed to get AC-3 audio.

 

[cracklincrotch]

I just did that. No change.

 

[cracklincrotch]

And upon closer inspection, as you suggest, even though I set the audio pid to 102, it's in there as 8192....

 

[brentb636]

You should be able to add a channel manually, and enter all the PID info in again. Try that. Temporarily it will give you 2 different RetroJams, but that shouldn't matter.

 

[cracklincrotch]

Ahead of you there again. Same difference.

It's annoying though. Most AC3 channels are fine. Just a few don't work.

Always the little things that bug me the most.

 

[red2grass]

I just checked it. Retrojam's Audio PID is 102. I can't get any sound. I have never got any AC-3 audio out of merc II.
KWBF carries both AC-3 and stereo. If I push the audio button, it lets me select AC-3 or ENG. If I select ENG, audio PID is 63 and if I select AC-3 audio PID is 40. I can only get sound from audio PID 63 thru SPDIF. Select PID 40, the audio is shut.
Another thing I mentioned earlier was that the SPDIF on/off menu has no effect. I turn SPDIF off, still get the stereo sound thru SPDIF. Can someone check your Merc II whether the SPDIF menu works at all. I suspect there is defect or bad firmware in my Merc II.
My merc II's s/w version is v1.06. Is this version very old? Fortec star's download page shows the latest firmware version is v1.53. Does firmware on their web page and s/w in the menu of the receiver mean the same thing? If so, I am 47 versions behind.

Sometimes, the receivers scan in a false audio PID on dolby channels, click the info button twice on Retro Jams, and make sure your apid is 102 . I have occasionally had to manually create the channel I want with the correct PID installed to get AC-3 audio.

 

[rv1pop]

I am having the same problem. I got the sonic headphones so I could get AC3 on PBS for my wife. I do not decode the AC3 audio, so I was thinking there was a problem with the headset. Is anyone getting the Mercury II working on AC3, and if so are you using the Glorystar firmware or the factory version, and which version. I am using Glorystar.

 

[cracklincrotch]

I just checked it. Retrojam's Audio PID is 102. I can't get any sound. I have never got any AC-3 audio out of merc II.
KWBF carries both AC-3 and stereo. If I push the audio button, it lets me select AC-3 or ENG. If I select ENG, audio PID is 63 and if I select AC-3 audio PID is 40. I can only get sound from audio PID 63 thru SPDIF. Select PID 40, the audio is shut.
Another thing I mentioned earlier was that the SPDIF on/off menu has no effect. I turn SPDIF off, still get the stereo sound thru SPDIF. Can someone check your Merc II whether the SPDIF menu works at all. I suspect there is defect or bad firmware in my Merc II.
My merc II's s/w version is v1.06. Is this version very old? Fortec star's download page shows the latest firmware version is v1.53. Does firmware on their web page and s/w in the menu of the receiver mean the same thing? If so, I am 47 versions behind.

KWBF AC3 audio works fine for me. But same as you, Retrojams and a couple of the Spanish channels don't work for me whether I manually enter the audio PID or not. Weird.

 

[Woofle]

I could not get the AC-3 pass thru work from my Mercury II. I connected the optical cable from Mercury II to my Denon receiver which has built-in DD decoder. I tuned to RetroJam channel and no sound from the Denon receiver. I disconnected the optical cable from Merc II and connected it to my LCD TV's SPDIF out, DD is working fine. So the link cable and Denon receiver is good.
Then I connected the optical cable back to Mercury II, and change channel to a non AC3, then Denon receiver is able to produce stereo sound. I also toggle the SPDIF on/off menu in MercuryII and it does not make any difference. If I tune Merc II to a non-AC3 channel, I always get the audio from the optical cable no matter the SDPIF menu is on or off.
Is there something wrong this Merc II receiver? SPDIF menu on/off has no effect. It always passes thru non AC-3 audio and never passes AC-3.

I am getting AC-3 just fine with my Merc-II on Retrojams.
This is with Merc-II firmware revision V1.53, into a relatively cheap Onkyo receiver and bookshelf speakers dedicated to the satellite hookup and playing DVDs.

Since you've pretty much eliminated fault outside the box, we're down to hardware and software. Given the PCM stream works ok, I'm thinking it's worth upgrading your firmware to the latest before considering repair or replacement.