Pansat 2500 AC3 Hookup Need Help

[wwvideo]

I have a Pansat 2500 and have it working but can't seem to get the AC-3 sound to work. I have a Harmon Kardon AVR-55 Amp with AC-3 connection(RF,Coax or Optical). I tried running a RCA cable from the S/PDIF connection on the Pansat to the RF connection on the AMP but no sound and it eventually locked up my C-Band remote.( worked ok after unplugging rca cable.

I would appreciate any help.

Thanks,
Larry

 

[Mr Tony]

Are you on a channel that has AC-3 output?
Like PBS on AMC3 or the 2 Spanish channels on G10

 

[carload]

I tried running a RCA cable from the S/PDIF connection

Before anything else, I don't think a regular RCA works. I needed a coax (looks like an RCA though) to make mine work.

I hooked my cable into my Sony AV receiver, then had to remember how to tell the Sony that the input was coax. I had to do some twiddling because it wouldn't accept coax audio input to go along with digital video. I ended up with a special setting that plays the coax input (supposedly from the DVD player) while showing the digital video.

The saddest part of this is that it makes AC3 incompatible with my standalone TiVo. If I plug everything from the PanSat directly into the Sony, all is well. But if I use my normal AV path through the TiVo, having the AC3 coax plugged directly to the Sony plays the audio about a second before the forever-cached TiVo video output.

AC3 sounds great live, but it's a pain when you're hooked on DVRs.

 

[wwvideo]

Thanks for the replys,
1) yes I was on an AC-3 channel (G4 Tech TV)
2) Didn't know about the coax rca cable will have to pick one up and try it.
Bummer about the TIVO setup and AC3, I noticed the Pansat 2500a has a pause button on it that works, however I haven't used it while recording to see if the recording continues while you pause the picture. If it does it could be your answer to your TIVO problem(at least partially)

Thanks again, let you know how it works out.

 

[TuxCoder]

Actually, any RCA style ("phono" plug) cable will work. It's just a simple two-wire data path, so the cable isn't even as critical as when used for analog audio signals. Coax just indicates the two conductors' axes physically coincide--more important for analog audio to shield against interference. For digital audio (AC3, etc.) interference can still cause problems but not as severely with good error correction in place.

On one occasion I had to resort to using an old homemade non-coax RCA style cable for digital audio connection and had no data loss (which would be heard as complete audio dropouts or in some instances, pops/clicks/screetches).

 

[wwvideo]

Thank you I will try another RCA cable before I go out and buy the special one.

 

[wwvideo]

I tried the RCA cable again and discovered I had plugged it into the RF input in the AMP instead of the COAX input. Works great now but still have one problem I would like to illiminate. When I have it pluged in I can't move the Sat with my CBand controls. Not sure why it affects that but it does, unplug and it works fine. But it is a pain to have to do that all the time.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,
Larry