mrosen

The Britney Spears HBO debacle said it was broadcasting in Dolby 5.1. What's the point? How am I supposed to get the digital signal from my tv/cable box to my receiver without an optical cable?

Thanks,
Mike

palebluedot

If you have digital cable with a digital audio out and your cable company actually includes it in the feed or if you have satellite with a digital out then it benefits you.


I have digital cable but no digital out.

edclem

i have digital cable and a digital connection, and I have yet to get a signal better than DPL.
Time Warner

jumbojp

Had the same problem, nothing but 2 channel PCM(DD 2.0) output from mine

DVD_O_Rama

Ok, since I don't have digital cable I'm curious about a couple of things. Does the digital cable box have a digital output for audio (coaxial/toslink)? edclem you said you have yet to get anything better then DPL...Are you saying that you watched a program that was broadcast in 5.1, and you only got DPL, or that the programs being shown are only being broadcast in DPL?
Just curious.

mrosen

Ah, one of my complaints about my digital cable. I would have thought digital cable would have digital audio...but noooooo!!! I've got the General Instrument/Motorola DCT-2000. I think it is supposed to support AC3, but only if the cable company chooses to incorporate it.

Mike

palebluedot

Some boxes have a digital out, I would guess and say that most don't. It is up to the cable company as to whether or not they include the 5.1 bit stream in the broadcast signal. In most cases they don't because...well...cable providers are suck. What kills me about the digital cable advertisements is that they compare themselves to satellite and say it's better than satellite but in no way does it even come close to the quality of satellite.

skar

I going to throw out this possibly dumb question:

What percentage of sat programming is in 5.1?

Brian Shannon

My main HBO channelis in DD 5.1 as are quite a few of the PPV channels.

palebluedot

It's a good percentage...I was using it quite a lot on the PPV channels. Not only that but even the 2 channel audio is available via the digital out on the receiver.