Audio, coax, HDMI - do these cable\converters exist?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Audio, coax, HDMI - do these cable\converters exist?

geekIT

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#55287 28-Dec-2009 20:10

Anyone know if any of the following cables\converters are available?
1) Digital audio out (co-ax) to RCA left and right audio?
2) HDMI out to RCA left and right audio?
3) Digital audio (co-ax) A-B switch?

My Sony hard-drive recorder has some audio outputs that I'd like to use. These are Digital Audio and HDMI. But I'd need to convert the output to left and right audio, if this is possible. Alternatively I could use an A\B switch to make the single Digital Audio outlet into two alternative outlets.

But I can't find anything like this online, particularly on the NZ market. Anyone able to help?

The reason for my request is that I'm already using the Sony's left and right RCA output ports, but I'd like an alternative outlet for occasional use.

If there's no such thing as 1) or 2), then I could use a Digital Audio A\B switch, if this exists.

Thanks :-)

PS: Does Digital Audio use an ordinary coaxial cable, ie like an old-style RF TV aerial cable? Or is there some major difference?

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tchart

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#285701 28-Dec-2009 20:23

Check out ebay, Ive recently had the same situation.

Two that I looked at getting, try these searches;

Mocha JY-M2 (2x Digital Coax + 2x Optical inputs)
HDMI decoder

The second one is rather pricey for what its is. The Mocha has good specs and there are some positive things on the net about it.

In the end I got lucky and found a Creative DDTS-100 in NZ. Unfortunately the DDTS-100 is a rare find.

sbiddle

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#285702 28-Dec-2009 20:23

No 1 is available but won't come cleaply. The first link in Google is £39.99 I know of somebody who got a similair adapter off ebay and paid around NZ$100 for it.

S/PDIF digital audio is just regular 75ohm coax cable so with appropiate hardware you can easily split or use a switchbox.

geekIT

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#285711 28-Dec-2009 20:39

Thanks guys. I wondered if the cable conversions might involve remodulation; looks like they do.
Actually, I don't need a fancy (or expensive) solution.
If I can get the same effect by splitting\switching the existing co-ax output, it'll be quite acceptable.
However, I can't seem to locate such a switch in NZ. Anyone know where I might find such a thing?

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richms

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#286186 31-Dec-2009 00:09

Just use RCA Y adapters on the digital. It worked fine when i tried it despite it being bad in theory.

If you want analog then a Y splitter on the analog out, or else see if it has any other outputs.

Digital is 75 ohm but on a RCA plug so a good video cable will do the job. Or a crap one will over the few meters that most interconnects are in home theaters.

Richard rich.ms

geekIT

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#286381 1-Jan-2010 12:39

So a "digital audio" connector is simply a good quality cable, ie, preferably but not necessarily a solid core, surrounded by effective shielding, with quality (perhaps gold plated) RCA male plugs on each end?

BTW, what is an "RCA Y adapter"?

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richms

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#286404 1-Jan-2010 15:40

Digital audio is just a 75 ohm connection with bandwidth less than a composite video signal, so if it works at all for video, it will be fine for digital coax.

I have pushed it 40m on junkshielded audio cable and it worked.

RCA Y adapter is something like P6610 on dse's site - there are cable versions as well if space is tight on the back of the player. Check out a dollar shop - mine has the cable version as well for $2

Richard rich.ms

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geekIT

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#286422 1-Jan-2010 16:53

OH, ok, I see what you mean by "Y adapter', I've got a few in my parts collection.

Unfortunately, I can't use one of these splitters, because I've got an "either\or" situation, where I'll be connecting either the digital audio output from my Sony HDD recorder, or the digital audio output from my Pioneer DVD player, to the single input port on my Sony receiver.

But I've pretty well solved it, I think. My parts box yielded an old Digitor rotary RCA audio switch that optionally connects one pair to four possible targets. So I just patched the switch into my rig and it seems to work fine. It'd be more elegant to use a good quality RCA A\B switch with only three contacts, but they don't seem to be thick on the ground....

So now, when I 'back up' DVDs to my hard drive, I can get multi-channel audio from the replay, instead of only right and left.

Thanks to everyone who responded :-)

PS: I'd like to understand how one wire can carry multiple signals; anyone have a link to a good explanation?

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