Audio Connections Digital Coaxial to Receiver

[avdummy]

My A/V Receiver (JVC rx-8030) only has one digital coaxial input, but has 4 optical inputs. Problem: JVC VCR/DVD Recorder has digital coaxial output, and my Satellite Receiver has digital coaxial output. Neither VCR/DVD or Satellite has optical outputs. Is there a digital coaxial splitter? or A/B switch? I've seen something that will convert optical (toslink) to coaxial but haven't seen anything to convert digital coaxial (S/PDIF) to optical. I've read in some threads that some people say there is no difference in analog RCA connections and digital coaxial, so should I just use the RCA video/audio connections and forget digital, is digital coaxial just hype? I've looked though several threads to find an answer to this, but didn't see anything. Thanks for reading and would appreciate any help. Thanks

 

[Pyrrho]

Here are a couple of converters for you:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10423&cs_id=1042302&p_id=2947&seq=1&format=2

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=180-960

In answer to your question regarding analog RCA and digital coaxial, these are different and have different capabilities. In general, it is best to use the digital connections. Digital connections allow for the possibility of multichannel signals, such as DTS and Dolby Digital. You also often avoid back and forth conversions between digital and analog that way.

 

[Seth=L]

Don't get a convertor, waste of money IMO. If you have an old composite video switcher you can use the "yellow" connector (typically reserved for composite video) to switch the coaxial. Since composite and coaxial spdif both use 75 ohm connections you can use a simple video switcher to do this. It doesn't need to be converted.

Digital Coaxial and Toslink are not hype. Analog stereo connectors only handle 2.0 which is stereo sound. Coaxial and Toslink can handle up to 6.1 surround sound from Dolby and DTS formats from DVD. Cable boxes can output 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound as well. For those that don't know what 5.1 and 6.1 are, they are surround sound. The 5/6 refers to how many speakers are used and the .1 refers to the LFE or Low Frequency Effects channel which your subwoofer (an additional speaker to the 5 or 6 that can play low frequency material.