Digital Coax or Optical (wrong forum I know)

[Mchacona]

I was able to get soem great info here some time ago and I'm very happy with my system and thought I'd return with a simple question. My reciever has 3 optical nad one digital coaxial connections. Is one type better/faster /cleaner or does it not make a difference. Thanks in advance and sorry for posting off topic..

 

[Nomo]

I'm going to assume the connection you're looking to make is from a DVD player.
I can't tell any quality difference between the two. If your DVD player has both, use them both.
I use one connection for DVDs the other for CDs. Generally the soundfield setting on the reciever best suited for DVDs is not best for CDs. When you make the selection between one of the two there will be less chance of needing to alter the soundfield settings as your reciever should remember.

 

[Leprkon]

I was able to get soem great info here some time ago and I'm very happy with my system and thought I'd return with a simple question. My reciever has 3 optical nad one digital coaxial connections. Is one type better/faster /cleaner or does it not make a difference. Thanks in advance and sorry for posting off topic..

Let me ask a question first... when you say digital coax.. do you mean the orange cable with the funny bulge in the middle (it's also sometime called a SP/DIF cable) ? If that is the cable you mean, you probably want to use the optical input for the CD/DVD player.

The main reason is that SP/DIF is the best way to send in your signal from an HDTV. If you either have HD or plan on getting it anytime soon, you probably want to keep that input slot open.

As Nomo suggested, you might want to run standard RCA cables into yet another input, so you can take full advantage of any "Source Direct" or "Pure Direct" 2 channel music your receiver might have. I don't know of any receivers that can use "Direct" signals using an optical input. I think it has to be an RCA input for that to work.

 

[Fife]

Is there any danger in hooking up multiple outputs from the same source to the same destination? I was considering doing that myself. If I were to use a pure direct mode for CDs, maybe analog cable would be best?
Thanks

 

[Leprkon]

It might be on something like a DVD recorder, where you were sending a signal BACK to the source from the receiver.

There shouldn't be any problem with two outputs from the same source with no return loop.

 

[Mchacona]

My questions arises from this situation. Both my DVD player and my Comcast Cable HD Digital Converter Box have both Optical and Coaxial (orange) and wonder if one is better than the other? Both of these are fed to my reciever and then back out from monitor. Also I do have a HDTV and wonder what situation I wouuld need to output from the TV would be ,as leprkon mentions?

 

[Leprkon]

My questions arises from this situation. Both my DVD player and my Comcast Cable HD Digital Converter Box have both Optical and Coaxial (orange) and wonder if one is better than the other? Both of these are fed to my reciever and then back out from monitor. Also I do have a HDTV and wonder what situation I wouuld need to output from the TV would be ,as leprkon mentions?

Use the orange one for your HD cable box.

Use the optical for your DVD player.

If you only use cable, you shouldn't need any audio output from the TV.

 

[Mchacona]

thank you for the answers! next question while we are on a roll and you feel like sharing your knowledge is this: Will i benefit from a DVD player that has built in decoding? I'm pretty sure my Denon reciever decodes the DVD signal and the outputs it to my TV. I understand that the DVD 2905 has a higher bit rate (12bit) and would produce a better signal than the 1905(10bit) but somehow I think I'd be hard to actually see the difference especially for an extra 400 bucks. Can someone spell htis out for me in simple terms please. Thanks again , you guys are great!

 

[Leprkon]

just me talking here... with all the formats about to change (HDDVD or BluRay) within the next year, any significant investment in a DVD player doesn;t make a whole lot of sense.

If you don't already have a player, you might look at one of the Yamaha's or Sony's in the $ 300 range that will also play SACD or DVD-audio (the Denon 1910 may also be in that category,I'm not familiar with it). That would let you start working on your advanced music library until the big change does finally hit. Anything more than that will be money you don't have for the next round.

You'll geat a really great picture and have some flexibility as well.

 

[Fife]

I just bought a Sony DVP-NS775. It has DTS decoding and is 12 bit. It was only $120 at Circuit City. So far, so good.

 

[j_buckingham80]

My receiver's manual (Onk TXSR602) explicitly states that for optical "The audio quality is the same as for coaxial." (and later vice versa) And that's from someone who's not selling cables fwiw.

 

[Nomo]

Leprkon,
Interesting, I have my system set-up differently than you suggest.
I run my HD-DVR in through optical cable. I never realized it before but you are correct, Pure Direct will not work through an optical cable. (at least not on my RXV1500). Not an issue for me really.
My DVD player is connected through both optical and digital coax cables for the reasons I stated. Optical for DVD input and Coax for CD. I primarily use Pure Direct for CDs. It works fine for this so I have no need for 2ch RCA analog connections.

I'm not disagreeing with your solution. I just found it interesting that your philosophy on this was different than what I've come to accept.

I very much agree with your advice on DVD players; bad time to invest in one.
I'll be interested to see how much the new formats raise the price of a mid-priced player. (if they're even available in mid-price models)

Thoughts?

 

[Leprkon]

Leprkon,
Interesting, I have my system set-up differently than you suggest.
I run my HD-DVR in through optical cable. I never realized it before but you are correct, Pure Direct will not work through an optical cable. (at least not on my RXV1500). Not an issue for me really.
My DVD player is connected through both optical and digital coax cables for the reasons I stated. Optical for DVD input and Coax for CD. I primarily use Pure Direct for CDs. It works fine for this so I have no need for 2ch RCA analog connections.

I'm not disagreeing with your solution. I just found it interesting that your philosophy on this was different than what I've come to accept.

My solution is probably a little different only because I don't have dish or cable. The ten or so HDTV channels I get are plucked out of the air and the feed comes out of the TV into the receiver, rather than off a cable box. My TV only has SP/DIF output for hi-res sound (no optical), so that's the path I took. Since it works really well, I recommended it here.

By the way, I also cheat for Pure Direct. I run my CD's through my laser disk player rather than the DVD player. The LD has 2 analog channel output and it's always fun to watch someone gasp when you pull out one of those 12 inch silver disks..