I'm an idiot & I need help!

[patterm51]

I'm really new to this & I need help. I'm trying to connect a flat screen LCD to my home stereo. The only audio out on the flat screen is an optical audio out. Alas, my stereo is an ancient Hafler D100 preamp and, of course it has no optical audio connectivity just RCA inputs. Does anyone out there know if this can be done?

 

[jaxvon]

I'm really new to this & I need help. I'm trying to connect a flat screen LCD to my home stereo. The only audio out on the flat screen is an optical audio out. Alas, my stereo is an ancient Hafler D100 preamp and, of course it has no optical audio connectivity just RCA inputs. Does anyone out there know if this can be done?

Are you running your cable directly into the TV or into a cable box? Rather, why does the audio need to come from the TV?

 

[markw]

Are you using a set top cable box (STB) or a DVD player?

I'm really new to this & I need help. I'm trying to connect a flat screen LCD to my home stereo. The only audio out on the flat screen is an optical audio out. Alas, my stereo is an ancient Hafler D100 preamp and, of course it has no optical audio connectivity just RCA inputs. Does anyone out there know if this can be done?

Without those red/white analog audio outs on the TV, you're boned in that area but you might have a work-around if you are not using it's internal tuner.

Your only hope is to take the audio from the sources (DVD, STB) directly. Use the red/white analog audio outputs from these devices to some "aux" type input on the preamp.

 

[BMXTRIX]

A bottom line answer is no.

Or rather, not for free.

You can buy digital to analog converters, but for the same money you could buy an updated receiver that would have digital audio inputs. More typically, people use a cable box that has analog audio connections (as said above) which gives you the analog audio you need for your pre-amp.

 

[Ryan_Lilly]

I have the answer

OK, If you are using a cable ore satellite receiver before the TV you should find RCA outs on that box, but from the your description it sounds like you have cable or antenna going straight into the TV, with no receiver box, and therefore no RCA outs.

The answer! (Ok, I’ll admit this is a bit archaic.)

Do you remember those things from the late `80s and throughout the `90s, what was it called? You stick a huge rectangle of plastic into a slot and a fuzzy movie appears on the screen...Oh yeah, a VCR!!

But really plug your cable into the co-ax in and another cable from the co-ax out into your TV, then you can use the RCA outs from the VCR to carry audio to your stereo system. The only real drawback is that you have to switch channels on the VCR and leave the TV on Chan 3 or video in if you use the RCA video out from the VCR.