laptop spdif out to receiver coaxial

[mixedsignals]

I have the following components

HP Pavilion dv2000 laptop (w/ spdif output)
Yamaha HTR-6230 receiver
Digital Audio Ready 3.5mm (1/8") to RCA Cables, 75 ohm, Belden 1505F Cable
Winamp

Steps I have taken

Change Windows default to SPDIF Interface Conexant High Definition Smart Audio
Configured Winamp Nullsoft directsound output to spdif
plugged the 3.5mm into my laptop
plugged the single rca end of the digital cable into the coaxial input on my receiver
changed the input on the receiver to DVD since this is what is displayed beside the coaxial input

Nothing.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? This is getting frustrating and there are lots of questions like this on various messageboards but not a lot of answers.
Thanks

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum!

For the cable that you are using - is the 3.5mm minijack end a stereo jack or mono jack? A stereo jack has two black bands near the tip, while a mono jack only has one black band. My memory is that you need to use a mono jack to get the SPDIF interface to work with that set-up...but that could be wrong. I haven't done it for years.

There might be other issues, but let's start with that for now.

 

[mixedsignals]

Unless they're really close together and I'm blind I only see one black band?

 

[Adam]

Unless they're really close together and I'm blind I only see one black band?

They'd be obvious, so I'm going to assume that you have a mono jack.

Let me download the owner's manual for your receiver. I want to check if that digital audio input needs to be assigned. I'll be right back...

 

[Adam]

Okay, you can assign that digital input. That's covered on page 34 of your owner's manual (it's available online, so let me know if you don't have it). The default setting for the coax input is the "DVD" input, but I'd recommend that you check and make sure that it wasn't assigned to a different input at some point in time.

 

[mixedsignals]

Still assigned to DVD.

 

[mixedsignals]

In theory everything I've done is supposed to work?

 

[Adam]

In theory everything I've done is supposed to work?

I don't see anything wrong with it, but I don't use Winamp - so I can't address that part of it.

One other thing that I can think of to check is make sure that the receiver is set to automatically select the input for the DVD. If it's set to "ANALOG" for the selection, then it won't recognize the digital input. How to set the selection method to "AUTO" is covered on page 18 of the owner's manual.

 

[mixedsignals]

It's set to auto. Winamp isn't a factor since I can't hear any system sounds either.