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General discussion

digital connection from DVR to receiver question

Oct 5, 2005 6:17AM PDT

I just moved to a new town and now have a DVR with a digital coaxial output. I am shopping for a digital coaxial cable, but I need an answer to a question which will affect the quality of the cable I buy.

When playing back from a DVR, does the audio signal remain uncompromised or is it degraded? I've owned a Tivo for the past two years and did not have the ability to have a digital connection to my receiver so this never mattered before.

Discussion is locked

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DVR with a digital coaxial output.?????
Oct 5, 2005 6:52AM PDT

Note: If you're asking for technical help, please be sure to include all your system info, including operating system, model number, and any other specifics related to the problem.
Make And model please.

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digital connection from DVR to receiver question
Oct 7, 2005 12:05AM PDT

can anyone provide some insight on this?

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Use the Digital Out (but no need to buy a new cable)
Oct 7, 2005 12:45AM PDT

I have a DirecTV TiVo which has an optical digital out and I use coax digital out from my DVD. So it isn't what you have but I still think I can answer your question.

The coaxial output sends a digital signal to the receiver for it to decode to an analog signal. So the signal is not degraded/compressed and whatever is on the DVR will be sent to your receiver.

The key reasons to use digital out (coax or optical) is that this is able to send separate channels for Dolby/DTS content versus having to use a decoding scheme to separate 2 channels into 5.1 (or 6.1 or 7.1) Another reason to use digital outs is when the DACs in your receiver (or preamp if you use separates) are better than those in the DVR (or DVD.)

I recommend that you use the digital out on your DVR. Also, with coax digital you can use a standard RCA cable instead of a "real" digital coax cable which is insanely expensive comparatively.

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Digital Coax
Oct 7, 2005 4:22AM PDT

So the digital coax and the RCAs ARE the same. Had always wonderd that and never got a good answer. My Toshiba DVD player came with a digital coax and except for the orange color looks exactly like every other RCA connector I have. When you ask a salesperson, you always get a non-answer about quality or shielding etc. Will give it a try.

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rca's and components
Oct 8, 2005 5:11AM PDT

sometimes, rca's can also be used as components. 0_0