I had noticed that the Humax 9200 didn't seem to play in surround sound (My JVC TV has Dolby Pro Logic built in) and I just put it down down to it being a "feature" of Freeview.

Normally it plays through one of the scart sockets but last night when playing around I noticed that if I watch the TV on Station 99 - the one I have tuned to the 9200 on UHF channel 69 (BTW thanks to whoever posted that tip which has sorted out the interference problem on my terrestrial signal) I get surround sound and I am confused. Have I got a dodgy Scart? Does the surround information only get carried through the coax, not a scart cable? - In which case how does my DVD play surround through my TV?

The aerial runs...

Aerial->9200->VCR->TV

Any ideas/explanations gratefully received


Regards


David

Coax is mono IIRC so I've no idea how you're getting surround sound though it. Dolby Surround information can only be carried in a stereo signal ie from a scart, so I'm mystified.

That makes two of us...

Having said that surely coax must be capable of carrying a stereo signal - after all if you plug your aerial straight in to the back of your telly with nothing inbetween you get stereo reception

Regards

David

Only analogue broadcasts which are Nicam stereo will be in stereo. Video recorders, cable boxes & freeview boxes which RF output though coax will be in mono.

I must be going nuts, I couldn't replicate this last night so please feel free to completely ignore me


Regards


David

As this looks like a redundant thread could you please delete it, to make room for the increasing list of other threads?

If you hadn't replied it would have gradually dropped of the bottom - now you've bumped it to the top again

Oops - so have I.

You're new here aren't you? The idea of forums are that they build a database with a wealth of information so the next person with the same question can just [search] and instantly find the solution to their problem. (sadly many newbies just repost the question though!). Anyway it would be madness to ever delete a thread from a forum. This one does contain useful information.

Cliff

If coax is only capable of carrying a mono signal how does digital coax work, as this is supposed to carry multiple channels such as 5.1 and is recommended over optical cables? Or have i just read this wrond and am being a complete dumb arse?!

Digital coax is used to output digital data from a digital source to a digital amplifier input for decoding so that the analog output (sound) can be heard and processed. Digital output is the only way you can get the various flavours of Dolby Digital and DTS. Neither of which are broadcast on Freeview.

Digital coax is preferred by some, but is ideal for short cable runs as it can pick up RF interference. For longer runs an optical cable is the better bet.

Standard arial coax is doing a completely different job and the confusion probably comes from the word coax. Many stores are now selling dig coax as digital phono instead, pehaps to save confusing the rf coax people.

Ahh, I see! Thanks for clearing that up.

On a slightly related topic - my setup at present is as follows:

- RGB Scart to TV
- L/R Phono's into surround sound (Denon)
- TV muted

Seems to work pretty well, although I do wonder if there's merit in the other possible configs

- Comp video and L/R audito phonos into Denon, and thence to TV via Scart on Denon. Seems intuitively worse to me, since the Comp video won't then be RGB?

- Scart RGB to TV and optical out to Denon. Was going to try this until I found it was £35 for a cable, and other threads reported limitations of Hummy's optical output