Need a device that can downmix 5.1 to 2.0.

I'm confused. The box has only digital and no rca? That's great design.

http://www.amazon.com/Gefen-GTV-AAUD...158399&sr=8-27

Seems like it would convert the 2.0 analog audio from the cable box to digital. You TV may be able to pull off the same trick. Feed it 5.1 and it may output 2.0 from it's digital out.

I don't think what you're looking for really exists, outside of using a receiver with an optical Record-Out or digital Zone 2, which kind of seems like overkill. Digitizing the analog output using something like the Gefen device above seems like the simplest solution.

Can you go into a little more detail about what you're doing? In particular, what is the other equipment you want to send digital 2-channel to, and why is analog stereo not sufficient?

You know, if you tell us what it is that you are trying to do, it may help people come up with a real solution rather than just guessing.

I don't know of any affordable way to solve the OPs problem.

I think you're on the right track with the original suggestion - run the digital connection through the TV. Most will downmix and output a 2 channel stereo signal from the TV's digital output.

A "cheap Onkyo receiver" is not going to take a 5.1 bitstream in and provide 2.0 PCM out. Blu-Ray players do, but I know of no current AVRs or pre-pros that do the same thing. What "high end" system is incapable of accepting the ubigutious DD 5.1 bitstream and processing it?

problem is, we don't know what the OP's problem is because he hasn't explained what his goal is!

as bluesky says, it seems bizarre and incongruous that a "high end" system can't accept a 5.1 Dolby Digital input, and/or can't do a good job with a 2-ch analog input. I really wish we knew what the actual point of this was!

I have no idea why you think a receiver is going to help you here more than other suggestions. To confirm my thinking, I perused the new line of Onkyo recievers up until I hit a model over $600 and NONE had a digital record output. So, of the receivers I looked at, any downmixing done in the receiver will be done TO ANALOG!

Pretty much, using a low end receiver is going to be no better than using the analog stereo outputs of the cable box. You're NOT going to get a downmix output in digital from any of the receivers I looked at.

edit: bluesky beat me to it as I was confirming my thoughts looking through the manuals. So....there you have it, two people thinking a receiver isn't going to acheive what you want. Now...maybe you'll explain better what you're trying to accomplish and why you think you need a receiver to do it.

Actually, most don't. That output is for DD decoded from HDTV OTA broadcasts. Some tvs will allow you to input an external source via HDMI and output a 2-channel PCM signal from the tv optical output, but those are few and far between. The OP stated he "already tried all the possible 'workarounds'" so if that were even possible, he may have already tried that one.

I love questions that say "I have to have this but don't waste my time with suggestions that don't give me this." Also, any other explanation or information is apparently none of our business.

Use the PVR analog outs into a "high end" ADC. About as good as you're gonna get.