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What is this Digitial Audio Out port?

post #1 of 9
1/24/08 at 3:04pm
Thread Starter 
I'm very sorry if this is in the wrong area. I couldn't find a better place, and I thought the people here would be the most knowledgeable regarding this issue. On several of my devices, including my Comcast receiver, I have a digital audio out port (not optical). What is this? What is it good for? Is it better or worse than the regular old red/white audio cables?

It's surrounded by the dotted lines:
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post #2 of 9
1/24/08 at 3:24pm
It's for Dolby Digital and/or DTS surround (or just PCM stereo). Yes, it better than red/white analog audio connections. Also... it accomplishes the same task as "optical".

Obviously, you also need an audio receiver that has digital audio inputs to take advantage of the better sound/audio.
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post #3 of 9
1/24/08 at 3:32pm
Just to add to what Ratman said, it is called a "digital coaxial" (digi coax) connection and as Ratman pointed out, it can transfer the same digital information as the optical (toslink) connection can carry.

Toslink and digi coax are both a type of S/PDIF connection.
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post #4 of 9
1/24/08 at 3:52pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you both very much for your help.

One more question -- possibly very dumb...

Does this type of connection require a special cable? Or can I just use either the white or red analogue audio cables?
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post #5 of 9
1/24/08 at 4:13pm
Any 75ohm video cable will be optimal. The red, white, or yellow cables that came with your box are almost always 'good enough' for this purpose.
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post #6 of 9
1/24/08 at 4:14pm
Oh yeah... most receivers require that you assign the digital input to a specific video input. In other words, you may need to tell your receiver that "coax digital input #2" is the audio input for the "TV / SAT" video input.
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post #7 of 9
1/24/08 at 4:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by liquidsense View Post

Thank you both very much for your help.

One more question -- possibly very dumb...

Does this type of connection require a special wire? Or can I just use either the white or red cord from the analogue audio cords?

Although a plain red/white audio cable MAY work OK, it is best to use a coaxial cable that you know is 75ohm coax cable. This is the same as a yellow-ended video cable, so if you have one of those laying around, you can use it. If you need to buy a 75ohm coax cable, you can get one for a few bucks. Do not spend a bunch of money on one.
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post #8 of 9
1/24/08 at 4:58pm
One thing to note here that nobody has mentioned is never connect this to a standard analog audio input of a receiver. The result can damage your receiver and/or speakers and/or ears. What I mean is do *not* plug this port into the same jack the "red/white" cables are plugged into now using any cable. You need to find the "Digital audio input" jack on the back of the receiver and plug it in to that.
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post #9 of 9
1/28/08 at 1:08pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks everyone for the great deal of help.
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AVS › AVS Forum › Audio › Audio theory, Setup and Chat › What is this Digitial Audio Out port?