Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Cable box audio setting

For blu-ray, make sure you select a format that is compatible with SPDIF (Dolby Digital, DTS) as it is doubtful that your TV can extract the core out of DTS HD:MA and DolbyTrueHD or pass 5.1 linear PCM.
Your cable box is probably using the same channel for HDMI or SPDIF.

I've come to the conclusion that I will not get a 5.1 digital signal from the TV to the receiver. I don't think the TV will even pass the 5.1 signal on to the receiver - probably downmixing it to 2-channel stereo (there's only 2 speakers in the TV, after all) and then passing that along to receiver.



I must admit, you lost me here...(alot of this is new to me)

Do you think that I may be correct that the cable box is incapable of making the correct recognition of where to send what signals?

Your cable box is probably sending the signal to its "preferred" location, but using the same settings for both optical/coax and HDMI. So you may not have a HDMI-specific setting so you probably get on HDMI whatever is sent to SPDIF.
Or, you either have a DVD which is fertilizer-friendly (crappy) or simply buggy.

For blu-ray, I was refering to the disk's (not the player's) audio track to see if one labelled "Dolby Digital 5.1" would work better than one labbel "DTS HD-MA".

My recommendation to you if to use component for your DVR. Component will give you 100% of the quality you get from cable and will not confuse the optical/coax digital out.

Another angle is to forget about troubleshooting and use a good programmable remote control. Simply program the extra few button presses into the macro for switching to the cable box and you never have to worry about it again.

Harmonies are the easiest to use but for added customization, I prefer the URC universal remotes. Either should solve your problem above and turn all your actions into just a single button press.

As far as I know most TV's will only output 5.1 from the digital out port when they are receiving OTA HD broadcasts. Otherwise it is sent over the digital out as 2 channel stereo.

I think the problem is that the cable box needs to be re-configured, not that the audio has to switched. But I may have misunderstood.

Throughout this discussion I didn't see you mention the brand of cable box you have. This might be helpful in your configuration process. I have one(Scientific Atlanta) that will output both HDMI video AND coax cable audio at the same time. In my case the HDMI "video" connection overrides all "video" in my set-up so even if I go in to the menu and change the audio to DD or "digital" from HDMI, the HDMI video connection will remain as is. I do have it hooked through a relatively new receiver which takes HDMI but generally speaking the cable boxes are quite behind the curve in being up-to-date on their connections(Usually only 1.0 HDMI compatibility). This configuration will ONLY allow 2channel audio through HDMI. I still have to hook coax through my receiver, much like you do because the HDMI audio from the cable box cuts in and out and is unreliable anyway, hence the dual connections. DD from television stations can come in many forms from 2 channel up to 5.1 and anywhere in between. Provided we can solve this audio cable box problem, you are still better off trying to hookup the audio from your cable box to the receiver as opposed to the optical out of the monitor.

I am sure there is something in the set-up menu that will allow what I described. The fact that you have the HDMI video connection going directly to the monitor shouldn't make any difference.

Let us know the brand and any manual you may have that can be referred to so we can then take it from there.

Just a follow-up to my last post. I just noticed Time-Warner is connected with Cisco Systems. Cisco OWNS "Scientific Atlanta". Let us know the model number of the cable box and we could be in business here in possibly solving this problem for you!

Thanks for all the replys.

Yes, I agree, the problem is in the cable box and configuration.

The cable box is a Scientific Atlanta "Explorer 8240HDC"

When I get a moment, I will look this up as well, I don't have a manual to view. (I'm putting groceries away with the wife :/)

This gets even weirder. At least to me.

With cable, receiver and tv on, just switching off the tv, then on again, will cause the cable box setting to default back to HDMI. I have to go back into the settings of the cable box and reset for digital. Turning off just cable box, changes nothing.

This makes no sense to me.