Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions how to connect optical toslink cable?

Coaxial - generic term for all cable with metal wire surrounded by insulator surrounded by metal-ie RCA-ended cable (and others, I know). This encompasses analog audio cables, composite video cables, component video cables, subwoofer cables (aka analog audio cables), digital coaxial cables, etc.

Composite cable-better than no video!

S-video-you got it.

Component video - yup.

DVI - generally a computer interface except on really high end stuff (correct me if I'm wrong guys), digital video. Theoretically better than the others, which are all analog (right, guys?)

RCA - merely defines the type of connector. Most a/v cables have this type of connector. The term you are looking for here is analog audio cable.

TOSLINK - digital audio cable; fibre optic. In some cases, better than analog audio, depending on the digital/analog converters on either end.

Digital coaxial - for most intents and purposes, the same quality as TOSLINK. It's just digital over copper cable.

Coaxial cable (ie cable company type cable, antenna cable, etc.) Generic type of cable that carries transmission data from the provider. Low quality video when used between components. I'm not sure why.

Hope this didn't confuse things further.

Ken

Ken,
don't forget FireWire!

It's similar to DVI connections and is just starting to become popular in home audio/video. It is present in some Apple computer connections. Both it and DVI are pure digital signals. There's debate about which is superior, but I'd lean towards FireWire. DVI will restrict/prohibit copying of digital signals, whereas FireWire will allow it to some degree. Also entire home electronic networking possibilities are endless with FireWire.

kcarlile did a fine job so I'll just cover what I think was missed. SPDIF is the standard by which digital information is transmitted in audio applications. There are two predominant (and a third that I've never actually run into with my gear) forms that SPDIF take. Coaxial SPDIF uses a normal coaxial cable, like the video line of a red-white-yellow RCA cable to transmit the ones and zeros. TOSLINK uses light through a plastic fiber optic to transmit said ones and zeros. The third form is also fiber based but I forget the name of it. Coaxial SPDIF is an audio only standard.

DVI is a means by which video information is transmitted digitally. The video is then converted into an analog signal for the TV in the case of most projectors or kept in the digital form for DLP, LCD, Plasma, etc.

What makes a cable digital or analog has little to do with the cable. For instance coaxial cables are used both for digital and analog. So long as it's a 75Ohm cable, the two are identical (your right and left channel RCA cables aren't necessarily 75 Ohm as it doesn't matter but it does matter for video RCA and SPDIF). The distinguishing factor is merely how the cable is used. If it's carrying ones and zeros, it's digital. If it's carrying analog, it's an analog cable. Function defines the product.

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My coaxial cable caries the audio and video signal into my house from my cable company or satalite dish, in either digital or analog, depending on my subsciption, right?

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Pretty much.

Firewire is a lot more flexible because it's just a serial digital standard for high bandwidth applications. It' doesn't much care what information is being carried and it has a respectable amount of bandwidth. DVI on the other hand is a parallel standard, I believe, and only carries video. I'm not aware of anyone using Firewire to transfer video to a monitor at this point but I don't see why they couldn't. It is the digital transmission standard of choice for DVD-Audio, and, as you mentioned, offers some unique network capabilities as well.

Semi, couple of questions..
recently purchased a mits dd8040 progressive dvd player. it has toslink and 6 channel outputs. i have the toslink hooked to my rxv1300. when playing dvd-a music, the speakers light up on the yammi to show they are active. i believe i have the mits set to bitstream. now my dilema..on another board someone said that unless i used the 6 rca cables from the mits to the yammi, i would not get surround sound from the dvd-a. he also stated that the sub output from the mits should go directly to the sub. was he in error? the sub goes thru the yammi now, is active when playing a's, and like i said the active speakers show on the receiver. now you know why i'm confused.
help
dan

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now my dilema..on another board someone said that unless i used the 6 rca cables from the mits to the yammi, i would not get surround sound from the dvd-a

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Not quite. If you don't use the 6 RCA cables, and instead use the digital link, you can still get 5.1 audio. What you won't get is the higher fidelity 5.1. DVD-A is capable of 24 bit 96 kHz audio which is too much data to push through SPDIF. In order to send 5.1 through the SPDIF, it will default to traditional 16/44.

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he also stated that the sub output from the mits should go directly to the sub.

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Isn't the sixth input on your receiver (and the corresponding output on the DVD player)0 for LFE? If so, you're transmitting the data to the receiver and it should then be able to hand it off to the sub.

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the sub goes thru the yammi now, is active when playing a's, and like i said the active speakers show on the receiver.

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Sounds like it's getting the data so I think you're fine.

Regards,
Semi

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Not quite. If you don't use the 6 RCA cables, and instead use the digital link, you can still get 5.1 audio. What you won't get is the higher fidelity 5.1. DVD-A is capable of 24 bit 96 kHz audio which is too much data to push through SPDIF. In order to send 5.1 through the SPDIF, it will default to traditional 16/44.

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Let me also add, that many DVD-A's do not have a 16/44 multichannel track. If your player is DVD-A capable, the only way you are going to get high resolution or high resolution multi-channel music, is by using those 6 analog cables....unless you have one of the very few DVD-A player/receiver combos that pass those signals via firewire.

so, in summation, the dvd-a's will sound better with the 6 cables. do i need to tell the player i'm using the cables? i understand i need to select the 6 channel button on the receiver.
thanks
dan

Hey Semi;

So if my DVD player does have built-in Digital Decoding and possibly DVD-A should I use 6.1 out from the DVD player to my 6.1 input of my Rotel receiver for DVD-A (I think thats what you recommended below to get 24/96 audio) and then use the SPDIF Coax for Movies or should I also use the 6.1 input for movies? Or for movies does it really matter?

Saturn

That's all you have to do. Most receivers I know of have a separate mode (multichannel in) that uses those inputs. In most cases, what this mode does is pass each channel input directly to the appropriate output (amplified) channel. Your surround options and even level and delay options will not apply. This is why it's important to have an SACD and/or DVD-A player that includes these adjustment features.