Coaxial-what is it sound or video?

[logannsan]

I have a Coaxial output on my DVD player and an input on my reciever. What does this do? The cheapo Apex dvd player does not have an output for digital optical(I just notcied) but it has ths coaxial(looks like a regular composite size but is orange in color. Im assuming its both audio and video of some sort? Thanks for any help..I threw away the manuals..I know that was stupid..

[devinemi83]

If its normal coax, you will get both audio and video in it. But the quality will be slightly below what you get through other cables.

[logannsan]

Wht do you mean normal coax? This is not a coax cable connection..like for cable tv hook ups. It looks like a regular composite, RCA, audio or video connection.(other than the color is not red and white for audio and yellow for video..it is orange(ish)) thanks for any help.

[BJ_M]

it is your dolby ac-3 connection .. for surround sound decoding

[logannsan]

I wish I new, I wish I new..

[logannsan]

Well I found out it is for Digital Stereo Sound..the audio output on my apex should be set to SPDIF/PCM...Now this is not comparable to the digital optical outputs on better DVD players is it? And can I just use a regular composte cable to hook this up or is there special wiring inside one of these?

[PigOnWing]

It is a [1] Digital [2] Audio [3] Coaxial.

Meaning it's audio only, direct digital signal, and uses a coaxial cable rather than an optical one.

If your receiver has digital in, coaxial (which uses the same RCA plug/socket as most audio plugs do, composite video does, component R/G/B do, phono plugs, etc.), you can hook it up to get cleaner audio.

It is not a video output.
What you refer to as 'Standard Coaxial on TV' is an RF (Radio Frequency?) connector. It's used to connect your antenna to the VCR/TV/Cable, or the Cable/Satellite using the Antenna connection. It has nothing to do with digital, audio, or quality.

I have yet to come across a DVD with an RF connection.

-- Piggie

[PigOnWing]

Ah, I see that while I was typing you already found out some more.

I'm no expert on digital audio connections, but as far as I know, digital is digital. There's no reason why ous hould get 'better quality' by using optical over coaxial or vice-versa. You just need both ends to have compatible connections.

As far as I know regarding the cables, I have heard that you need a special, coaxial (thick-wire-surrounded-by-plastic-surrounded-by-grounding) cable, and should not use a 'normal' audio cable (mind you, high-quality audio cables msany times are coaxial cables; You can indeed use coaxial cables for 'normal' audio wiring). However nobody is stopping you from trying to do the connection using a standard cable.

At most your DVD will make a 'Puff' sound and a little smoke will appear. Nothing to worry about.

-- Piggie

[BJ_M]

a standard med quality audio or video cable works fine in reality .....

[logannsan]

PigOnWing-Thank you for the response...HAHA....Puff is not what I want to see or hear (
runing for door..smoke to much
) /

[logannsan]

Pig--okay back to basics..I myself do not hear any difference between the standard audio composite audio outputs vs. the coaxial output(which i just used a standard rca composite) to hook up..Thanks for the help in understanding(trying) anyways.

[logannsan]

back again..the regular composite audio cable did not transfer sound...my mistake in saying that it did at first...it must be a special cable.

[LeeBear]

PigOnWing: Digital is Digital, yes but how the digital information is transferred isn't. With coaxial digital connection the digital audio from the DVD player is transferred much like the same way normal audio is transferred over any wired media, but in a normal audio signal the sine wave would contain the actual sound characteristics like frequency, amplitude, etc. In a digital coaxial transfer the sine wave doesn't contain the sound characteristic instead it's interpretted as a binary signal (series of 0's and 1's), all these 0's and 1's are then decoded in the Receiver to actual sound. In an optical digital connection, a light (laser) is used to send the digital information to the receiver in the form of pulses of light, the receiver interprets the light pulses as 0's and 1's and used that to decode the sound information. Now onto why digital optical is better. Basically it's because a coaxial connection is more susceptable to interference from other sources (like cordless phones, etc) just like the coaxial cable on your TV set. When your cable on your TV gets some interference you usualy get noises or interference patterns on the screen, if you get noise in your digital coaxial connection, it can distort the signal so the receiver may interpret a 0 as a 1, etc. If an occassional 0 is interpreted as a 1 you'll never notice when listening. So basically optical digital is better then coaxial digital because you'll get less errors during transmission and thus a truer to original sound.

-LeeBear

[Innershield]

What you are saying makes sense about the different cables, but I have read that the coaxial is better than the optical..?

[BJ_M]

The nature of the S/PDIF signal is such that if you were actually getting data errors in a digital connection, the effect would be glaringly obvious, for example very loud pops and clicks when higher order bits in the digital words are in error, or no signal at all because the digital audio receiver is recieving too many bits in error to find the start of frame.

high end audiophiles swear that indeed that coax sounds better and it may be the ad da convertors used in that chain ... though personally i find it hard to hear anydifference ... then again people pay 2000$ for a 4 foot power cable becuase it is suppose to "make the system sound better" ...

[ya_jai]

This is the deal for you.

If you want to hear DTS or DD 5.1 from DVD then you need Coaxial cable or Optical. Composite can trasfer only stereo sound with your player will downsampling 6 channels into 2 channels stereo. In your receiver you might be able to get Dolby Pro Logic with composite audio cable but you will never have true Digital sound like DTS/DD 5.1.

From you player if you wanna hear DTS/DD5.1 with coax output then you have to set audio out to SPDIF/RAW. Set to Analog if you want to use composite cable, but you will get only Dolby Pro Logic. NOTE: (SPDIF/PCM is for 2 channel Digital stereo sound if you have only 2 front speakers with/without sub)

[THE RIPPER]

if your reciever doesn't have dolby digital or dts, theres no reason to worry abot these jacks, also a normal rca cable will send the digital signal,although a better cable will result in better sound.

[DVantrease]

Just so you know, don't get ripped off by salesmen on the coaxial audio cable. Before I knew better, I went to 3 stereo/electronics stores, and the salespeople in all 3 stores 'insisted' I need the $40 cable. Then I found a 'coaxial audio cable' at BestBuy for 9.99 (which is funny because in another department they also said I need the $40 cable!). Anyways, I bought the 9.99 cable and it works perfectly on my Apex player, I do get digital surround sound.

I just checked the BestBuy website, I couldnt find the 6' cord I bought for 9.99 but they have a 12' for 12.99 - Look at http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=11077599&m=1&cat=783&scat=803

[LeeBear]

Innershield: Yes I also heard that coaxial sounds better then optical. I never to mention in my first post that optical connection has it's share of problems too. I believe the length of the optical cable can distort the light pulses just enough to get occasional errors. And most optical cables I've seen are fairly long, so maybe that's why people say coaxial sounds better, a good shielded cable should keep out most of the interference, but finding a short optical cable is nearly impossible. I have my dvd player right by my receiver and the shortest optical cable I found was like 2 feet long when a 6 inch cable would do.

-LeeBear

[PigOnWing]

LeeBear:
Thanks for the input - the insights on both the theoretical advantages of Optical (and the practical notion that the other way is actually considered better) do help me understand the differences between these two methods - however, they don't change my original view: What you describe is why either method can have interferences in the data transfer; However, considered that in perfect conditions, both methods give perfect results - then still, bits are bits, digital is digital. The difference is how the 1's and 0's are transferred, but once they have reached their distination, intact, then they are the same 1's and 0's.

Hence, answering to a part of the original question - yes, Coax digital is comparable to Optical digital.

ya_jai:
If you have but two (analogue) audio outputs from your DVD, then you're right.
If you have but two (analogue) audio inputs on your recevier, then you're right.
If you have a DTS decoder built-in in your DVD, and have six audio outputs, and have six audio inputs on your Receiver, then you are most definatley wrong.

And I still have to come across a DVD which doesn't have six audio outs. Dunno, maybe I wasn't looking hard enough.

-- Piggie

[ya_jai]

ya_jai:
If you have but two (analogue) audio outputs from your DVD, then you're right.
If you have but two (analogue) audio inputs on your recevier, then you're right.
If you have a DTS decoder built-in in your DVD, and have six audio outputs, and have six audio inputs on your Receiver, then you are most definatley wrong.

What am I wrong on 6 channel input and output?. I know that for some very old receiver which have 6 channel input and don't have DTS or DD5.1 you still can hear by use 6 composit cable from your dvd player. Nowadays this 6 channel still is in some receivers(mine too) but mostlikely use for SACD. I know I didn't mention about this but not so many dvd players come with 6 channel output a lot come with DTS, DD5.1 ready. I believe that is this post we are talking about APEX which I know there are only 1 coaxial, 1 set of composite audio out, 2 of composite video out and 1 s-video out.

[House de Kris]

To address the coax vs. optical digital interconnect issues raised above, coax is the perceived superior interconnect for digital audio in audio only system. Unfortunately, most optical receivers (that is the chip inside the destination, not an AV receiver) selected for consumer products are rather slow. It is the slow transition time in the receiver which contributes to edge uncertainty which will result in greater jitter generally in digital audio. Coax receivers are typically faster, thus with less jitter IN THE INTERFACE. Jitter results in a degradation in sound.

BUT, in AV applications where a compressed audio stream is sent via the digital audio connection, it really doesn't matter. AC3 of DTS decoding already has so many compromises in it that any timing errors of the interface will be completely swamped out.

So, just use whatever works for your situation.

[THE RIPPER]

actually all dvd players that play dvd-audio and or sacd have 6 channel analog jacks, except the high end denons which are thousands.