I have an Aiwa stereo with 6 input jacks for the 5.1 dolby digital surround sound but my Toshiba DVD player only has a coaxial out jack. How do I hook up my dvd player in order to get the dolby digital surround sound?
Does your AIWA stereo have a coaxial input jack? If it does then hook up the DVD to the AIWA this way. Otherwise you'll need to either purchase a DVD with 5.1 analog output jacks or a receiver with a digital coaxial input. If you purchase a new receiver make sure it matches your DVD. Digital audio jacks are available as optical and coaxial.
staul1
Posted on
My stereo does not have a coaxial input jack. It does have a digital optical output jack (i'm not sure what you can use that for). I just bought the dvd player so I could possibly exchange it for one with the 5.1 output jacks. However, will there be a significant difference in the sound by doing this versus just hooking my current dvd audio into my receiver through the normal video/aux analog jacks? One other question, is there a significant difference in the audio if I chose to buy a new receiver that had digital audio jacks, and if so is there any significant difference between optical versus coaxial?
Cota
Posted on
Let me try to answere some of these questions, also see my post to your other thread.
The 5.1 input jacks are for SACD sound from an SACD player, you wouldn't want to use this for regular DVD to Rec sound. Your best bet is probably getting a new receiver with digital inputs and Dolby Digital 5.1 or 6.1 and DTS decoding. Then playing a DVD with either of these formats would be carried to the Rec in digital format and decoded to play over your 5.1 speaker setup. This would be a dramatic improvment over just hooking up the DVD to Rec with regular analog audio connection, the difference between regular stereo sound and home theater quality sound.
To your question on difference in audio if buying a new receiver see above.
Plenty of opinion out there on optical vs. coax but not much difference, only thing I have seen is if you have to run the cable over long distances you may be better with coax. Some say optical is better but I went with coax for the cost.
Cota's correct. You'll need a new receiver. As far as digital audio; buying the $10.00 cable (assuming you have the speakers for a 5.1 or 6.1 setup) is the best investment you can make. It's night and day. I know that people can sometimes take subtle differences and exagerate them, but that's not the case here. I just put together my home theater system. Before that I just hooked up the analog output of the DVD to my receiver and the difference was astonishing. Instead of two stereo speakers you now have a separate signal to each speaker, just as designed for the theater. And the dynamic range is much greater than I ever heard before.
BTW, are you sure that the digital connection is an output jack? I'm not sure what you'd use that for. Perhaps to connect an external decoder. If that's the case then you'd probably be better off buying the new receiver. But make sure that it is an output jack. If it's an input jack then you're ready to go.