- This topic has 21 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 7 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Graham Thompson suggested I join this forum to get better answers than AV forum.
I have been using a Humax Foxsat HD box since my house in the Haut Var (Provence) got struck by lighting in 2008. The hit was on the 140cm dish at the bottom of the garden and the Sky box went up in flames. I feed the S/PDIF audio output into a Russ Andrews Firestone Spitfire 24/192 DAC. This does not understand the 5.1 stream that comes out of the optical out on HD channels and just makes a noise like a motor scooter with a broken exhaust.
Up to this year this has not been a big issue as I did not watch the BBC HD channel a whole lot. However this year with BBC1 and ITV1 in HD it has become more of an issue. I change the input on my Meridian G02 pre-amp over to the Sony KDL-40W3500 TV, which of course can decode the 5.1 stream arriving via the HDMI lead, albeit at lowish quality and outputs via 2 channel stereo RCA.
My options are:
1) to get a Humax HDR box, which was not out when I got the HD box. I am told that if you turn Dolby off in the menu of the HDR box, then unlike the HD box, the optical out sends a normal 2 channel PCM stream that a standard 2 channel DAC can understand.
2) To find a DAC that can understand 5.1 S/PDIF and output a 2 channel mixed stream from this. I don’t mind buying a new DAC as I am not exactly blown away by the quality of the Spitfire for my main system and my 15 year old Audio Alchemy DAC that I have been using in my study to play Internet Radio, has died.
Apart from that, my interests are: Classical Music, Hi Fi, photography with rangefinder cameras (1942 to 2009 models), Porsche 911 cars and classic rallying.
Wilson
Hi and welcome to the forum.
Take a look through the FAQs, wiki and blogs and any specific questions you have post in the relevant forum, I’m sure someone will be able to help.
Hi WilsonLaidlaw and welcome.
The current released firmware V1.00.13 always outputs Dolby Digital 2.0 or 5.1 from HD channels on the s/pdif port using this compression system irrespective of the setting for Dolby Digital in the menus. The BBC HD channels have a stereo lpcm track that can be selected using the audio button on the remote but it’s audio described. Incidentally ITV1-HD Granada has the full 1920 x 1080 resolution but only a lpcm stereo track (does have prologic 11 surround though if you have a suitable decoder). If you use a Manchester postcode or tune the channel in non-freesat you can check this out. (M2 4JA – Manchester Town Hall works
)The new beta v1.00.15 – (see the thread on here) which fixes the cessation of recording capability following a power cut when the box is in sby adds the downmix capability to the s/pdif port so if DD is turned off you get good old lpcm stereo which shouldn’t be a problem to any dac.
Graham,
Many thanks for your very helpful suggestions. I had seen the suggestion of using the audio button on the remote on the DS forum. The problem is unless my eyesight is going or my brain (both according to my wife), I cannot see an audio button on my remote (pic attached). Maybe this is because this is quite an early HD box (not HDR) dating from early 2008. The beta you mention is I think for the HDR box only not the HD.
Wilson
[attachment=702,32]
Yes afaik the HD currently can’t downmix to s/pdif. The button you need is the loudspeaker with a ?. Second from bottom right hand side.
Graham,
I had played with that button but all it does is play around with the channels so you can have 2 left channels or 2 right (why???) and presumably if the broadcaster was sending out multi-lingual streams, would allow you to choose your language. I think it may be give up time and dig into my pocket for an HDR box. I see that Tesco is selling refurbed ones on Fleabay.
Thanks anyway
Wilson
BBC-HD and BBC1-HD always has two streams, the default Dolby Digital and the stereo lpcm track which the button can select, it should work with your DAC but you can’t get rid of the audio description. The hdr with the new firmware should fix your problem.
I think this is all going to have to wait until my daughter and son-in-law come to stay in June. I just remembered I would need to lay a twin cable from the dish or maybe quad to future proof. We will have to dig up the channel from the house to the bottom of the garden, where the 140cm dish is screwed on to a rock face about 50 meters from the house. The ‘garden” is mainly softish limestone rock and I got my son to cut a channel with a pick axe when I bought the house 8 years ago. Fitting a twin or quad LNB is not an issue. I replaced my ancient rusting UK dish and LNB last month myself, after some aerial monkeys wanted me to pay them £300 to do it – all the parts including Invacom quad LNB, alignment meter, 10 meters of 7.5mm shotgun cable and 65cm dish cost me £107.
I can get my daughter to bring out the Humax HDR as well, instead of trusting to the vagaries of French post, UPS (U’r Parcel Stolen) or DHL (Delivery Hopelessly Lost).
Wilson
Welcome to our forum
If you can hang on a couple of Days whilst I check something with Humax Support, might save you some pennies.
I wait in gleeful anticipation Barry. Your help IS appreciated.
Wilson
You can use both tuners on a hdr on a single cable surprisingly effectively buy using lnb1 out to lnb2 in with a short loop cable, even to the extent of recording two channels and watching some third channels.
http://myhumax.org/forum/topic/what-can-i-record-and-watch-using-1-or-2-cables
In any case Barry’s the man, sounds as if the HD may get a mod to the way DD is handled.
Graham,
A single cable would be good news. Down where I live in France and with a house built on the edge of a 500 foot high cliff, it is always the first thing a thunderstorm hits when it sweeps up from down in the valley below. I now have a big anti surge box down in the cellar to protect against surges on the main inwards power line and glass fuses on the phone line. After my experience in 2008, where the satellite cable lightning protection on the power block failed, I now have an expensive fast switching gas valve diverter-to-earth in line where the satellite cable enters the house. These are about €150 each, so that is quite a saving, if I can avoid having to buy another one for a second cable. Having become used to the convenience of a Sky+HD box for recording programs when I am in the UK, I am tempted with a Humax HDR box.
Wilson
The hdrs tuner’s have the capability to demux two channels at the same time from the same transponder, when combined with the ability to pass all channels sharing the same frequency band and polarisation as tuner 1 is using across the loop to tuner 2 the dual capability is quite surprising. Add to this that most TV channels are in the two low frequency quadrants and that regionalised channels like bbc1 have both horizontal and vertical variants it’s quite often possible to make a 3rd channel viewable and in some cases time shifteable as well.
For example recording both BBC-HD and BBC1-HD at the same time you can view (and time-shift) the following. (ITV1 will depend on your postcode putting the channel at 103 though 977 is always available). Sorry about the repeats it’s part of a list that lets the user customise according to postcode used.
Code:121 Channel 4 + 1
122 E4
123 E4 +1
124 More4
975 Channel 4 + 1
103 ITV 1 London
103 ITV 1 Granada
103 ITV 1 Anglia North
103 ITV 1 Central West
113 ITV2
117 ITV4
602 CITV
977 ITV 1 London (audio described)
101 BBC One
952 BBC 1 E Mids
953 BBC 1 East (E)
964 BBC 1 Wales
963 BBC 1 W Mids
966 BBC 1 Yorks
967 BBC 1 Eyrks*L
971 BBC 2 W
101 BBC One
956 BBC 1 NE & C
957 BBC 1 NI
958 BBC 1 Oxford
961 BBC 1 South
962 BBC 1 S West
969 BBC 2 NI
108 BBC1 HD
109 BBC HD
103 STV
103 UTV
112 ITV1 + 1
115 ITV3
116 ITV3 +1
731 Talk Sport Radio
119 ITV 1 HD (Granada)
304 Movies4Men
306 Movies4Men2
724 Absolute Radio
725 Absolute Classic Rock
726 Absolute 80’s
727 NME Radio
728 WRN
729 JazzFM
777 Insight Radio
790 TWR Radio
307 Movies4men2+1
403 Showcase
504 B4U Music
651 Renault TV
692 Revelation
815 Jewelry Ch
134 CBS Drama
204 Euronews
652 Psychic TV
870 Babestation
208 Bloomberg TV
801 price-drop tv
814 Speed Auction TV
693 Islam Channel
142 TRUE ENT
302 True Movies
303 True Movies 2
500 Chart Show TV
501 The Vault
502 Flava
503 Scuzz
516 NME TV
517 Bliss
603 POP
604 POPGirl
605 Tiny POP
606 Kix!
203 Al Jazeera English
209 NHK WORLD TVBeen thinking about the lightning issue. Might be a bit late now (and it’s quite expensive) how about using a fibre optic lnb and fibre signal connections, will also solve your multituner problems.
http://www.sateuropa.co.uk/overview.asp?catid=12&subcat=66
The only metallic connections dish to property will be the low voltage power supply connections which should be much easier to protect.
Graham,
The problem is that there is no power at the bottom of the garden, so I would have to lay power down for the 12V supply. By the time I had done this and bought both ends of the equipment, I am considerably more than laying new 7.5mm shotgun cable (labour cost is mainly beer) and an additional gas valve. Strangely the price has come down and they are now only 90€.
Oddly I am having the same issue on the DAC from my Panasonic BD30 Blu Ray player. I tried today to connect this via a TOSlink cable to the Spitfire DAC. I went into the BD30 menu and set digital output to downgrade to PCM. Usual horrible noise. It makes no difference if you set downgrade to PCM on or off. I am now waiting for an answer from Panasonic.
I am thinking of getting an Aqua Acoustic La Voce DAC when they bring out their new model using 2 Wolfson WM-8740 DAC chips in dual differential mode in a few weeks. It is a beautifully made DAC with dual toroidal PSU’s for the digital and analogue sides.
Here is the lightning protector is use and will need another one of.
Wilson
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.