[mythtv-users] Improve audio?

[Nick Morrott]

On 09/05/07, brad at bradandkim.net <brad at bradandkim.net> wrote:
> I have been running mythtv successfully for a couple of years but now I
> want to improve my audio if possible.  I currently run left/right rca out
> from the set top box into an adapter that changes it to single mini rca
> and goes into the pvr 250's line in.  There are no audio connections from
> the pvr 250 to my sound card.  Sound card is an onboard SB Audigy LS with
> both optical and coax spdif out.  I use the coax spdif out to my receiver.
>  So my questions are as follows:
>
> Is there a better way to connect audio from my stb to the PC?  My stb has
> both coax and optical out for audio.  I have digital cable and it seems
> like taking stereo rca into a single mini jack would lose a lot of audio
> quality.

Not if you want the PVR-250 to encode audio for you. It's limited to
stereo, which is what you're already feeding it. This is how I have my
PVR-150 connected to my cable box (Samsung, UK) and the audio quality
seems fine. I've got my MythBox connected via TOSLINK and I get 5.1
audio when playing back DVDs and 2.0 when playing back PVR-150
recordings.

If your digital cable box supports FireWire, you should look into
using that for the best quality connection to your MythBox.

> My receiver has lights for the number of speaker channels it detects on
> the connection and it only shows 2 when there 5 possible.  What am I
> missing in my connection?

Nothing. You are only feeding 2ch stereo to your PVR card, and that's
all the encoded MPEG-2 stream contains. Even though you're using
S/PDIF to convey audio signals to your receiver, it's only carrying
2ch audio when sending material recorded via your PVR card, so that's
all it is detecting.

Nick
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