Does anybody have ac3 audio working on a pansat 250sm through optical cable? I can´t get mine to work on my sony a/v receiver. I´m trying to get audio from amc21, I am able to listen through a CS5000 on my same setup to the same sony receiver, so I know everything else is working right. The pansat used to have third party software installed, tried with that and then I installed factory software, but no go with any of them. Any ideas? Thanks.

Did you check the info on one of the PBS -AC3 channels to see if the receiver is picking up an audio pid? Does the box work on any other AC3 channel , like Pentagon-ac3 on amc1?

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Turbo, yes, picking up audio/video pids fine. I even manually advanced scanned individually these channels. And I can´t listen to history and bio ac3 @101 either. I got to test a friend´s pansat 250sm last night on my setup with same results. Coud there be something faulty on this pansat model hardware or software or just Murphy doing his thing on me?

I have never tried the spdif coaxial digital audio thingy cause I dont have this cable, do you think I should try and get one and try it? Thanks.

I don't think any of my boxes will get those AC3 channels on AMC4, haven't tried lately but seems like I have in the past. If your rec has both optical output, and coaxial I would think both would work the same, but who knows. Several of my receivers have both outputs and I have never tried anything except the spdif cable output lol. I haven't heard a lot about that pansat model, but sometimes the 3rd party software fixes things that factory files didn't. Might be worth trying, load it, do it factory reset and give it a whirl.
edit to add : Sometimes I have found that the receiver has to 'sit' on a channel with AC3 for a minute or so before it ever starts outputting sound. No idea why that is. Or sometimes I can use the channel up and then back to original channel and it will start working.

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Thanks turbo for the input, I´ll keep on trying with your tips.

Jogon64, have you been able to solve this problem? I am having those exact issues with a Pansat 250sm. I installed a Sonic Voom for AC3 on AMC21, but nothing comes through. I did as Turbosat suggested with the factory reset -- still nothing! How is it going for you?

One more thing I discovered on my Mercury 2 yesterday>there is a menu option in the receiver-setup to turn the optical output jack ON or OFF. Might be worth a check through all your menu options to see if that 250Panny has something like that! Good luck.

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zj126, nope, still nothing on the pansat 250sm. I´m getting ac3 through my cs5000 (Hey Turbo, I even checked history and bio on 101w and yeah I can get those too). I went ahead and ordered a digital coax for the spdif I´ll let you know as soon as I get it probably next week and give it a try. I am insisting with the pansat because of better picture quality over the coolsat. Thanks for asking.
The panny does not have a menu option for the audio optical output selection.

It's a puzzle! It'd be hard to believe a Pansat model that new wouldn't pass the ac-3 sound out to the jack. Hope you figure it out.

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Sorry to join this thread late. Looks like the debugging is going well.
Couple of points, though . . .

Any RCA cable should pass the digital signal over short distance.
The digital audio on the orange connector just uses coax (as you'd use for video), not junk shielded cable like often used for R/L audio.
So, if you had a yellow video cable, that should work for a test.

Does any signal on non - AC3 channels come through on your SPDIF (that's optical) cable?
You should get regular sound on it all the time.
If you do, and don't get AC3, that is a clue.
At least explore this matter and discuss it.
(I'd have another look through the Pansat menus for a feature or mode that controls the output, as Turbosat suggested)

Are there any options on your Sony receiver for processing the optical signal?
How does it react or display the status of AC3 when hooked to your working Coolsat FTA receiver/?

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