Cannot get Dolby Digital on Pansat 2700A

[shuriki]

Dear members of the forum. I'm having problems with getting surround sound from my Pansat2700A.
I have it connected to DD A/V receiver with RCA cable. S/PDIF on Pansat, digital coax on the receiver.
Stereo sound works fine. If I switch to any channel that marked as DD and choose AC3 audio stream, no sound reaches the A/V receiver. What am I doing wrong?

 

[PSB]

Remember even although the Pansat is AC3 compatable it has to be run through a receiver/Hi Fi that can decode AC3 digital Audio!

 

[shuriki]

my receiver has DD and DTS decoders. Divx files with 5.1 AC3 from my DVD player work ok.

 

[ken2400]

What is the make and model of your receiver?
Thanks

my receiver has DD and DTS decoders. Divx files with 5.1 AC3 from my DVD player work ok.

 

[shuriki]

Sony STRDB930

 

[gizzer777]

How do you have the sound output hooked up on the Pansat, and to what inputs on the receiver? coax , optical? I am curious because I have a Viewsat Extreme on the way and want AC3 if it is available on whatever channels. I am using a new Pioneer Elite 72TX THX, DD, DTS receiver and can't wait! I had a problem that was caused by a bad optical cable that from my HD TV to the receiver and could not get OTA AC3...replaced the cable and AC3 magically was heard...sounds great!! Good luck and plz keep us posted on your progress

 

[shuriki]

Pansat 2700A does not have optical output, so I'm using coaxial.
S/PDIF on Pansat side, digital coax on the receiver side. Tried this at my friends - he has Yamaha 4000 A/V receiver - same thing, no sound on AC3. I wonder if channel settings are wrong. AC3 is main sound + 2 by default. I wonder if it should be something else.
BTW, it is common mistake to think AC3 = DD 5.1. Ac3 is simply digital audio, it can be stereo, can be mono, most common is 5.1.

 

[gizzer777]

Ac3

Yep...I go back to the days of Quadrophonic. My 4DTV has AC3 w/ dd 5.1 sound and sometimes it is just digital, sometimes DD5.1, and sometimed DD 2.1....When I hit a 5.1 broadcast...you REALLY KNOW IT!

I wonder if the stations you are watching are sending sound in AC3.
HOPE YOU GET IT
jEFF

 

[adwan001]

Make sure your receiver has a digital audio INPUT in the back. Sometimes receivers say have digital audio in the back but that can be an OUTPUT. I had that experience with a couple of receivers and had to return them to the store because I couldn't use them to decode AC3 audio.

 

[4n2t0]

Dear members of the forum. I'm having problems with getting surround sound from my Pansat2700A.
I have it connected to DD A/V receiver with RCA cable. S/PDIF on Pansat, digital coax on the receiver.
Stereo sound works fine. If I switch to any channel that marked as DD and choose AC3 audio stream, no sound reaches the A/V receiver. What am I doing wrong?

Make sure that the channel list you loaded is AC3 compatible. If you don't have a channel list loaded, or know what a channel list even is, then you might want to look into it.

Peace

 

[shuriki]

Ok. I've figured it all out. Even though the channel was marked as AC3 on channel list, it does not always broadcast 5.1 sound. Some movies are 2.0 on one channel and 5.1 on another. I was unlucky enough to pick those channels (or at that time) when 5.1 was not available. Then I got lucky once and from there erething is clear.

Thanks everybody for your advises.

 

[Tron]

Most FTA AC-3 seems to be only 2 channel. I suppose they use AC-3 instead of uncompressed PCM stereo digital audio to save on bandwidth since AC-3 is compressed...