Pansat 250sm ac3 audio help

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jogon64

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Sep 18, 2009
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Northern Mexico
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?
 
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.
 
Problem solved yet?

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.
 
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.
 
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/?
 
Thanks Anole.

I am listening to ac3 through optical jack from my coolsat to my sony receiver as well as all other audio from my fixed dishes to 30,79,101 and 125w ku. When on ac3 my receiver displays "Dolby Digital 2.0", when not it says "PCM 48" When trying the same through the pansat 250sm all non ac3 works regularly, but ac3 only squeaks and says "PCM 48" but no audio. I´m gonna try trough coaxial as soon as I get one delivered.

I did not know a video cable (yellow) could work for digital audio. I´ll give it a try tonight and see how that goes. Thanks.

The pansat gives me no menu option for audio.
 
The audio receiver is apparently not sensing the AC-3 stream, and is trying to process it as PCM uncompressed audio. The squealing is actually what the AC-3 stream sounds like when it is not decompressed.
 
Well first of all I wanna thank all you guys for helping me out on trying to fix my ac3 audio problem.

Next I want to apologize to you all for making a very big dumb mistake of not looking at the rear of my Pansat 250sm closely. Turns out it does not have a coax digital out!! It just has the optical out.

Anyway I got the coax cable I ordered only to find out I couldnt hook it up! But the optical still doesnt work though.

I fixed the problem for my wife to watch V-Me on amc21 by borrowing a Pansat 2700 from my friend which doesnt have optical but does have coax digital and voila! ...audio.

I guess there´s something not right with the 250sm. My friend doesnt care about ac3 so we´ll exchange stb for now.

As turbo said I would have thought Pansat would put out better working models. Not to put down coolsats but the panny has better picture quality and in my opinion better blind scanning, but well thats just me.

I hope this thread can be of use to anyone out there with similar problem, for now I might just give it a rest now that the wife is happy.

Thanks again.
 
Too bad jogon, would've thought the hacker software would've fixed that problem...maybe those models weren't popular for stealing so they didn't get as much "support". Still, seems like Pansat would provide decent support for it.
 
Hi guys,

It is happening to me too with AMC21. I get no sound on this sat unless I use my Mercury 2. Pansat 250sm what a disappointment. I notice that no one mention that you can actually make the changes by using the audio setup but it will not save it meaning if you change channels you will have to set it up again. The audio setup will not work with AMC 21. I did send an email concerning this problem to PANAREX two days ago and so far no answer. So much for improving my sat equipment.
 
I'm not sure you guys have solved the mystery with AC3 on Pansat 250SM but here is what I got from Pansat USA:

A new file was made for this particular problem. You can visit our website www.pansatusa.com and download the latest software for the 250SM. The new software version has the December 14, 2009 date in it.
You will first have to download the software. Next, select the "Factory settings" option and press the "OK" button. Finally, you will have to re-scan the satellite(s) in order for the unit to start a fresh list of channels and for the new software to operate properly.

Unlucky me my computer does not have the 232 RS plug. I have the cable. I guess I'm have way there.

Please let me know if this works for you.
 
Ac3 working through optical now!!

I did as jibaro explained, downloaded file from pansat site, installed (via USB, yeah, it works), did factory reset, rescanned and now I have ac3 through optical to my av receiver.

Thanks a lot to all who helped in solving this. Hope others can benefit from this too.

This is the greatest fta site. I've gotten practically all my fta knowledge from all you guys here, Thanks!
 
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