Cable & Satellite TV → [COMCAST] Digital Audio from Motorola DCT2524

I have a Motorola DCT2524 and Comcast Digital Cable.
I am trying to use the coax digital audio through my
RCA home theatre system. I get sound on the non-digital
channels but not on the digital premium channels. Comcast
is trying to tell me digital audio only works through the
TV, I don't buy it. I have standard Coax out and the
digital audio coax out (no RCA video or audio out) using
the PCM digital audio cable. Any suggestions?

Cheers,
John

I get sound from all channels using the digital coax output... Go into audio output and turn off compression and then change it to stereo instead of matrix.

However, hardly anything is DD5.1. So far today, only one movie on HBO was. The rest of the stuff that shows upa t just DD is in 2 channel or prologic it seems.

said by sbccjohn:

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I have a Motorola DCT2524 and Comcast Digital Cable.
I am trying to use the coax digital audio through my
RCA home theatre system. I get sound on the non-digital
channels but not on the digital premium channels. Comcast
is trying to tell me digital audio only works through the
TV, I don't buy it. I have standard Coax out and the
digital audio coax out (no RCA video or audio out) using
the PCM digital audio cable. Any suggestions?

Cheers,
John

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If you have Showtime.. The Italian Job which was just released is in DD5.1. Just to let you know.

Do you have Starz? If so next time Finding Nemo is on, see is Comcast passes the Dolby Digital EX 6.1 audio(that is if your receiver is capable of handling DDEX 6.1) or if they hack it down to DD 5.1.

I have HBO and then Starz... I'll keep that last message in mind. Can't check on the Italian Job though, unfortunatey.

I have the Motorola HD box, with fiber out. I got DDEX(6.1) on Finding Nemo.

OK, just curious.

lumpy - you have a DCT2524/... box with optical audio port? If so, it's the first "2500" series box that I've heard of, issued by Comcast, that has the optical port. Or are you with Cox?

For what it's worth, I have the DCT2524/1611 box (from Comcast) and use the orange digital (coax) audio port. I get sound on all channels, but DD5.1 on just 2 of them - HBO and HBOP.

I subscribe to STARZ, but have yet to hear anything come across in DD5.1 on these channels. I believe that some Showtime movies are broadcast in DD5.1, but I don't subscribe to SHO.

Probably if I purchased a VOD movie that is listed as "Widescreen/5.1" or however it's worded, it would probably come across in DD5.1 as well.

He did mention HD anyway... Maybe it is a HD-specific thing?

So is the relative lack of DD5.1 a problem with Comcast, or the actual channel provider's themselves?

said by milehiguy:

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lumpy - you have a DCT2524/... box with optical audio port? If so, it's the first "2500" series box that I've heard of, issued by Comcast, that has the optical port. Or are you with Cox?

For what it's worth, I have the DCT2524/1611 box (from Comcast) and use the orange digital (coax) audio port. I get sound on all channels, but DD5.1 on just 2 of them - HBO and HBOP.

I subscribe to STARZ, but have yet to hear anything come across in DD5.1 on these channels. I believe that some Showtime movies are broadcast in DD5.1, but I don't subscribe to SHO.

Probably if I purchased a VOD movie that is listed as "Widescreen/5.1" or however it's worded, it would probably come across in DD5.1 as well.

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So is the relative lack of DD5.1 a problem with Comcast, or the actual channel provider's themselves?

No, the limited amount of DD5.1 content (& channels) that gets streamed to the customer is by design, probably to save bandwidth. A good example is STARZ - I've yet to hear anything on any of the STARZ channels come across in DD5.1, yet many (most?) of the movies I watch on STARZ have a DD5.1 soundtrack, if you were to rent them from Blockbuster or whatever.

said by Denjin:

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So is the relative lack of DD5.1 a problem with Comcast, or the actual channel provider's themselves?

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Comcast is the problem. I have Starz and almost all shows are DD5.1, sure there are some older shows that don't have 5.1 but they didn't have it in the first place. Same goes with HBO and Showtime for me.

Sorta related to this, I just got my DCT2524 yesterday and immediately hooked up the digital audio to my receiver.

However, it seems to me that on content that is not in 5.1 (as said above, like everything), Comcast is sending the regular 2 channel stereo signal to the left and right speakers, and leaving the rest silent. This is pretty annoying to me as my receiver refuses to do prologic processing on a digital signal, so I get sound out of my left and right and nothing else.

Anyone else notice this or is it just a regional thing (wouldn't surprise me)? Or is it just my receiver being crappy (which it is)? I'm in Anne Arundel county, MD.

I think they do that in Chicago, too. On my receiver though, I can tell it to do Prologic (but I tell it to do 5 channel audio on it), and I can get the other channels.

However, only the R and L speaker lights are on by default on the 'D' channels. Quite poor 'digital audio' lineup on Comcast for sure.

said by spalt:

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Sorta related to this, I just got my DCT2524 yesterday and immediately hooked up the digital audio to my receiver.

However, it seems to me that on content that is not in 5.1 (as said above, like everything), Comcast is sending the regular 2 channel stereo signal to the left and right speakers, and leaving the rest silent. This is pretty annoying to me as my receiver refuses to do prologic processing on a digital signal, so I get sound out of my left and right and nothing else.

Anyone else notice this or is it just a regional thing (wouldn't surprise me)? Or is it just my receiver being crappy (which it is)? I'm in Anne Arundel county, MD.

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