Why do these TV channels have no sound

[gyyang]

Hi All,
I can receive several TV channels on AMC 3 (87W), but most of them have no sound. Do you know why? Appreciate your advice. I am a newbie.

[satnutwillb]

They are broadcast in ac3 audio.You need a stereo system that decodes dolby digital hooked to your mpeg receiver through spdif or optical on the back of your mpeg2.Hope this helps.

[elgemcdlf]

Simply translated you need to hook your receiver up to a surround sound receiver that has an optical input. Buy a optic cable and tie the two together then set your receiver for optic as the input method for your receiver and you will have sound.

This is assuming it is a Fortec receiver. As Bill has stated below not all receivers pass AC3.

[wejones]

As Satnutwillb said, some receivers have an RCA connector labeled SPDIF, by which receivers can "pass thru" AC3 data to a converter or a receiver that decodes AC3. Other receivers have an optical output that does the same thing.
However this all assumes that your receiver is capable of passing thru the AC3 data. Some receivers have these outputs, but still do not pass thru the AC3 data, and still other receivers don't even have these digital audio outputs. From what I have been able to determine, I think that your Traxis receiver does NOT pass thru AC3 audio, and does not have the digital audio outputs, so I think you may be out of luck. Hopefully I've read the specs wrong.

[gyyang]

A lot thanks to everyone. I did find an output from my MPEG-2 receiver, labeled SPDIF. According to it's square shape, I think it's optical. That means I need to buy an AC3 audio system, or something like home theater system, just to make sound. That sounds overkilling to me.

But Wejones warned even if there is a SPDIF output, the receiver may still not pass through AC3 data. Then what is the usage of this output. I am a little confused.

[brentb636]

If your Traxis supports the AC3 passthru, then it will work just fine. However, experience has shown that some of the receivers included the port but never followed thru on making it functional. There's no way for an innocent customer to know, until a later date, whether or not, their unit is fully operational.
There is a relatively inexpensive to to get the sound out, a creative Labs Extigy external sound device, reviewd here : Review of the Extigy external sound card for AC-3 decoding - SatelliteGuys.US . I picked up a used on on ebay for $40 and coupled with pc speakers, it works just fine.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by gyyang

A lot thanks to everyone. I did find an output from my MPEG-2 receiver, labeled SPDIF. According to it's square shape, I think it's optical. That means I need to buy an AC3 audio system, or something like home theater system, just to make sound. That sounds overkilling to me.

But Wejones warned even if there is a SPDIF output, the receiver may still not pass through AC3 data. Then what is the usage of this output. I am a little confused.

That's good if you found an SPDIF port. I'm surprised, because I looked up the specs of the receiver, and for audio all I saw listed was L/R RCA audio. Perhaps I looked up the wrong model, or perhaps they upgraded that model.

The SPDIF port is a digital audio port, and it will output regular audio from non-AC3 channels even if if doesn't do AC3. There is one recent member of the list who has a receiver with the digital audio port, but it doesn't do AC3, and my first Fortec Lifetime had SPDIF, but it didn't do AC3, even though the advertisements for the receiver said that it would. I had to do a firmware upgrade to get the AC3 capability. But if the specs of your receiver don't say AC3 or perhaps Dolby 5.1 or something, then it probably won't do it.

I agree about the Soundblaster Extigy, I have two of those, and like the other poster, my second one was an ebay item for about $40, including shipping. You can't buy the Extigy new anymore, although Soundblaster has 2 models of an Audigy or something, that you can plug an optional digital I/O adapter into, so if you want to get a new version, I'd look up the digital adapter and see which models is compatable with it. The extigy is also external, and works without connection to a computer, and I'm not positive that the external Audigy version does that or not.

Apparently more and more stereo systems do AC3 now, so it's becoming less and less of an issue, but my stereo doesn't, plus even if it did, I couldn't use it because I uses A/V switches to switch between about 7 different sources, and the switches don't do digital, so I'd still use the Extigy even if my stereo or TV did digital.

This AC3 thing is annoying, but more and more channels are going that way, so you're best off getting compatable somehow, even if it means getting a second receiver. Computer card receivers do AC3 with no problems, and are quite cheap.

[gyyang]

I really appreciate your guys' professional inputs. I will try to look for something to hook up to the SPDIF output and let you know whether I have sound.

[satnutwillb]

My first receiver,pansat 2100a,had the spdif on it,but wouldn't pick up the pbs mux on amc-3.It would pass AC3 on the G4tech chs. and I think one other ch. on amc-1 v mux.I called pansat and they told me I needed to go to their site and download the latest download.Long story short,I read the directions and bought the cable from ratshack,tried it,messed my receiver up,sent it to pansat and $60.00 later it works fine.

[glen4cindy]

I went and bought a Digital Audio cable to hook between my FTA and my Surround system.

Would love to know how sound travels on the red laser light, but, now I can get great sound on those AC3 channels.

Great way to get this sound if you have this available.

[gyyang]

Here is the result.
I bought a cheap 5.1 home theater amplifier, hook it up to my satellite receiver with an optical cable. For those channels on which my TV has sound, the amplifier detected "FCM Stereo". For those without sound (suppose to have audio format AC3), the amplifier didn't show anything. That means, no AC3, or Dolby digitial, data input to the amplifier. Do all of you agree?
Then I found an easier way to determine whether the receiver pass thru AC3 data. I removed the amplifier, but left the optical cable attached to the receiver. When there was audio data output from the receiver, the other end of the cable lit up (red light); when no audio data (including AC3), the cable did not light up. Correct me if I am wrong.

FYI, my staellite receiver is "TRANXIS DBS-3500" from "DMS International". But the maker is not shown on either the original box, the receiver, or the manual. I bought it from eBay.

I have another problem with the receiver. Although it claims "Stores up to 100 satellites/4000 channels", I have fewer than 10 satellites/200 channels, but I got "No Space" error when I tried to search other satellites. Even after I deleted a lot channels which I did not need and left about 40 channels, this error still exists. Any reasons/tips? Thanks.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by gyyang

Here is the result.
I bought a cheap 5.1 home theater amplifier, hook it up to my satellite receiver with an optical cable. For those channels on which my TV has sound, the amplifier detected "FCM Stereo". For those without sound (suppose to have audio format AC3), the amplifier didn't show anything. That means, no AC3, or Dolby digitial, data input to the amplifier. Do all of you agree?
Then I found an easier way to determine whether the receiver pass thru AC3 data. I removed the amplifier, but left the optical cable attached to the receiver. When there was audio data output from the receiver, the other end of the cable lit up (red light); when no audio data (including AC3), the cable did not light up. Correct me if I am wrong.
...

One thing to look at is to look at the A/V PIDs that your receiver saved for those channels. My original Lifetime receiver has the SPDIF port, but the firmware didn't pass AC3. The key to telling if it was the firmware was that when you would scan in a transponder, that the receiver would save a PID for video, but the audio PID would be zero, because the firmware just didn't recognize AC3 audio. After I upgraded to firmware that recognized AC3, then it would store the audio PID, and everything worked. Before you ask though, it didn't help to manually add the audio PID, because the software didn't know what to do with it anyway.