Digital Audio Out ...

[essential]

Basically, I want to run a cable from the "digital audio out" of my digital cable box into my sound card for recordings.

The back of my box looks similar to this:
http://www.oceanic.com/attachment/62FC483D7A01F5D2E501102318/InputsExpanded.gif

So, the digital audio out (5th output from the left of the picture) is a single output, not a Left/Right like I am used to. Since I want to run it into my sound card, the other end needs to be like a headphone input cable. I've seen Left/Right A/V cables that went to the a headphone end that could be run into a soundcard, but don't know where to look for what I need. Anyone know what I could use for this?

Thanks.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

You'll need a soundcard with digital in to get that recorded. I know of some that have digital optical in, but I'm not sure if any have digital coaxial input.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

My initial thought would be to get something like this going
Turtlebeach catalina (or some other card with digital optical input)
+
Digital coax to digital optical converter

Unless there's a card out there for cheaper that has a digital coaxial input on it that I'm not thinking of.

I have never recorded off an AC3 stream before, so I don't really know how that would work with these cards.

Of course you could go from the analog output on the cable box to a regular line-in on any soundcard and that would get you stereo.

 

[essential]

Thank you for your input YoYo. I currently have it setup so the analog output on the cable box is running into my line in on the sound card, but the audio on my recordings (audio & video) is rough. I understood your initial post, and am now debating between buying a better cable, such as a "Monster Interlink 400 Stereo RCA to 1/8" Cable" (I have one of these in my car for my iPod to stereo hookup with the help of a SiK Imp and the sound quality is great) or getting a new sound card with the digital optical in like you suggested in your second post.

Right now I have a general Radio Shack cable running from the analog out into my line-in, so maybe the wire is the cause. I have made sound card line-in mp3 recordings with rough audio, and I recently installed a TV-Tuner card, and just switched the wire from my sound card to the audio line in on the TV-Tuner card, and the same rough audio resulted in my video recordings. I doubt both cards are bad, so the wire might be the culprit.

Either way, i'll have to figure something out soon, I'll probably take that cord in my from car (crossing my fingers it's long enough to reach from my cable box to my tower, even though I realistically doubt it will), and see if the audio is any better.

YoYo, you seem like a sound expert, I've been told in the past (mainly the iPod Lounge forums in regards to installing my iPod in my car) expensive cables like Monster are just ripping people off, and general Radio Shack cables can be just as good in terms of sound quality, is that true?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

There are plenty of people here that know more than I do, but I tend to post in more threads about stuff trying to troubleshoot this sort of thing.

Monstercables are really overpriced. As for quality issues, most of the time just about anything will be fine. Especially in the case of digital cables, the cheapest ones should work just as well as expensive ones unless you have special needs.

For your situation here I'd guess that a more expensive cable isn't going to help much unless the one you're using now is of very low quality. If you have a more expensive cable of the same type though, by all means try it to see if it changes things. If it does, then I'd suggest getting another cable like that but not necessarily monstercable again.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
There are plenty of people here that know more than I do, but I tend to post in more threads about stuff trying to troubleshoot this sort of thing.

Monstercables are really overpriced. As for quality issues, most of the time just about anything will be fine. Especially in the case of digital cables, the cheapest ones should work just as well as expensive ones unless you have special needs.

For your situation here I'd guess that a more expensive cable isn't going to help much unless the one you're using now is of very low quality. If you have a more expensive cable of the same type though, by all means try it to see if it changes things. If it does, then I'd suggest getting another cable like that but not necessarily monstercable again.

This is so true. A 2 dollar radio shack RCA cable works just as well as a 50 dollar monster cable. Same holds true for optical. When I first got my DVD/LD player I spent 80 bucks on a 8ft monster optical cable to feed into my receiver. For kicks, I plugged in some RCA cable that came with some cheap tape deck andused it in the digital coax. I switch the sound on the receiver from optical to coax and heard no difference. I was at a flea market and found 3ft no-name optical cable for 3 bucks, tried that and it sounded and worked just as well as the monster cable. Then it hit me. DUH! Its digital! Of course they sound the same. Only time you need higher quality optical or coax cable is if you are near an inteferance area. But for analog, like for your speakers, the better the cable, the better the sound. IMO