5.1 sound with sky+

bkearns

I am getting sky+ next week. I note from the pace manual that the V2 sky+ box comes with left and right audio out phono leads and an optical audio out.

I have a sony sound system which can produce 5.1 sound from an external source. However it has no optical input. It has 5 phono inputs.

Any ideas on how I can create 5.1 sound from sky+ through my sony system ?

navi_5445

I know you can buy optical to coax converters but I'm not sure of the situation re: 5.1 surround.

The sky plus box will give you 5.1 sound on it's first three movie channels and sometimes on the disney channel ( 5.1 depending on the film)
All you deed is a digital optical cable to connect the plus box to your amp.

You need an optical input though.

5.1 is digital so phono wont do.
Are you sure it doesnt have an optical socket, it's tiny almost like a phone socket?

But if it doesnt it may be possible to interconnect a coax lead to an optical-never seen that done though but remember reading about it on the DVD forums dot com site.

It may degrade the sound slightly though as it's not a direct link.

ShaneOC

As has been stated any Amp can only produce Dolby Digital sound from either a coaxial or an optical input. My sony amp has one optical and one coaxial input. As my old DVD player only had an optical output I had to purchase an optical to coaxial thingymagig. This worked perfectly using the coaxial input on the Amp for the DVD (optical was being used by Sky+). I have recently upgraded my DVD player to one which has a coaxial output so I have the thingymagig available if you need it. PM me if interested.

Owenw

Originally posted by bkearns
I am getting sky+ next week. I note from the pace manual that the V2 sky+ box comes with left and right audio out phono leads and an optical audio out.

I have a sony sound system which can produce 5.1 sound from an external source. However it has no optical input. It has 5 phono inputs.

Any ideas on how I can create 5.1 sound from sky+ through my sony system ?

I presume you have a Sony "DAV" all-in-one system?

The 6 phono inputs allow you to connect a device (such as a DVD player / DVD recorder / SACD player / DVD Audio player etc.) which has it's own built in surround sound decoder. The device outputs the 6 decoded audio channels (front left, front centre, front right, rear left, rear right & subwoofer) via phono line outs.

Unfortunately Sky+ does not have such a decoder and only outputs the original Dolby Digital data-stream via optical digital connection (TOSlink).

What to do?

You could upgrade to a better specced all-in-one system which includes at least 1 optical digital input so you can plug in your Sky+. Not sure there are many which fit the bill.

Or another pricier solution would be to trade in your DAV and buy a seperate DVD player and home cinema amplifier. The amp should have several optical and at least 1 coaxial digital input. Yuo can then plug in your DVD and Sky box and let the amp do all the surround sound decoding.
You would also have to invest in 5 speakers and a subwoofer.
Then you need speaker cable and interconnnects to plug it all together.
The whole system could easily cost about €1000 or more depending what your standards are. The sky is really the limit with these systems. You will however get excellent sound approaching that of a good hi-fi system.

There are some home cinema kits starting to appear which provide a basic to mid range system in a box. These have dvd player cinema amp speakers and sub and all the cables you need to get going.

One final point: the dolby output from Sky movie channels is not totally reliable yet.
There have been bugs since the outset with lip-sync errors, no sound halfway through a movie etc etc. Have a look on Digital Spy dot co dot uk for more on this.

hth