Xda-1 and Comcast

[eusebio]

Anyone have any luck getting a comcast cable-box to work with the XDA-1? I have a Motorola DCT6412 iii (DVR) box that does not have an option to change audio out to PCM. My TV (Samsung PN58c550) does have an optical out that can supposedly be set to PCM but that didn't work either. Oddly enough I've sent the optical out from the tv to an AVR that reads it as a PCM signal but that won't work with the XDA. I am sick of comcast and am considering just building a mythtv box and getting rid of this POS comcast box. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[edrummereasye]

Apr 26, 2011 23:10:42 GMT -5 eusebio said:

Anyone have any luck getting a comcast cable-box to work with the XDA-1? I have a Motorola DCT6412 iii (DVR) box that does not have an option to change audio out to PCM. My TV (Samsung PN58c550) does have an optical out that can supposedly be set to PCM but that didn't work either. Oddly enough I've sent the optical out from the tv to an AVR that reads it as a PCM signal but that won't work with the XDA. I am sick of comcast and am considering just building a mythtv box and getting rid of this POS comcast box. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Not sure about your setup - are you using the XDA as your sole pre-amp, or do you have it running to a pre/pro or AVR? The reason I ask is that running the DVR box to the XDA will limit you to 2-channel or 2.1 only. Moreover, if the box sends out Dolby Digital (a lot of broadcast stuff is DD2.0 or DD5.1), I don't know what the XDA will do with it, if anything...but one possibility is that it would totally reject it, and another is that it would play the L/R front channels, and drop the Center channel material on the floor - which could make it real hard to hear dialogue. Unless, of course, there's a setting in the box to send out only 2.0 - but if it can't send out PCM, I'm thinking it's setup options are pretty limited.

For these reasons, I ship audio out from both my TiVo and Comcast Digital box (used for On-Demand/PPV only) to my pre-pro (UMC-1) and let the XDA-1 handle two-channel digital sources only.

Another option might be to see if Comcast has other DVR boxes that *do* allow you to send out PCM; but from everyone I've talked to, I think the consensus is that all the Comcast DVRs suck compared to TiVo or Myth or almost anything else.

[eusebio]

i have a pre-pro that i only want to use for movies and utilize the xda-1 for all else. I am using the xda-1 direct to my upa-1s via XLR (UPA-5 powers the other channels) and when needed i can flick the back switch on the amps to unbalanced when i want to watch a movie. I listen to music and watch TV 80% of the time if not more so it would be easier if i can just keep the amps switched to balanced.

i've also been kicking the idea around of just running a 2 channel set up and upgranding my fronts.

[REN]

i run my comcast box threw my pc then to my xda-1 by coax cable for 2 chanle music

[eusebio]

Apr 27, 2011 13:59:45 GMT -5 REN said:

i run my comcast box threw my pc then to my xda-1 by coax cable for 2 chanle music

how do you run your comcast box through your PC?

[hemster]

Apr 27, 2011 13:59:45 GMT -5 REN said:

i run my comcast box threw my pc then to my xda-1 by coax cable for 2 chanle music

That's a strong comcast box, throwing your pc like that! ;D

[REN]

i only have the audio running to my pc for the music channels i have a creative x fi card with spdif input and out puts that's how i do it because the xda dose not decode Dolby digital but my sound card dose and send a pcm signal to the xda-1

[FlatEarth]

I banged my head on this too and eventually found a workable solution, see post at emotivalounge.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=preampdac&thread=16772&page=2#265793