On my home theater system, should my receiver always display "digital" even when watching non-digital broadcas
On my home theater system, my receiver is set to "auto". I have a 5.1 system. My receiver always displays "digital" even when watching a non-digital broadcast. I can manually switch in to analog, and then it will say "analog", but the sound is much quieter. Is this normal operation?
I have a Marantz SR5600 receiver, connected to a Cablevision Hi-Def cable box. The little box on the receiver display correctly indicates which speakers are being used (either 2, 3, or 5 lights appear, each representing 1 speaker). I have an optical cable connected from the cable box to the receiver. For non-digital TV broadcasts, 2 or 3 lights appear, but it still says "digital". Is this normal? Thank you for your help. PS: I'm not sure what "digital-digital" means.
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It really depends on what brand & model of receiver you have, but I wouldn't worry about changing it to analog, as long as the sound is "correct" (the right sounds coming from the right speakers, and all speakers being used).
You really should consider investing a little bit of money in wiring, so you can have digital-digital sound. Just make sure you buy the right wires, since there are two different types– coaxial and optical. If you've got decent equipment, and decent speakers, you'll get considerably better sound quality (mostly on the highs and the bass), if you're using the digital inputs.
As long as you have the optical cable hooked to the receiver you will be getting a digital signal to it. The receiver is correctly displaying the audio input because as long as you are using the cable box it is sending a digital signal whether the channel you are watching is digital or not.
A quick test for you to prove that I'm right is to reach around to the back of your cable box and unplug the optical cable. The "digital" light on your receiver will shut off.