mstenzel

Can I use a regular, analog RCA coupler to connect 2 digital audio coax cables and maintain my "digitalness"? I may need to lengthen a cable or I may connect my dig coax into an RCA wall plate.

TIA,

Marcus

X

Yes.

The coupler is neither analog nor digital. It's just a connector.

Clicker

Whatever you do, don't just use a cheap one. When we first got digital it took them 2 weeks of switching boxes to realize they had cheap splitters and they had to come and replace all the splitters and all the couplers through the wall-plates. The guy was stunned that they hadn't figured it out sooner, and haven't had a single problem yet. The cheap ones cause more pixelation than you can tolerate.

discostu1337

You can even just use normal RCA cables as your digital coax cables...theres no difference. Just get some nice thick ones though...or even take normal Coax wire (like cable tv uses) and slap some RCA ends on that...works nice for long runs

mstenzel

Wow! Are you serious? I can use regular red/white RCAs for a digital connection? This is huge for me, because I need 12+ feet of a couple cables and it's getting a bit pricey at the moment. now.

If I had 2 digitial devices (DVD and cable box), can I then run 1 RCA cable for both devices, using the red for one and the white for the other?

Will I lose any quality if I don't use the orange ones made specifically for digital audio?

Is this kind good enough (standard):
Radio Shack standard RCA cables


Or do I need to get this kind (thicker, gold plated):
Radio Shack FusionAV RCA cables

Re: using video coax, how do you get an RCA plug attached to coax?

I know I've asked a lot, but any answers are appreciated.

Marcus

X

Actually, you should only be using the yellow, video cable one. The spec is for 75 ohm cable and that's what the yellow is "supposed" to be. The red and white audio cables are not 75 ohm.

Using any of the wires might not matter for short runs but longer ones are prone to more problems if you use the wrong wire.

Radio Shack has 3 lengths of single wires that are 75 ohm with RCA plugs. It's their Gold Series. I would recommend them.

15-1520 (12 feet)
15-1519 (6 feet)
15-1518 (3 feet)

I just noticed that they now call these "audio" cables, which they didn't do before. I thought they were 75 ohm and have been using them for component video and digital audio.

Now they have the Fusion series (15-1077) that they say is for video. From the prices of them they sure look like overkill.

mstenzel

Thanks for the details.

Is 12' or 24' considered a long run? My devices will be about 12' apart, but I may have to use a longer cable once I see where things fit in my cabinets.

Thanks

X

Having not used those lengths in yellow cable, I can't tell you. I would especially be concerned with 24', especially if you use a coupler to get to that length.

But if it works, it works. I would prefer to get a little better, shielded cable for those lengths myself.

mstenzel

So the 12-Ft. Gold Series Stereo Audio Cable (15-1520) is basically the same as the 12-Ft Shielded Digital Audio Cable (42-2682), but just $10 more?

Do you think the shielding is the same on these

Thanks, X.

X

I'm not using the 12' length for digital audio so I don't know if it works or not, but I would expect it to. I am concerned that they're selling it as audio cable now though.

They say the more expensive one is specifically for digital audio. Personally, I'd get the Gold Series one and see if it worked. Keep your packaging and you can return it if it doesn't.

discostu1337

It appears X has already answered all your questions
If you can find a local shop to cut ya 12 feet of nice shielded coax, and add RCA ends, that would work great. We do that all the time at our store, especially for running 60-100 feet through the ceilings to hook up all our plasmas and TV to the HD boxes.

Frank S

Just buy some quality RG-6 cables that has RF connectors on them ans buy RF to RCA adapters and you will have as high a quality cables as you can get!

Frank S

Please explain how you get pixilization in audio?