On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:47:18 +0000 (GMT)
Jim Lesurf wrote:

Note the audio system is entirely stereo. No multichannel.

ok.

I think there are now 'receiver' systems that may do the kind of thing you
are after. However I've not personally looked at these in detail as I
haven't wanted one (so far, anyway!).

I'll take a look

what does your 263 do?

Just accepts one S/PDIF input and converts it to analog stereo out which I
then connect to the amplifiers. It is just a dac in a box (albeit a nice
one). No volume control or source switching. The one I have only accepts
co-ax digital, not optical.

ah. it looks like companies who make DACs are ashamed to admit to them it seems. Meridian have nothing but a photo of the 566 (no specs, nothing)

I phoned them and it seems they make a 203 and a 563 which can take optical in. the 566 is well beyond my price-range...

I also have a meridian 563 DAC that has more than one input, in various
formats, so can be used for multiple sources. However I use the 563 at
present with the 'real hifi' that is in another room to the TV system. :-)

If yuo ever, um, you know, chuck it out...

uk.rec. audio is still an
excellent place to ask about things like this as the emphasis here is on
sound as opposed to cinema ;- )

Heh ;-)


--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.

Ian Molton wrote:

On Sun, 16 Nov 2003 10:36:43 +0000 (GMT)
Jim Lesurf wrote:

Also, I only linked it by
S/PDIF on Friday morning. (To a decent DAC - meridian 263.)

Can you *please* expound some detail on this?

I've been trying to find out what exists in terms of SPDIF-analogue for *AGES* and no-one ever replies when I ask.


That's probably because there is such a wide choice of basic digital to
analogue convertors. Even Richer Sounds has a reasonable selection. One
of the current favourites seems to be the Benchmark DAC-1 which has
three inputs and a variable volume headphone output. Apparently the
headphone output is of sufficient quality to be used as a main output if
you want variable volume. Unfortunately, if you want one you have to be
prepared to buy it from the USA but there are US dealers that will ship
to the UK (see http://www.mercenary.com/bendac2chand.html as an
example).

I want a box that can take a SPDIF in, and also a couple of Line inputs, and has a volume control, basically a pre-amp with optical inputs as well. Im not interested in record-deck inputs (suck!) at all. I just want a nice flat linear preamp with digital inputs.

I think you would be better off sticking with separate units for the
convertor and the pre-amp. Integrated units tend to be aimed more at the
home cinema market.

Ian Molton wrote:

On Sun, 16 Nov 2003 10:36:43 +0000 (GMT)
Jim Lesurf wrote:

Also, I only linked it by
S/PDIF on Friday morning. (To a decent DAC - meridian 263.)

Can you *please* expound some detail on this?

I've been trying to find out what exists in terms of SPDIF-analogue for *AGES* and no-one ever replies when I ask.


That's probably because there is such a wide choice of basic digital to
analogue convertors. Even Richer Sounds has a reasonable selection. One
of the current favourites seems to be the Benchmark DAC-1 which has
three inputs and a variable volume headphone output. Apparently the
headphone output is of sufficient quality to be used as a main output if
you want variable volume. Unfortunately, if you want one you have to be
prepared to buy it from the USA but there are US dealers that will ship
to the UK (see http://www.mercenary.com/bendac2chand.html as an
example).

I want a box that can take a SPDIF in, and also a couple of Line inputs, and has a volume control, basically a pre-amp with optical inputs as well. Im not interested in record-deck inputs (suck!) at all. I just want a nice flat linear preamp with digital inputs.

I think you would be better off sticking with separate units for the
convertor and the pre-amp. Integrated units tend to be aimed more at the
home cinema market.

"Chris Isbell" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 14 Nov 2003 13:44:13 -0000, "Keith G"
wrote:

Apparently the one to go for is the Sagem IDT602 (see
http://www.sagem.com/en/produits-en/...-itd602-en.htm)
which
is currently available from Woolies and Safeway for £59.99 instead of the
'normal' £100.

I went to Woolies in Southampton intending to but one of these
devices, but they had none left. It must have been all of the people
who read this group having the same idea and buying them all up....
;-)



OK, a bit of feedback, now I know it a bit better:

The Sagem IDT602 is actually quite excellent - it is *very* quick changing
channels and displaying EPG screens, which include a dinky little 'preview
pane' and with 7 day functionality coming in early January. It is much
faster than the Sony iDTV - at 250 MHz, I believe the chip (IBM?) is the
fastest available atm. (I gather the majority of STBs currently have 100 MHz
chips...??) Colour (RGB) and sound seem perfectly OK (for digital) except
that Jazz FM (which was to be a bonus) seems to be broken - keeps playing
cheesey Tamla Motown or summat! (Not to mention the fekkin' adverts!)

;-)

One letdown for me is that the DVDR (Panasonic DMR-E50) doesn't like it and
won't do as it's 'told' by the Sagem which is French, so I leave you to draw
your own conclusions.....

This means I cannot set timer recordings on the STB (a maximum of 6 events
is available) to switch the DVDR on and off as required and that I will have
to leave the STB switched on to the required channel to enable a timed
recording. (No biggie.) Broadcast 'software updates' are available for this
machine so it might get sorted in the future, as the DVDR in question is
hardly an 'unusual' model....!!

This also means if I wanted to do more than one timed recording on different
channels, only one of them could be 'digital'. (Highly unlikely to be a
problem in reality.) The 'watch one digital channel while recording another'
is sorted and I am now able to record digital channels (the 'higher
numbers') in the wee small hours without having to leave the telly on, so
AFAIAC, it's job done!

For sixty nicker, you get a blanking off cap where a 4 digit electronic
clock display would have been (you need the 612 for that) and the SmartCard
readers are non-functional, otherwise very highly recommended, especially as
the cheaper 40 quid jobbies are all proving to be crap, I am reliably
informed......


***STOP PRESS***

As I type, Norah Jones has just come on Jazz FM, so it's almost getting
there......

*** STOP PRESS 2***

Forget that - it's Dusty Springfield coming up next apparently, so 'as you
were'!!


:-)

"Chris Isbell" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 14 Nov 2003 13:44:13 -0000, "Keith G"
wrote:

Apparently the one to go for is the Sagem IDT602 (see
http://www.sagem.com/en/produits-en/...-itd602-en.htm)
which
is currently available from Woolies and Safeway for £59.99 instead of the
'normal' £100.

I went to Woolies in Southampton intending to but one of these
devices, but they had none left. It must have been all of the people
who read this group having the same idea and buying them all up....
;-)



OK, a bit of feedback, now I know it a bit better:

The Sagem IDT602 is actually quite excellent - it is *very* quick changing
channels and displaying EPG screens, which include a dinky little 'preview
pane' and with 7 day functionality coming in early January. It is much
faster than the Sony iDTV - at 250 MHz, I believe the chip (IBM?) is the
fastest available atm. (I gather the majority of STBs currently have 100 MHz
chips...??) Colour (RGB) and sound seem perfectly OK (for digital) except
that Jazz FM (which was to be a bonus) seems to be broken - keeps playing
cheesey Tamla Motown or summat! (Not to mention the fekkin' adverts!)

;-)

One letdown for me is that the DVDR (Panasonic DMR-E50) doesn't like it and
won't do as it's 'told' by the Sagem which is French, so I leave you to draw
your own conclusions.....

This means I cannot set timer recordings on the STB (a maximum of 6 events
is available) to switch the DVDR on and off as required and that I will have
to leave the STB switched on to the required channel to enable a timed
recording. (No biggie.) Broadcast 'software updates' are available for this
machine so it might get sorted in the future, as the DVDR in question is
hardly an 'unusual' model....!!

This also means if I wanted to do more than one timed recording on different
channels, only one of them could be 'digital'. (Highly unlikely to be a
problem in reality.) The 'watch one digital channel while recording another'
is sorted and I am now able to record digital channels (the 'higher
numbers') in the wee small hours without having to leave the telly on, so
AFAIAC, it's job done!

For sixty nicker, you get a blanking off cap where a 4 digit electronic
clock display would have been (you need the 612 for that) and the SmartCard
readers are non-functional, otherwise very highly recommended, especially as
the cheaper 40 quid jobbies are all proving to be crap, I am reliably
informed......


***STOP PRESS***

As I type, Norah Jones has just come on Jazz FM, so it's almost getting
there......

*** STOP PRESS 2***

Forget that - it's Dusty Springfield coming up next apparently, so 'as you
were'!!


:-)

On Sun, 16 Nov 2003 10:36:43 +0000 (GMT), Jim Lesurf
wrote:


However - possibly due to the weak signal - some of the radio channels seem
poorer at times. And on a couple of occasions the 'World Service' seemed to
have a lot of 'modulation noise' behind the voices. Are these services
transmitted with higher information losses than the main TV channels?

Just had a look at the data rates on my Nebula DTV card, Radios 1-4
have a data rate of 192kbps, Radio 5, 96kbps and World service 64kbps.
Even tho' its mono its amazing that you can hear anything at that data
rate.

The audio rate for the main TV channels is 256kbps.

Bill

On Sun, 16 Nov 2003 10:36:43 +0000 (GMT), Jim Lesurf
wrote:


However - possibly due to the weak signal - some of the radio channels seem
poorer at times. And on a couple of occasions the 'World Service' seemed to
have a lot of 'modulation noise' behind the voices. Are these services
transmitted with higher information losses than the main TV channels?

Just had a look at the data rates on my Nebula DTV card, Radios 1-4
have a data rate of 192kbps, Radio 5, 96kbps and World service 64kbps.
Even tho' its mono its amazing that you can hear anything at that data
rate.

The audio rate for the main TV channels is 256kbps.

Bill

On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 18:48:42 GMT, wrote:

On Sun, 16 Nov 2003 10:36:43 +0000 (GMT), Jim Lesurf
wrote:


However - possibly due to the weak signal - some of the radio channels seem
poorer at times. And on a couple of occasions the 'World Service' seemed to
have a lot of 'modulation noise' behind the voices. Are these services
transmitted with higher information losses than the main TV channels?

Just had a look at the data rates on my Nebula DTV card, Radios 1-4
have a data rate of 192kbps, Radio 5, 96kbps and World service 64kbps.
Even tho' its mono its amazing that you can hear anything at that data
rate.

Come on, all internal telephone calls run at 64k with oodles of bandwidth
spare and your mobile phone gets away with 9.6k (or maybe twice that, I
forget). Isn't the World Service predominantly speech ?

--
After all is said and done, more is said than done.

Mail john rather than nospam...

On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 18:48:42 GMT, wrote:

On Sun, 16 Nov 2003 10:36:43 +0000 (GMT), Jim Lesurf
wrote:


However - possibly due to the weak signal - some of the radio channels seem
poorer at times. And on a couple of occasions the 'World Service' seemed to
have a lot of 'modulation noise' behind the voices. Are these services
transmitted with higher information losses than the main TV channels?

Just had a look at the data rates on my Nebula DTV card, Radios 1-4
have a data rate of 192kbps, Radio 5, 96kbps and World service 64kbps.
Even tho' its mono its amazing that you can hear anything at that data
rate.

Come on, all internal telephone calls run at 64k with oodles of bandwidth
spare and your mobile phone gets away with 9.6k (or maybe twice that, I
forget). Isn't the World Service predominantly speech ?

--
After all is said and done, more is said than done.

Mail john rather than nospam...

In article , John Laird
writes
On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 18:48:42 GMT, wrote:

On Sun, 16 Nov 2003 10:36:43 +0000 (GMT), Jim Lesurf
wrote:


However - possibly due to the weak signal - some of the radio channels seem
poorer at times. And on a couple of occasions the 'World Service' seemed to
have a lot of 'modulation noise' behind the voices. Are these services
transmitted with higher information losses than the main TV channels?

Just had a look at the data rates on my Nebula DTV card, Radios 1-4
have a data rate of 192kbps, Radio 5, 96kbps and World service 64kbps.
Even tho' its mono its amazing that you can hear anything at that data
rate.


On analogue its NICAM 728, wonder why it sounds more relaxed and less
harsh..

Come on, all internal telephone calls run at 64k with oodles of bandwidth
spare and your mobile phone gets away with 9.6k (or maybe twice that, I
forget). Isn't the World Service predominantly speech ?


Well have a listen to Jazz FM on freeview and don't tell me that you
cant hear the worst excesses of 128 K stereo via MP2:-((....
--
Tony Sayer