Help with DAT recording from EchoStar Dish

[braveheart]

I have an EchoStar satellite dish. EchoStar claims that the sound quality is CD quality. I assume that this means that the digital signal is 16 bit and 44.1 KHz. My subscription service includes CD channels which plays music (only) of various genres.

I want to record some of this music directly from the EchoStar box on to my Sony TCD-D8 DAT deck.

On the back of the EchoStar box are (1) left and right channel RCA phono plugs and (2) one squarish audio-out plug.

Several questions regarding this set up:

A - Regarding the analog signal:

(1) I assume that the stereo signal coming from the RCA phono plug on the EchoStar box is an analog signal? Is this correct?

(2) If the signal coming from the two RCA plugs is analog, then does this mean that somewhere within the EchoStar box there is an analog-to-digital converter?

(3) I have used a phono-plug to mini-plug cable to connect the RCA audio-out on the back of the box to the mini-plug line-in on my D8, set the sampling rate to 44.1 KHz, and set the recording level to automatic. Any other considerations that I should be aware of? (By the way, to my untrained ear, this set-up seems to work fine.)

B - Regarding the digital signal:

(1) Is that squarish plug on the back of the EchoStar box a Toslink plug? It does say something like: "optical-out" I do use this plug to connect the EchoStar audio to my home theater reciever "optical-in". I just want to understand if that plug is what DAT heads seem to refer to as a Toslink plug. Yes..? or No..?

(2) If that plug is a Toslink plug, can I then assume that the signal is a digital signal?

(3) If the signal is a digital signal, can I assume that the signal coming from the Toslink plug is 16 bit and 44.1 KHz?

(4) My D8 DAT will only record at 32 Khz, 44.1 KHz, or 48 KHz. If the signal from the EchoStar Toslink plug is not one of those frequencies - what do I do?

(5) Is it important that I set the recording sample rate on my D8 to correspond to the sample rate of the incoming digital signal?

Thanks in advance,

Earl

 

[Track Rat]

1. Yes the signal out of the right/left RCA jacks is analog.
2. Yup. There's an A/D converter in there.
3. Not sure what you're talking about there.

The output of the dish is TOSLINK S/PDIF 16 bit/44.1k. If the DAT has an optical in (mine has both S/PDIF coax and TOSLINK) just cable up, set the DAT to 44.1, set its input to optical digital and it will slave to the incoming data stream and you're off to the races.

 

[braveheart]

Track:

This afternoon I got the digital cables for the D8 from Sony.

After hooking everything up, my Sony D8 would not record the digital signal from the EchoStar dish optical out jack.

Here is my saga:

Just like you said: I connected the Toslink end of my Sony cable to the back of the EchoStar optical out port and connected the proprietary 7-pin end to the Sony D8 for digital recording. I switched the cable to "digital" at 44.1 KHz.

I pressed the record buttons and nothing was recording. I could hear the signal through the monitor headphones, but the machine would NOT "wind". For this model, you must press both the "Rec" button and the "Pause" button (simultaneously) and then press the "Pause" button again to engage the transport and actually begin recording. When I pressed the "Pause" button the second time - the machine would not engage and start recording even though I could hear the signal through the monitor headphones.

I then tried selecting 32 KHz and the 48 KHz sample rates - nothing.

Then, to check the cables, I plugged the Toslink end of the digital cable to the optical-out of my CD player, poped in a CD, hit the Record buttons and everything worked fine. The D8 recorded the digital signal from the CD player. No problems.

I guess somehow the D8 is not sensing the correct signal from the EchoStar dish box.

One other thing: I checked the back of the EchoStar box and the optical-out port actually said "Dolby Digital - out (Optical)".

I wonder if this digital signal might be a multi-track signal which the Sony recorder D8 does not recognize?

Earl

 

[Track Rat]

I think there is a SCMS issue here. Seriel Copy Mahagement System. Your machine is recognising the SCMS bit and not allowing you to make a digital copy. That's the problem with consumer grade digital recorders.