Any way to decode 2 channel AC3 as ProLogic?

[estadtherr]

I have a digital cable receiver (Motorola from Comcast) hooked up to my Harman Kardon AV receiver with an optical digital audio connection. This works great for the HDTV broadcasts, which usually have AC3/DolbyDigital audio signals. However, most broadcasts only have two channel audio signals. For these broadcasts, the cable receiver sends an AC3 signal to the receiver with data on only two of the six channels. Since it's an AC3 signal, my receiver only lets me select the Dolby Digital Surround mode. The end result is that I only get sound from the 2 main channels, and can't use the ProLogic decoder to get surround sound.

I've gone through the setup menus on both the cable receiver and the audio receiver with no results. I'm assuming there are two possible solutions:

1. Get the cable box to send 2 channel audio as PCM, which the receiver can decode
2. Get the audio receiver to take the 2 AC3 channels and send them through the ProLogic decoder

But, I haven't found a way to get either of these to happen. Has anyone else encountered this situation, and found a solution?
Thanks!

[paul_pci]

Welcome to the sucky world of digital cable. Are you using analog interconnects concurrently with your optical calbe? If you are not, non-digital audio broadcasts won't work. For most digital cable systems, one needs to have both the analog audio cables (for analog 2-channel broadcasts) and the digital audio cable for digital audio broadcasts.

Viva la Direct TV!

[steamboy 2]

I HAVE A SONY STR-DE835 FOR 5YRS,AND WHEN I HAVE TESTED AC-3 ENCODED CABLE CHANNELS & SOMETIMES THE ARE IN DD & SOMETIMES ITS NOT. IT MAY NOT BE YOUR RECEIVER, MOST LIKELY IT'S CABLE. MY SONY ALWAYS DEFAULTS TO PRO LOGIC MODE IF DD OR DTS IS NOT IN USE ,AND I'M USING OPTICAL INPUTS TO DECODE MY SURROUND, AND ALSO CHECK YOUR MODES BECASE MY MODES CAN BE CHANGED FROM 2CH TO DD.

CHECK POINTS:
CHECK YOUR INPUTS ANALOG & COAX,OPTICAL
CHECK CABLE LISTINGS TO SEE IF DD OR NON DD IS SHOWING
CHECK YOUR MODES REMOTE & FRONT OF YOUR RECEIVER OR ON SCREEN DISPLAY


I HOPE THAT I HAVE HELPED YOU UPDATE ME & LET ME KNOW

MIKE