Audio Conversion: Fiber cable (out) to DIN 5.1 cable (in)

[FranceBB]

Hi,
I have an old Phillips home theatre that requires a DIN 5.1 audio input, but my decoder has a fiber cable output. My old home theatre accepts an aux input as well, so I'm currently using a converter that converts the fiber cable stereo output to aux input. Unfortunately, aux supports stereo only, but my decoder is capable to output a Dolby audio signal via the fiber cable, so what I'm looking for is a way to convert a Dolby signal carried by a fiber cable to a legacy 5.1 signal received by a DIN cable.

Does such a thing exist?





Picture of the old home theatre: Img1 - Img2 - Img3

[wonkey_monkey]

There's this, or something like it:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Converter-D...ogue+converter

Assuming the DIN connection expects line level input, you'd just have to make up a six-phono-to-DIN bundle, which shouldn't be too hard if you can solder (says the guy who can't solder to save his life, but manages somehow).

[foxyshadis]

Full size DIN or mini-DIN? Lots of USB soundcards use a mini-DIN to 3 1/8" stereo inputs, you can combine that with a few RCA-pair-to-1/8 converters and the SPDIF converter above. A bit Rube Goldberg, but it beats soldering.

[foxyshadis]

Just saw your pics, the mini-DIN you have is exactly the same configuration as my USB sound card's, must be some kind of de-facto standard. You can pick them up all over the Amazons.

Edit: Wow, I guess they're not readily available. Lots on Alibaba, like https://www.alibaba.com/product-deta...276124902.html , practically none in the west.

And here's a dude who will make you any cable you want for $25.

[SeeMoreDigital]

I see you have a Philips A5.600/00

A 9 pin mini DIN is a pretty difficult connector to solder.

But the first thing you need to look for are digital to multi-channel analogue converters. I bought one of these some time ago. It is what it is... cheap: https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Digital-DTS...75.c100623.m-1

Here's another model: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SPDIF-Opt...cAAOSwKVVbOyO0



Cheers

[SeeMoreDigital]

A bit more info: -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini-D...nector#9-pin_2

[FranceBB]

Got it! Thank you all, I'm gonna try with Optical Fiber -> RCA -> DIN as suggested. Hopefully, these two converters won't add a noticeable delay in audio.

Thanks! ^^

[FranceBB]

Alright, so... I finally had time to test it as I kept the stereo output from the TV for quite some time, but now that I'm in quarantine I thought it was the right time to try to get my surround working again and I did what you told me to do.
Unfortunately, it doesn't work, in the sense that the cable I bought has indeed a 9-pin din male, but it has 7 RCA inputs instead of 6 RCA inputs and this, someway, somehow, doesn't make three cables work at all (i.e they're not detected).
Below you'll find an explanatory video and some pictures: Pictures - Explanatory Video

If you - like me - think that it's indeed a cable, where do you think I can find a 9-pin din male with 6 RCA inputs which actually works?
If you think it's something else, then please let me know.

[SeeMoreDigital]

I suggest you use a multi-meter to determine which one of the 9-pins goes to which colour.

And I also suggest that you (temporarily) disconnect the front stereo lead from the headphone jack. As keeping it connected might be disabling some signals coming out of the rear RCA/phono outputs.

Obviously... You must be 100% sure that your TV is actually playing 5.1 multi-channel content and has been set-up to output 5.1 multi-channel signals when testing and setting up all your devices.

EDIT: If you refer to the image below, you will see that pins: 1, 2 and 5 (ie: the top row) for your Philips amplifier are NOT CONNECTED. So you need to work out which pins your adaptor cable 'is' and 'is not' using: -




Cheers

[tebasuna51]

Seems your cable is a video (Reed_Green_Blue maybe 1,2,5 pins, you can confirm that with a tester) and 3.1 audio (SR and not FR?).

Even 6 RCA in the market seems video RGB + Audio 3.0 or 2.1.
Sorry, maybe you need a solder.

[FranceBB]

And I also suggest that you (temporarily) disconnect the front stereo lead from the headphone jack. As keeping it connected might be disabling some signals coming out of the rear RCA/phono outputs.

Yep, I've done that.

Obviously... You must be 100% sure that your TV is actually playing 5.1 multi-channel content and has been set-up to output 5.1 multi-channel signals when testing and setting up all your devices.

Yes of course, I tested it by playing the Bohemian Rhapsody movie, looping the scene when Freddie has an argument with the last one of his friends who stayed; the reason is that they were on the street with the rain, so there was the rain effect on each speaker, including SL, SR.

If you refer to the image below, you will see that pins: 1, 2 and 5 (ie: the top row) for your Philips amplifier are NOT CONNECTED. So you need to work out which pins your adaptor cable 'is' and 'is not' using

I see. It makes sense, so since I have 7 input and 9 pins and that among these 9 pin 3 of them are not connected, it means that of the 7 RCA cables I have, 4 of them are connected to some pins that are in use and 3 of them are connected to pins that ARE NOT in use.

In other words, that 7 RCA to 9 pin is doing this:

Yellow to pin 8 (Front Left)
White to pin 9 (Surround Right)
Black to pin 6 (LFE)
Red Light to pin 3 (Center)
Blue to pin 1 (not connected)
Green to pin 2 (not connected)
Red Dark to pin 5 (not connected)

This is really a shame because it connects the RCA cables to pins that are not connected instead of using those that are actually connected to something.
Perhaps with a 9 pin DIN cable to 9 RCA I should be able to do it 'cause I'm gonna be able to choose which inputs are gonna be ignored, right?

Seems your cable is a video (Reed_Green_Blue maybe 1,2,5 pins, you can confirm that with a tester) and 3.1 audio (SR and not FR?).

I actually wrote FR at the very beginning (you can see it from the pictures I posted) but I corrected it with SR while I was testing. Perhaps disconnecting and re-connecting the cables several times tricked my mind and it was FR after all.

[tebasuna51]

To be sure about the channels you can use a Test_channels file.

[FranceBB]

Originally Posted by tebasuna51

To be sure about the channels you can use a Test_channels file.

Got it.
Well, I do have one at work as well but I was too lazy to pull it out of our server, so... xD
Anyway, the thing is that now I'm looking for a 9 pin mini DIN male to 9 RCA female cable but I can't find any of them. The only ones I find are 9 to 7 just like the one I have, which is useless...
Any chance one of you can either find it or solder it for me? I can definitely pay for that.

[SeeMoreDigital]

How about one of these adaptor leads: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/9-pin-Min...AAAOSw0KZecUBy

If the 9-pin mini DIN end fits into your Philips okay it should be possible to cut the 9-pin D female plug off and expose all the wires. Once all the wires are exposed, you can then work out which ones you need, with the aid of a multi-meter.

This should bring you a step forward...

EDIT: You could perform a similar task with this cable too: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-Din-...gAAOxygPtS5Zuk

[tebasuna51]

Yes, the solution proposed by SeeMoreDigital is easy, solder only 1 wire to 1 RCA connector is not dificult.

[FranceBB]

Ok, I'll try that, but keep in mind that although I've been studying both analog electronics and digital electronics at university during my CS engineering degree, it was mainly a matter of grimly sitting there, doing assignments on pen and paper and solve problems either using KVL-KCL / Millman / Laplace / Fourier for the analog stuff and then body plots and VHDL coding for the digital stuff like PAL, PLA and later FPGA but never ever in my whole life I soldered anything. It was just something professors don't teach you in labs, so - although what I need should be fairly easy to do - it's gonna be the very first time for me and I'll also have to buy the kit to do that...

Out of curiosity, how did you learn to solder?

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally Posted by FranceBB

Out of curiosity, how did you learn to solder?

For me... It was soooooo loooooong ago I can't remember.

Like anything though, even soldering iron and solder technology has moved on. And you young people have "How to..." videos on the inter-web

[tebasuna51]

At 1972 I make my first audio amplifier like a electronic exercise.
Also so long time ago.

[patul]

I learnt to solder in 1989, during my junior high school as an extracurricular activity. My first project was flip flop LED using 3V battery and some other useless circuits. Then got attached to it, and went on to build more serious projects, such as FM Receiver, amplifier and equalizer. I used two types of soldering iron back then, the manual one (which you need to put onto a heat source, petroleum lamp for example) and the electric one. We didn't have electricity at home until my senior high school in 1992, can you guys believe that? Talking about living in underdeveloped country.

[FranceBB]

Originally Posted by SeeMoreDigital

you young people have "How to..." videos on the inter-web

We sure do...
There are plenty of tutorial across the web and on YouTube in particular and they are extremely useful but they lack human contact...

Originally Posted by tebasuna51

At 1972 I make my first audio amplifier like a electronic exercise.

Woah... 1972, I wasn't even born and you were making audio amplifiers...

Originally Posted by patul

We didn't have electricity at home until my senior high school in 1992, can you guys believe that? Talking about living in underdeveloped country.

No electricity 'till the 90s?! That's insane! Oh man, it must have been hard... I mean, did you have gas at least? Tap water? I mean, you can use candles to light things up and fireplaces to warm your house, I get that, but what about things like having a shower? Or a bath? I mean, how were you going to warm up the water coming from the sink?