No stereo audio on Cable TV

[old_tv_nut]

This problem is NOT caused by wiring unless you are seeing obvious problems in the video as well.

Composite and component only carry video, not audio. You would need L and R baseband audio connections as well. If the HDMI is carrying audio, that should be stereo, unless there is some reason the cable system does not have stereo on the signals.

You mention a digital adapter that works - what is the signal source for that adapter? Is it over the air antenna or isw it cable? Is this adapter supplied by the cable company? What kind of TVs are you using? Are they analog or modern digital flat screen? Is the HDMI going to an HDMI connector on the set or through an HDMI to analog adapter?

Without exact details, no one can diagnose your problem.

[YamahaFreak]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

This problem is NOT caused by wiring unless you are seeing obvious problems in the video as well.

Composite and component only carry video, not audio. You would need L and R baseband audio connections as well. If the HDMI is carrying audio, that should be stereo, unless there is some reason the cable system does not have stereo on the signals.

You mention a digital adapter that works - what is the signal source for that adapter? Is it over the air antenna or isw it cable? Is this adapter supplied by the cable company? What kind of TVs are you using? Are they analog or modern digital flat screen? Is the HDMI going to an HDMI connector on the set or through an HDMI to analog adapter?

Without exact details, no one can diagnose your problem.

I figured it would be assumed I connected RCA L/R for audio when using composite or component video. (Yes!) The cable boxes and digital adapter (small box) are all provided by, and receiving the same signal, from Spectrum Cable. The two cable boxes are directly connected to modern digital HDTVs through HDMI, and the digital adapter (which only offers HDMI or coax out) is connected to a 27-inch Akai (Samsung) flat CRT via the coax jack. For clarification, the 'digital adapter' is essentially the device Spectrum gives you to connect any TV to the wall where there isn't a cable box, because you can't just hook your TV straight to the wall jack anymore for some reason. What I want to do next is try connecting that digital adapter to a modern HDTV via its HDMI out and see if that gets me stereo audio. (I assume that if the CRT is getting stereo audio, the signal must be there before it reaches the TV.) I'm almost starting to wonder if something about the way the cable boxes are designed is removing the stereo separation from the audio signal. Perhaps I'll ask around with my neighbors and see if any of them have this issue, if they are also Spectrum customers.