Testing Laserdisc player's AC-3 RF out?

I've run into another frustrating problem. I can't seem to get any sound from my player's AC-3 jack. Is there a way to check if a player's RF jack is working or not?  A meter or something like that? You see, I just got an RF demodulator (Seems to be working), but I am still not getting any audio into my DD/DTS receiver.  I want to know if there is a way to see if there is any activity from the player's digital out jack, or if it's the demodulator unit that is the problem.  I would think the signal from an AC-3 encoded disk would automatically be sent to that jack, as I don't see any option to turn on the RF AC-3 within the players options controls. The player is a Pioneer CLD-504. Any advice or help with this problem would be very appreciated. 

FF

I know this will sound a bit crazy, but connect the AC3 output to the audio input of a VCR or tape deck with VU meters if you've got one. (Keep your amp shut off or tv speakers turned all the way down to be on the safe side.) If anything is coming out at all, the meter ought to do something.

I've heard the AC3 signal by accident a couple times with my old analog only player before switching to the mono track. Sounds a lot like a fax machine or dial up modem!

What model demodulator did you finally end up getting?

Thanks for the reply. I don't have anything with a V.U. meter on it. Do you think a basic Voltage Meter from radio shack would work?

The model I got was the Kenwood DEM-9991d

Not sure about a voltage meter. You could try running into a tv audio input and turning up the volume just enough to see if you hear anything.

Does the "RF LOCK" indicator ever light up? Does moving the switch from "opt" to "coax" do anything?

Unusual that the unit does not have an optical output, only coax. The ones I've seen usually have both.

Plug a DVD or CD player into the optical or coax inputs and see if it passes the signal to a receiver.

SilverWook said:

Plug a DVD or CD player into the optical or coax inputs and see if it passes the signal to a receiver.

Great Idea, I will try that first thing in the morning!

SilverWook said:

Does the "RF LOCK" indicator ever light up? Does moving the switch from "opt" to "coax" do anything?

Yes it does. The "RF LOCK" light lit up when I put in my "Star Wars: A New Hope" from the 1997 SE box set. Yet still no audio into my older DD/DTS receiver that I keep in my computer room. But it did not light up for the Thunderball" 30th Anniversary THX box. I still need to take it into the living room, so that I can hook it up to a DVD with optical out, and also my other DD/DTS home theater receiver that has an RCA digital coax in.  Here is what it says in the operating manual about the Power/opt./coax switch...

"Regardless of the OPT./COAX. switch setting, the input is switched automatically to the Dolby Digital RF input when ever a Dolby Digital RF signal is input."

Well I got the AC-3 RF demodulator working.

This unit will let me record a laserdisc's 5.1 mix straight into my PC without having to down mix into Stereo. I'll now be able to turn these mixes into DTS lossless files for my preservation projects.

I posted the solution to my problem over on my classic Bond laser preservation thread.

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Bond-Laserdisc-Preservations-1962-1971/post/443970/#TopicPost443970

FF

Well done, it's great that there is now another person who has had success with recording AC3 audio off laserdisc. I'll post a link in the other recent thread on this subject.

Just curious, but why did you decide to re-encode to DTS, instead of using the original untouched AC3 stream?

Moth3r said:

Just curious, but why did you decide to re-encode to DTS, instead of using the original untouched AC3 stream?

I did not know that I could record the original stream into the PC. Is there a manual on how this can be done? This is still very new to me.

Thanks

FF