[Maxie]

Well the fourth cable tech showed up yesterday and verified that all the cables were CORRECT. He went into the cable box programming; set the Audio to "OTHER" instead of "Digital Dolby" and the pulsed noise disappeared. He finally found a channel transmitting Surround Sound and there came the audio!! His explanation was that some channels carry different Digital Dolby programming and then the cable box must be set to "Digital Dolby" for that to work. Non Dolby channels you set the cable box to "Other".

I told the cable guy that my understanding of Surround Sound is that Digital Dolby technology transmits digital audio formats of Mono, Stereo, 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 Surround Sound formats. He said that he has wired only two cable boxes to A/V receivers with Digital Coaxial and that was the way he set the cable box for Surround Sound. He suggested that I find a cable movie that displays the Digital Dolby logo and then reset the cable box from "other" to "Dolby Digital". Hopefully I can find a movie soon and check this out.

One positive thing about the situation is that I got a newer cable box, the Scientific Atlanta 3250HD which came with operating instructions and is listed on the SA web site. The older cable box was a 3240HD that came with an 8300HD instructions.

Anyone know any engineers at Scientific Atlanta I could call and get some correct info?