The GefenTV Digital Audio Decoder -- an answer to a question we're afraid to ask
By Steven Kim 
posted Jun 9th 2009 6:24PM
posted Jun 9th 2009 6:24PM
We can't remember the last time we had a piece of gear that supported Dolby Digital but didn't have a pair of stereo out jacks on the back, but if an unforeseen (read: just plain crazy) use-case is going to pop up, it'll be this Friday. And wouldn't you know it, Gefen has a box just for these contingencies. The GefenTV Digital Audio Decoder will take a Dolby Digital audio stream over optical or coax and, presto, turn them into a stereo signal on a pair of RCA phono plugs. Specific custom install situations aside, we can't help but think there are better -- and at $129, cheaper -- ways to crack this nut.
I present to you, the JY-M2: http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-MOCHA-JY-M2-AC3-DTS-5.1-DIGIT-AUDIO-DECODER_W0QQitemZ130310989712QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxq20090606?IMSfp=TL090606138001r35822
Probably totally-unlicensed Chinese-made 2 Optical 2 Coax 2 Analog Dolby & DTS decoding 5.1 preamp that works great once I trained it to work with my Harmony remote and connected it to my dumb amps that I cannot change the volume to via remote... also takes 2.0 audio and turns it into 5.1 rather well
The price isn't cheap, but the size and simplicity is good. Send digital audio around on one cable is a nice wiring scheme, but sometimes you need to get back to 2.0 analog without having a whole A/V rack in place.
Are there any other products in the vein out there?
This is perfect for Windows Media Center PCs (XP/Vista/7). It is not possible to get simultaneous 5.1 and stereo output from the pc, so connecting a separate stereo amplifier (to power speakers in another room perhaps) off of your Media Center surround sound system was not possible.
It's been a problem for a while: http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/261017.aspx
Inherently this means that this little device contains a DAC. Depending on the quality of the DAC, this may be worth the price or not.