In article , wrote:

I have a Sony DTC-77 DAT recorder.

It works well, but feeding a signal into the digital input socket
(from a DVD player) has no effect.

Is it likely to be faulty, or is there something I'm missing? How
fussy is the digital side as regards signal quality?

I'm using a standard phono lead to connect the two (about 4 feet long)
- will this cause sufficient mismatch (from 75 ohms) to mangle the
data?

Nah, S/PDIF digital signals are not fussy. I route them around over long
RCA cables all the time with no problems. Check to see what is coming out
the jack at the DVD player. Most DVD players can be set for Dolby Digital
5.1 output or stereo output. If the DVD player is NOT set to output stereo
(PCM), the DAT won't see the signal. It has no idea what to do with a
Dolby Digital bitstream.

Michael