LG HDTV audio hook-up question?

Question

Okay, I bought an LG LCD HDTV (model 32LC2D), anyway my cable box does not have an HDMI OUT hook-up, but the TV does. I bought a wire that goes from DVI (on the cable-box) to HDMI (on the TV). However, I do not see two seperate analog connections for the audio input. The TV has audio inputs for the two COMPONENT IN's but I don't think I can plug them in there. The manual says to get a "Y" shaped wire with a headphone jack on one side, for the RGB/DVI in, but that doesn't seem right, plus the guy at the store said to just "plug the audio wires in anywhere in the back." I am lost, anyone know if I really need a cheap "Y" shaped connector, just doesn't seem right? Thanks.

Does it make any sense to even use that "Y" connector instead of seperate analog left and right connections? Will sound quality be degraded to a level that is unacceptable?

Answer 1

The problem is, HDMI carries both video and audio, while DVI, as its name implies, is just video--there's no separate analog audio inputs for the HDMI connection because it's not supposed to need it.

The only solutions, really, are to use something other than the HDMI and DVI connections (like the component connections), or to get a cable box with HDMI out. I can imagine some sort of "combiner converter box" that takes DVI and analog audio in and HDMI out, but I've yet to hear of one in real life, and figure that it would probably not be a cheap piece of electronics (since it has to convert analog audio to digital). Another alternative would be to hook your cable box's analog audio outputs to a separate sound system, and simply rely on that whenever you're watching cable on your TV.