I just bought a 5.1 surround sound home theater system but I'm having trouble getting it to work. I have digital cable connected from the set top box to my samsung HDTV using an hdmi cable. I then ran an optical audio cable from the optical out on the tv to the optical in on the theater system but I am getting no sound from the system. I can get tv sound if I turn up the tv speakers but the sound is not going from the tv to the theater system. I thought the system or cables were defective but then I swithed the tv source to my wii which is connected to the tv using component cables and the sound came through the theater system just fine (through the optical cable). Is there a setting I need to adjust on my cable box or something? Maybe run the optical cable from my cable box to the theater system? I'd rather not do that latter since I may run out of optical inputs on the theater system in the future.
2007-11-12 12:33:20 · 7 answers · asked by Dan L 2 in Consumer Electronics ➔ Home Theater
Update: I was looking around the Samsung website and discovered that the TV cannot transfer 5.1 digital audio from hdmi to optical and the optical cable will need to run from the cable box to the theater system. I guess I can change the question to what is the point of having the optical out on the tv?
2007-11-12 14:07:33 · update #1
I see you have solved the first part of your question, the optical cable should run from the cable box to the HT receiver. This should work fine.
The second question, what is the point of the optical out? Your TV has the ability to receive HDTV over the air, i.e. with no cable/sattelite box. If that were the case you would be getting sound on your TV, but it only has 2 speakers. The optical out (a fairly new feature on TV's these days) allows you to export the beautiful digital sound from your TV reception to your HT receiver and hear it in all speakes. This will only work if you are tuning to TV stations with your TV's built in tuner.
2007-11-14 05:10:59 · answer #1 · answered by joburgslim 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You TV is equipped with a ATSC tuner, which in your case is superseded by the cable box. You would need a digital audio output to get the 5.1 information to a 5.1 system for that portion of an audio broadcast. As over the air is the source and not cable. Believe it our not there are people out there that do not have cable, say for instance those who have HD satellite and not local HD service, they can accomplish signal the same way before local channels were on regular sat, with a over the air antenna, coupled with a sat box.
Just so you know there are add ons that for a small investment will extend your inputs, but as your system becomes more complicated you may want to upgrade your receiver.
2007-11-13 02:47:34 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
As long as the TV outputs sound from all inputs it should work. You may have to set something in the TV menu to output from the optical output though. An alternative would be some type of external switch box that would allow you to select what input (e.g. Wii, XBox, cablebox) went to the AUX input on the reciever and to the video input on the TV. That way source selection would be via the switch box (i.e you wouldn't have to change the TV input AND receiver input) A/V switches come in different flavours (depending on what type of connections you have/need to switch), and many even have remote controls ... for example the one at the 1st link is a simple composite/S-video and analog stereo/optical audio 3 X 1 switch which may or may not be what you need. The second link is to a 4 x 1 component/optical/coax switch.
2016-05-22 21:30:38 · answer #3 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think your connection to your "surround sound" is bass-ackwards. I think you will want to go FROM top box optical out to your" home theater optical IN. I cant see why you would want your TV to provide the audio signal to your home theatre system, when the "top box" should give you the Dolby 5.1 surround sound( your tv will not )
I have a DVD , Xbox 360 , as well as my "cable TV" ALL going thru my home theatre in Dolby 5.1 using this configuration.
Hope this helps
2007-11-13 06:34:19 · answer #4 · answered by Spelunker121 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
That is a really tough one. But, you have lots of company. There seems to be many others that are having that very problem. You may have to some experimenting with your settings. BTW, if you end up finding the problem yourself, please let us know also.
2007-11-12 13:08:21 · answer #5 · answered by davj61 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
if your receiver has hdmi ins/outs, you should run hdmi cable from your cable box to your receiver then from your receiver to your tv.
2007-11-12 18:46:19 · answer #6 · answered by john b 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
TVs were never design to be audio switchers.
2007-11-12 20:14:25 · answer #7 · answered by Petwanel 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋