Hook Up Problem (1 Viewer)

I have an older non-HDMI AV receiver. All was well until some days back when my old CRT TV bit the dust. I had to go out and buy a new HDTV along with an HDMI cable to hook in to the new Comcast HD set top box. No problem there.

I was curious as to what the digital audio out connection was for on the back of the TV and was told it was for hooking into a sound bar. I have no sound bar but figured I could connect an optical cable from the TV's audio out to a digital input connection on back of the receiver and hear the TV via my surround sound system. It didn't work. I still only hear sound from the TV. What have I connected wrong?

Your TV probably sends 2.0 pcm from incoming inputs(yes, some can pass DD. Very few pass DTS).Your best bet, till you buy a newer AVR, is HDMI to the TV, digital audio to the AVR. The snag will be...1. If you bought LCD, you'll have audio lag. Plasma doesn't have that problem.2. You cable box(satellite boxes don't have this problem) might not send audio out the toslink while HDMI is in use.Give us more clues*, and we'll have more definitive answers.*As in, what did you buy? What is your AVR?

I bought an LG 32LN5300 LCD TV with just two HDMI connections. It was the only decent one I found thatt would fit in my entertainment center. It has one connection for the cable box, one for a BD player. The receiver is a Yamaha HTR-5560 from about 8-10 years back...can't recall for sure. It has quite a few AV input/output connections using about 7 for S-Video, two for component and about two for composite. Audio it has four digital(one coax and three optical) input jacks and one optical out. It's basically a 5.1 system.

Yeah, connect your toslinks to the AVR if you want 5.1 audio.

Otherwise you'll be using DPL.

The initial problem of connecting an optical cable from the TV's digital output to the receiver is it doesn't work. When I connected an optical cable from my TV digital out to the receiver optical(IN) D-TV/CBL thinking I could get surround sound via the receiver from the TV. I got nothing when I switched to "D-TV/CBL" on the function control. I still just got the sound from the TV.

you aren't going to get surround sound source -> TV -> AVR.

Hmmm...so, it's either a sound bar or a new AV receiver it seems

No.

Connect your sources HDMI to the TV.
Connect your sources toslink/digital coax to the AVR.

I only have a cable box with HDMI which goes to the TV. I already have an optical cable going from the TV back to a digital input on the AV and it doesn't work or am I missing something yet?

Since when do cable boxes no longer have component/digital?

You probably need to set the cable box PCM. Maybe the TV can't digest DD to pass it along?(not all can)

Your cable box has audio settings. The only thing guaranteed to leave a TV 5.1 is its own tuner.

Do you have any spare composite(that would be yello) laying areound?Composite and digital coax are the cable.

I have a lion's share of composite cables both audio and video. What do you mean "composite and digital coax are the cable"?

Composite(yellow) is the same cable as digital coax (typically burnt orange).Those two are coax. As in RG59/6. The same thing leading into your cable box.They are "not the same thing" as standard analog cable.Essentially you can use composite/digital coax where you can use standard analog. But standard analog won't work for video or digital audio.I was being harassed by my cats for their breakfast, hence the earlier missed word.

And for future reference...Digital coaxComposite videoShielded subwooferAre all three the same exact cable. Often, even on the same website...A 25ft composite cable will be 1/2 the cost of a 25ft Shielded subwoofer.Some websites have wised up(cause when you research stuff...) and call that cable all three things.

I didn't know digital coax and composite video were the same. I just got back from Best Buy and bought a Sony BDP-S5100 BR player and a couple of movies. I hooked it up direct to the TV with the HDMI cable and video was superb but only sound via the TV speakers.

I decided to connect a digital coax cable from the player to the AV receiver. There is a coax connection for CD on the back and that's what I hooked into. Then, I chose the appropriate input on the AV receiver and got sound via my center channel, L-R front speakers and two rear speakers but didn't hear anything from the subwoofer. Maybe it was just the movie content.

I have to wonder why I didn't get sound through my surround system when I connected from the tv's digital out to the receiver. For whatever the reason I now can hear something besides the TV speakers by using the coax cable from the BR player to the receiver. And, that's all I wanted anyway. I don't know how things will look and sound yet if I play a standard DVD on this new player but will check that a bit later.

The only 5.1 your TV sends out is from its own tuner. If you aren't using OTA, there is not 5.1.

Your sat box will connect the same way.

And yeah...digital coax isn't "overly well known" anyway as Toslink is probably on 90% of products.

Digital coax = Toslink.

Disc players are what usually had digital coax...and even then, 50% of them had Toslink. Some have both.

You "might" have to set the audio up in the BD player.

You can set the BD player as bitstream. That will send the signal to the AVR for it to decode. Then it won't matter what the settings in the BD player are. But if the BD player is doing the decoding(which is often the "default") then if the sound is set "no subwoofer"...that is why your sub isn't doing anything.

I put one of my top favorite standard DVD's in the BR player to see/hear how it might do. "Saving Private Ryan". I went through the receiver and found the beach scene which I knew had a lot of action and bass. The movie/receiver all performed superbly. All five speakers including the subwoofer kicked in and it sounded like it did with my other setup. Apparently the other DVD I tried first didn't have a lot of bass at the points in the movie I was watching.The video wasn't perceptibly any better than through my regular DVD player but certainly no worse. I had read the Sony could "up-convert" and was expecting a little better quality but at least with this DVD I could tell little difference.

All in all, most happy with the current setup and content I won't have to get a sound bar.

I might add that I selected DTS when playing Private Ryan and got the "full effect" of it. Just simply a superb sound thought my Klipsch Heresy's used as L-R front speakers, Polk center channel speaker and two Polk rear L-R speakers. Subwoofer is a 12" Polk Audio as well.

Whenever when we can get posters from "doing a soundbar"...hoorah.

Glad it worked out. New tech, slight bit of learning curve.

My advantage?

Been doing this since Quadraphonic...