can't get cable box to play 5.1 sound on home theater (1 Viewer)

[muffyn]

my home theater works great on the 5.1 sound playing dvd's. but i can't get anything off the cable box to play 5.1. every speaker plays the same thing. what good is it if i can't watch movies from cable that have great sound.

is this common? or is there possibly something I can do to make this work?

I called LG, they said player is working so must be cable box.
time warner said,, well, it happens, the person i talked to said it is the same with her system.

home theater : LG BH6720S
tv : LG 42LM6200
cable box : Cisco 865 HDC

have HDMI from cable box to tv
have tried optical from cable box to home theater & from tv to home theater

I'd really like to know if this is what it is, or would other home theater systems work differently?

 

[Alf S]

Can't you run HDMI to your HTIB then route HDMI out to TV? I would think that is best/only option to get true 5.1 (when available).

 

[Malcolm R]

Are your settings correct in your cable box menu/options?

 

[muffyn]

Can't you run HDMI to your HTIB then route HDMI out to TV? I would think that is best/only option to get true 5.1 (when available).

there is no hdmi into the home theatre box

 

[muffyn]

Are your settings correct in your cable box menu/options?

View attachment 34991

are talking about the hand controller for the cable box?
i did try changing the digital output, from HDMI to Dolby Digital but then there was no sound
your directions were a bit different than what shows on my cable box screen.

 

[Lord Dalek]

there is no hdmi into the home theatre box

How old is your box then? What connections are you running?

 

[Alf S]

With your current set up, you're not going to be able to listen to the cable box 5.1 sound. Just not possible. You need a new receiver that has a couple of HDMI inputs to accomplish what you want. They can be found pretty cheap these days.

Your dilemma is one of the hazards of a home theater in a box.

 

[muffyn]

How old is your box then? What connections are you running?

are you talking cable box? it is under a year old

cnnections i am running:
set top (cable box) HDMI to tv : optical to blue ray player (HTiB?)

Blue ray player (HTiB?) HDMI to TV

these are connections i have available
set top ( cable box)

HDMI out
Optical out
component out

home theatre - blue ray player
Optical IN
HDMI out
Y video out
red/white Aux IN

 

[muffyn]

With your current set up, you're not going to be able to listen to the cable box 5.1 sound. Just not possible. You need a new receiver that has a couple of HDMI inputs to accomplish what you want. They can be found pretty cheap these days.

Your dilemma is one of the hazards of a home theater in a box.

well darn now this sounds like it will get complicated.
what would i be looking at for ins/outs on back of a receiver.
the HTiB is my blue ray player.
how would i configure all this to work?
would i still be using the speakers attached to the HTiB>?

TV
AV/component IN
4-HDMI in

cable box (set top?)
HDMI out
Optical out
component out

home theatre
Optical IN
HDMI out
Y video out
red/white Aux IN

 

[Alf S]

Ditch the "Home Theater" if you can and go to Best Buy, Amazon or similar and look for a basic 5.1/7.1 etc receiver that fits your budget. Most have at least a couple of HDMI inputs to plug a new seperate Blu Ray player into and your cable box into, then feed the one "out" HDMI cable to the TV. Then you will have all the 5.1 sound you want.

And yes, you will need new speakers and a new blu ray player. All this is assuming you have a budget to do so.

 

[Malcolm R]

Caveat: I'm not an expert. But looking at the manual for your LG HTIB, it seems more like just a blu ray player than an actual HT receiver.

From the manual, it seems like you could use the optical cable from your cable box to the LG HTIB player (audio only through optical). Then you should be able to hear the sound through your HTIB speakers, presumably in DD 5.1 provided your settings are correct on your cable box and HTIB (see below). You would still need to connect the cable box directly to your TV with HDMI to get the HD video signal to your TV.

So there would be two cables/connections: 1) OPTICAL from the cable box to the HTIB for the audio. HDMI from the cable box to the TV for the video.

Audio settings in the menu of your cable box would need to be set to Dolby Digital to route the cable sound to the optical out port on the cable box. Setting on your HTIB would need to be "Optical" (per the below) so that it is processing sounds received at the optical in port. Seems like it should work, but again, I'm not an expert.

PS - HDMI will send both video and audio to your TV. You will want to zero the volume on your TV if you're using your HTIB system for audio.

 

[muffyn]

ok i have been looking at all this again. when i originally talked to the cable company, they said to make sure my sound is chosen as dolby digital NOT hdmi. but when i switched it no sound would come out. but going back & trying again, it finally worked. don't know why. but seems to be working ok.
now I did find something on the web, that particular set top cable box has a glitch, where IF you change channels or even turn it off & on the DD can change back to HDMI. well every now & then while watching a program it will sometimes have the tv sound pop on & the video sound sync would be off. I either have to change channel or turn off/on the sound system & then it pops back correctly. don't know if this will ever be solved, but at least i have DD so far.
thanks to all who posted something

 

[muffyn]

double post