I'm running my cable box and dvd player into the Hitachi 42HDS69 plasma tv using HDMI cords and running the audio out of the TV with an optical cord into my AV Receiver.

When doing this I am not getting DTS or 5.1 surround sound. It is converting it to only 2 channels. How can this be fixed?

I've tried running separate cords from the cable box and dvd player to the AVR and the sound is great, but then the sound and picture are a bit off- meaning they are not precisely matching up.

I'm running the the optical from the TV into the Video 2 slot in the Sony receiver. This input has accepted the digital formats before, so it should be set up correctly.

Please help.

Most TV's with an optical out, including the 42HDS69, will only pass DD 5.1 for content decoded using it's own digital tuner - OTA or QAM. Audio via HDMI will be down mixed to 2 channels. It's really annoying.

Thanks for the response. That is extremely annoying.

Any ideas on how to fix the synch issue with the audio and picture if I run the audio directly from the box/dvd to the receiver?

Not without spending more money. The options seem to be upgrading to a receiver that has an adjustable delay or purchasing a dedicated digital delay device: www.lipfix.com