Ok, I am not sure how to word this but here goes...

I have a Comcast HDMI cable box that I connect to the Sony A3000, when I connect the optical out from the television to the receiver, the recevier shows it as only have Left,Front, and Center signals. However, when I connect the optical cable directly from the cable box to the receiver, the receiver shows it as being full digital and all 5 speakers are activated. Is there a setting in the television to allow it to pass the full digital audio untouched through the HDMI to the optical out, or is this setup just not possible.

Ok, I am not sure how to word this but here goes...

I have a Comcast HDMI cable box that I connect to the Sony A3000, when I connect the optical out from the television to the receiver, the recevier shows it as only have Left,Front, and Center signals. However, when I connect the optical cable directly from the cable box to the receiver, the receiver shows it as being full digital and all 5 speakers are activated. Is there a setting in the television to allow it to pass the full digital audio untouched through the HDMI to the optical out, or is this setup just not possible.

Basically, not possible. HDMI doesn't pass 5.1 audio, only Dolby Stereo. Thus, you have to run the Optical Cable directly from the cable box to the receiver to get 5.1. Same would be true for a DVD player hooked up via HDMI.

Thanks for the reply, I did a little bit of digging on that subject. It seems HDMI "can" pass 5.1 and more digital audio but not all devices take advantage of that feature. My Comcast cable box just doesn't pass anything more than 2.0 through HDMI, seems like a waste to me.

Basically, not possible. HDMI doesn't pass 5.1 audio, only Dolby Stereo.

HDMI is quite capable of passing DD 5.1.

Problem here is twofold:

1: Optical out on every TV that I have seen will only pass DD5.1 from the built in tuner. Some will downsample the DD5.1 from the HDMI to DD2.0, some will pass nothing from the HDMI in to the optical out.

2: Some cable / sat boxes will only put 5.1 out via optical / coaxial :( My BEV9200 is one of those :mad: ). HDMI is limited (on these boxes) to DD2.0.

Just leave the HDMI to the TV but run an optical from the sat / cable box to the receiver. DD5.1 from both (where available) plus you can just use the TV speakers when you don't want to fire up the whole system.

HDMI is quite capable of passing DD 5.1.

Problem here is twofold:

1: Optical out on every TV that I have seen will only pass DD5.1 from the built in tuner. Some will downsample the DD5.1 from the HDMI to DD2.0, some will pass nothing from the HDMI in to the optical out.

2: Some cable / sat boxes will only put 5.1 out via optical / coaxial :( My BEV9200 is one of those :mad: ). HDMI is limited (on these boxes) to DD2.0.

Just leave the HDMI to the TV but run an optical from the sat / cable box to the receiver. DD5.1 from both (where available) plus you can just use the TV speakers when you don't want to fire up the whole system.

Thank you for the correction, as I meant to say the set won't pass DD 5.1 via HDMI to the optical out....same difference basically, but thanks for the correction.

Just leave the HDMI to the TV but run an optical from the sat / cable box to the receiver. DD5.1 from both (where available) plus you can just use the TV speakers when you don't want to fire up the whole system.

This is what I do on mine. Works just fine. I use my receiver/5.1 for all sports, movie channels, etc. and the regular drivers in my Hitachi otherwise which still has a great sound.