My new 5.1 srs will be arriving tomorrow. I have my my box hooked up hdmi using the tv speakers until tomorrow. From a performance stand point. What do you guys suggest for audio? Optical or Coax? With either one I go with. Will either one work with sd channels as well?

KoRn,

Don't know if this is helpful, as I have only used optical cable for DD5.1 for years now, both with DirecTv and Charter, with various STB's. Never a problem with optical and the sound is excellent. I do not believe there is any difference between optical and coax, but again I personally have never used coax. I do know that both work with SD channels as well, just not a 5.1 signal as with the HD channels. However, your receiver will likely be able to matrix the digital signal with Dolby ProLogic on the SD channels to give you pseudo surround sound, which is not bad.

FWIW, I have only used optical with my DVD player, XBox360 and now HD-A2, which rocks with the DTS 1.5MBps. I am not sure why I originally went the optical route, but think it was something I read back then. At this point, everything I run across seems to suggest no difference between the two.

KoRn,

Don't know if this is helpful, as I have only used optical cable for DD5.1 for years now, both with DirecTv and Charter, with various STB's. Never a problem with optical and the sound is excellent. I do not believe there is any difference between optical and coax, but again I personally have never used coax. I do know that both work with SD channels as well, just not a 5.1 signal as with the HD channels. However, your receiver will likely be able to matrix the digital signal with Dolby ProLogic on the SD channels to give you pseudo surround sound, which is not bad.

FWIW, I have only used optical with my DVD player, XBox360 and now HD-A2, which rocks with the DTS 1.5MBps. I am not sure why I originally went the optical route, but think it was something I read back then. At this point, everything I run across seems to suggest no difference between the two.

Correct, no difference between the two. I use coax since the fit is more snug, the optical ports kinda wiggle around a bit. For uncompressed Dolby TrueHD, I think you need to use optical because coax doesn't have the bandwidth to handle the uncompressed audio being passed to your receiver. This is for receivers that cannot decode TruHD and the DTS equivilant. The HD-DVD/BR player decodes it and passes it through as uncompressed to the receiver. This is important if you have a receiver that isn't brand new, only the really new ones can decode TruHD/HDMI 1.3. Not all HD-DVD/BR players can decode TruHD onboard.