Surround Sound help needed.

[mark_dubo]

Ok first off I'm not sure this is the right place for this, so if there is a more suitable place then mods please move.

I have an LG 50PC1D TV, connected to this I have a PS3 and 360 (both via HDMI), a wii (via component) and virgin media (via scart). I also have a JVC TH-L1 home theatre kit which I have connected via optical from the optical out on the TV.

The problem I am having is that when watching dvd's or playing games on both the 360 and PS3 I do not get 5.1 surround sound (DolbyDigital, DTS), I can select Dolby pro logic but as I understand it this is 'pseudo surround sound' which is produced from a stereo source.

After some research it seems that the 360 only sends stereo audio over hdmi, can anyone confirm this? If this is true (shame on MS!) then how do I get 5.1 from my 360 when using HDMI?

The PS3 it seems does transmit 5.1 via HDMI so why is my home theatre kit not detecting this? One answer may be that the TV doesn't pass 5.1 from HDMI sources to the optical out (if so ). My TV manual doesn't mention very much detail about the audio out so was pretty useless. Does anyone know if this is the case or if it is likely to be the case if it is usually for tv's to do this?

[rEVILospud]

Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 can output surround sound over HDMI; it is most likely that your TV is not able to extract this and output it over it's optical output.
Your best option is to get an optical switch, with both your Xbox 360 and PS3 outputting sound over optical to the switch and then connect the switch directly to your sound system.

Here is a simple optical switch.

[Andy98765]

This subject has been asked over and over again, TV's will not pass through 5.1 to their optical outputs. It would mean expensive decoders/encoders been fitted and when you add to that all the different formats, well!

[mark_dubo]

Thanks for the quick replies guys!

rEVILospud - I know the 360 transmits sound over HDMI (i can hear it lol). Sorry for not being clear, but what I meant was from some reading on the internet it seems that the 360 only passes stereo sound though HDMI (This is what I have gathered from what I read so may be wrong). The problem here then is that there is no optical out on the 360 (without using a special av cable).

[rEVILospud]

Yes the Xbox 360 does output Dolby Digital 5.1 sound over HDMI.
For optical and HDMI use, you have to use the audio dongle along with the HDMI cable, I got one in the box with my Elite.

[mark_dubo]

Great! I should have got one too. I need to dig out my Elite box when I get home. Gonna have to order more optical cables too, and an optical switcher and an optical to digital coax converter... and a digital coax cable (the th-l1 only has 1 optical and 1 digital coax connections on the back )

[rEVILospud]

You could get away without a switch then.
Optical from PS3 to Optical input and Optical from XBox 360 via converter to Co-axial input.
So you need 2 x optical cables, 1 x optical/co-axial converter and 1 x digital co-axial cable.

[mark_dubo]

I could but I also want to connect optical out from the TV to the JVC so I can get Dolby pro logic when watching tv and playing the wii.

[Andy98765]

You do not need a optical connection from the TV to the AV unit to get Dolby Pro-logic (1,2), optical on a TV is a waste of time. Connect if possible with a standard stereo pair and switch the av amp to Dolby Pro-Logic.

[mark_dubo]

Oops.. just ordered all the gear there. O well.

On another issue, I noticed (and the missus kept on about it) that the sound coming from the surround system lagged slightly (I assume this is down to processing the digital signal (in the tv and at the receiver)), so if I used just a standard stereo cable to the receiver would this do away with the lag?