[jbourne]

Hi all,

I'm planning on connecting my Sony FZ4000 laptop to my Sony TV via HDMI. The thing is that my receiver, a Pioneer, does not have HDMI in, so I can't do a pass-through from it. However, from my understanding, the Sony TV has a digital out (optical I figure), so I'm wondering, if I connect the laptop to the TV through HDMI, then connect the TV to the receiver by optical, will I get 5.1 sound? The specs say "HDMI™ Connection(s) : 2 (2 Rear) - 1 rear input has L/R audio inputs"; does that mean that the TV will just pick up 2 channels off the HDMI stream?

The laptop is supposed to output a proper HDMI video/audio stream according to the manual. I could get an external sound card I guess, but that's more cables to plug in...

Any help appreciated!

-jB

[MarkTaylor]

You don't say which TV it is, but in general the optical outputs from TV's are usually 2 channel only to take the sound from the internal tuner back out and may not even pass anything out from an HDMI input.

1 rear input has L/R audio inputs"

That refers to inputs not outputs and often means that there are a pair of L/R inputs associated with one of the HDMI inputs so you can take sound in to go with an HDMI source that doesn't send sound over the HDMI link as can be the case with some PC's.

[jbourne]

Oh, actually, the TV brand / model is in the topic title - the Sony KDL40V3000. Hm. So no chance, then? I guess I'd need an external sound card for the laptop then, since it doesn't have SPDIF / optical...

[gpl1968]

My FZ31Z only outputs 2 channel PCM audio via HDMI (I just checked), even when I play a Bluray disk on it. This should be the same for your model.

So with the way you propose to connect up. You will only have a basic stereo output from the laptop, so your amp will have to generate the 5.1 from PCM 2.0 using Pro Logic or similar.