Advice on new set up please samsung ht-ss 1300 and panasonic p50gt30b

[kevmiller]

Hi guys looking for a little advice on my new setup please. i have just purchased a panasonic TX-P50GT30B TX-P50GT30B - Reviews - Panasonic UK & Ireland
and i have a sony ht-ss1300
HT-SS1300 (HTSS1300, HTSS1300.CEK) : TV & home cinema : Sony

I have sky hd, xbox 360 and thinking of getting a 3d player. what is the best way to have all this set up. I currrnly have my sky hd box plugged in to hdmi 1 on the tv and sound going through the surround sound via optical cable.
Then i have the surround plugged in to hdmi 2 on the tv and my 360 goes through that as could my new 3d player if i got one.
The down side to all this is that i dont any sound if use the smart tv on the tv or i plug a hard drive in to the tv.
Is it worth just plugging all my eqipment in to the 4 hdmi ports on the tv and run the optical cable from the tv to the surround sound. Would i lose any kind of sound doing it this way. or can i buy a splitter fro the optical cable. Or should i just run the sky through hdmi for both picture and sound instead of using the optical for the sky's sound, then i could run the optical from the tv to the surround sound for when i am just using the smart tv What would your recommendations be for this this set up. Hope everything i have said makes sense to you

 

[davepuma]

Sky has to use optical (or digi-coax if you have a Samsung, Pace or Amstrad box) for Dolby Digital 5.1 as Sky boxes only output stereo over HDMI.

In order to hear HD audio formats from bluray, you need to use HDMI.

If you are short of inputs, your only options are to either compromise and use the TV speakers for SMART TV and Hard Drive movies or buy an optical switch. Unfortunately these are ugly, clumsy things but they will do what you want. You can get remote control versions for around £60.