Onkyo AV receiver and Sky + audio setup

ncdon

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Evening

I have setup my Onkyo AV receiver and Sky + with HDMI and optical cable. Been through the setup, i.e assigned optical on amp to the correct input, but as soon as I change from HDMI to optical the sound goes. I have checked the setup on the Sky box and switched between Dolby d and normal to no avail. Any ideas?

Tia
 
Why are you using optical when you have HDMI?
 
Hi violator

Using optical to get true DD 5.1, my understanding is HDMI cannot carry true DD5.1

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Optical can deliver DD 5.1 as can HDMI. HDMI can also deliver HD sound, ie, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA, whereas optical is restricted to just DD 5.1.

If you want to use optical from the Sky box to the receiver then the HDMI lead needs to go direct to the TV. You have both Sky and receiver configured correctly but wrongly connected. If you want the sound via HDMI and then pass through the picture to the TV via the receiver then you must remove the optical. You cannot use both to the receiver.
 
Thanks gibbsy

Got it working, moved the optical cable to opt2 and reassigned it to the correct input (cabl/sat) also unassigned any others inputs using optical. Then changed source on amp to take audio from optical rather than HDMI. Now works fine.

Very confusing as most forums etc say Sky boxes do not push DD5.1 over HDMI, optical only, even the Onkyo website claims this. Yet others like yourself say it can
 
AFAIK Sky updated their box firmwares some three years+ back _ in 2013_ to pass 5.1 over hdmi connections. It was the case before then that one needed the optical connection.

Mind you it may have only been selected box models that could be updated, so not all?
 
the sky boxes do pass 5.1 over HDMI and have done for some time
the problem that can occur ( which does in my case ) is that my TV will not decode / downmix 5.1 to stereo meaning everything is fine whilst HDMI is going through the AV amp but if i want to just use the tv audio everything in stereo is passed through to the TV but anything in 5.1 is not decoded and produces no sound

the solution is to set the sky box HDMI to stereo the optical out to 5.1 and configure the AV amp to use optical for sky so when the AV amp is off the HDMI stereo signal is passed through to the tv ( the tv auto mutes when AV amp is on ) and 5.1 is heard when using the AV amp

works for me
 

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