have been attempting to set up my 5.1 surround sound speaker to yamaha amp and having a terrbile time been reading forever and still not set up right. I purchased the toslink optical cable and have it hooked up to output of tv to one of the input on the amp well no sound at. I have ps3 and sattelite to set up and not sure where to start if someone could shed some light or even direct me i would be greatful. thanks in advance.
To start with, the optical output on tvs is for use with the internal tuner, with local HD channels, while using an antenna. It's not meant to do what you're trying. If the tv will pass the audio that way at all, it will downmix it to 2.0 to send to receiver. The best you could hope for would be Dolby Pro Logic II (simulated surround). If your receiver isn't capable of handling audio over HDMI, you can run HDMI from ps3, straight to the tv for video, and run optical out from ps3 to receiver for audio. Same thing with satellite box. You didn't give much info to go by (brand and model of receiver, or what kind of outputs on sat box). If the receiver doesn't have the optical inputs labeled for DVD and DBS (factory assigned), you may need to assign the inputs to what you plug into them. The receiver's owner's manual will tell you how. If your Yamaha receiver doesn't have HDMI, and you have to use the optical output from the ps3 for audio, understand that you won't get the HD audio from blu ray movies this way. HD audio isn't possible over optical or digital coax. HD audio is only possible over HDMI and 5.1/7.1 multi-channel analog connections. The ps3 doesn't have the analog connections, and if your receiver doesn't have HDMI, the HD audio isn't going to be possible, with the equipment you now have. The optical connections will give you regular Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 though, which is good. Know too that the only tv channels that broadcast in 5.1 surround are the HD channels, some premium movie channels (HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc.), and some PPV channels. I hope this helps. Good luck!
