Connecting home theatre system to TV (5.1 surround sound)?

Question

I've just bought a component home theatre system (with 5.1 speakers and AV receiver) and it has most of the connections. I've tried following the manual but can't seem to install it properly. I've just got a couple of simple (but not for me!) questions:

1. Is it possible to get 5.1 surround sound for broadcast (non-HD) TV?

2. Do I need to use digital connections (coaxial or fibre optic) in order to get Dolby Digital? Is there are any difference if I just plug RCA cables into the digital connections?

3. For DVDs that are Dolby Digital (but doesn't have 5.1 surround), is there a way that we can manipulate the speakers so get more speakers working (more than just the 2 normally)

Hehe, as you can tell, I'm pretty clueless. I've just spent a day trying to hook up the thing and as you can tell, haven't gone anywhere. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!! I've lost my voice coz of all the yelling I've been doing!

Answer 1

1. You can get pseudo (matrix) surround from non-5.1 TV broadcasts using Prologic or other matrix decoding. It's a bit unpredictable as to result since it uses phase differences to create the surround effect. You cannot get true 5.1 sound unless it is specifically coded into the broadcast.

2. DD is available over optical (TOSLINK) or digital coax (the orange RCA port) -- or HDMI (but his isn't usually available on an non HDTV.

Inexpensive RCA analog patch cords will carry digital coax signal (and support digital surround) if plugged into a digital coax out (as noted above, usually colour coded orange), but not ideally (You need a 75 ohm coax line for propper connection).

3. Most DVDs have a 5.1 DD track (You select the track using the DVD menu (usually under language settings) or using the audio track select button on the remote), but if only a 2.0 track is available, as for question 1, you can get a matrix surround sound effect using ProLogic or proprietary matrix decoders using a stereo analog connection.

The easiest way to connect to get immediate results is an RCA cable via digital coax (get a proper coax cable to replace the cheap one later) if an option, or using stereo analog RCA cable if not.

Note that some TVs have to have the audio out port(s) activated via the TV menu (or select among several different output options).

Hope you get it working soon.

Answer 2

1.  Yes, your receiver is able to take 2 channel broadcasts and create a 5.1 surround listening experience.

2.  Yes, you need a digital connection to get Dolby Digital.  And, yes, you can just use a single RCA cord as a coaxial digital cable.

3.  There is such thing as Dolby Digital 2.0, but this is pretty rare.  This question is the same as your first question, so yes you can get sound from more than just 2 speakers.

Basically, you need to do some work in your receiver's setup menu.  I don't know your specific model, but I do know that this can be tricky.  What needs to happen is you have to tell your receiver how to deal with the signal it's receiving.  If it's getting a 2-channel signal, you can tell it to create 5.1 channels from it.  It can do this with an analog or digital signal (TV broadcast or DVD movie).  Good luck!