How do I get my HDTV to play surround sound?

Question

I have a 56" Samsung 1080p HDTV, My older non-HDTV was able to play everything with surround sound: back speakers, front speakers and TV speakers.

With this new HDTV I have to set it to Internal-Mute for it to be able to play the surround sound speakers, you may think my problem is solved, but here's the catch, only the front speakers work!

Is there a wiring problem I'm doing? I'm pretty sure I connected red with red and black with black here.. It looks the same as it did on the older TV, it just won't play the back-of-the-room surround speakers. Any help would be appreciated!

Answer 1

Your TV does not "play" the surround sound.  Your receiver does.  Ideally, you should disable your TV's speakers anyway.  They are probably inferior to your surround speakers and would add nothing to the party.

Check to be certain that your source (i.e. dvd player, cable box, etc) is properly connected to your a/v receiver.  The audio "outs" from the source need to be connected to the audio "ins" on the receiver.

Assuming that this is fine, make sure that you have the correct source selected on the receiver.  If you are playing a DVD and the audio of the DVD player is connected to something called "Audio 1" make sure that "Audio 1" is what you have selected.

Finally, check to see that one of your receiver's "surround modes" are turned on.  While you were moving things around, you may have bumped a button and turned your "surround mode" off.  Look to see if Dolby Digital or some other surround mode is shown on your receiver's display.  You may just have the receiver's stereo mode activated.

Bottom line, though, it definately isn't the TV.