Why doesn't my Samsung HD LCD TV output Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound from the rear Optical Audio output?

Question

I recently bought an Xbox 360 Arcade console, which I have connected to my Samsung 32" HD LCD TV via HDMI (lovely picture!) but there's no way to connect the Xbox to my surround receiver, so I had to use a digital optical cable from the output on the back of my TV to output the sound from there. However, this doesn't seem to output Dolby Digital, only Stereo, so the sound being heard is in Pro Logic II rather than true Dolby Digital 5.1! Does anyone know a way around this, or is the TV just not capable of outputting true 5.1 surround sound? Would it be my best bet to connect the Xbox via Component cable instead so that I can then connect the Xbox 360 directly to the Surround receiver via digital optical cable (since the component cable for xbox has a digital audio output on it which I know is true 5.1, whereas the HDMI obviously contains audio and video in the one single cable)? Thanks for your time.

Answer 1

Some Tvs will not pass-through DD from HDMI input to s/pdif due to copy protection issues.

However, your xbox should be able to output Digital audio regardless whether you use component or HDMI.

In other words, you should be able to use HDMI for video and the s/pdif from the xbox to your receiver. Check your xbox settings and it should work.