Surround Sound Headache

[Chud]

Hopefully someone can give me a steer on this! I'm trying to get my surround sound working in Dolby digital/DTS.

Quite a few years back I bought some separates from Richer Sounds - a Sherwood 5.1 receiver (non HDMI, 1x Optical & 2 x Digital Coax inputs) and a some decent speakers - they've been in storage for a while due to lack of space but have now been resurrected in our new house now we have renovated the lounge.

Setup is as follows:
LG WebOS 3.0 LED TV -> Optical out -> 5.1 Amp
Blu-Ray -> HDMI -> TV
Sky HD -> HDMI -> TV

The amp can decode/play DTS, Dolby Digital and the normal pro-logic modes.

So far with the LG TV I've been unable to get the amp to 'receive' anything other than Pro-logic despite setting the programme source (Blu Ray) to output DTS. I've looked in the TV menu and tried options for Dolby Digital but it seems to have no effect on what the amp is picking up, it stays resolutely in Pro-logic?

Do I need to connect another cable direct from the BD player to the amp? Although I have no more spare optical inputs on the amp apparently you can get a powered converter to change optical to digital coax (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001U7E...UTF8&colid=3OIEF4JY8SSMP&coliid=IGDNAEVNG5DJ2)

I'll admit I probably have some more playing around to do like putting a DVD in the player that I KNOW worked for DTS/Dolby digital before...rather than the updated versions of DTS etc that are on Blu Rays etc now (I've had about 10 minutes total to look into this in the last week...thats small children for you!)

So...

1) Any of you gurus know the settings to get DTS/Dolby Digital out of an LG TV optical port?
2) Do I need to directly connect the BD Player to the amp?
3) and finally...if playing a Blu Ray with DTS Master Audio on kit that supports (old style) DTS should it play as DTS or is it likely to fail back to pro-logic etc?

 

[Lucid]

The problem is the TV. It converts audio from any HDMI input in to basic stereo. If you want DTS and DD then you have to make digital audio connections direct from Sky and the BD player to the Optical or Coax connections on the amp.

Blu-ray discs encoded with DTS Master Audio or Dolby True HD will have their audio converted down to DTS or DD as appropriate. However, you won't be able to access that unless the BD player has either a Coax or Optical output socket.

There are some exceptions, but most TVS only output DD5.1 from either their internal HD TV tuner (and then only for those HD channels carrying programmes encoded with DD5.1), or for audio from streamed sources and USB media files. Once again the file itself has to carry DD or DTS audio. To make it even more complicated some TVS only do DTS in stereo and not full 5.1

 

[Chud]

Looks like I'll be buying an optical to digital coax converter then.

I don't mind pro-logic for the TV etc but when I'm playing a DVD or Blu-Ray then I'd like to get 'proper' 5.1!

I'd assumed from the below options (from LG website, same menu as TV) that I could get the TV optical out to output a proper 5.1 signal..?
View media item 98881

 

[Lucid]

Yours might be an exception as I mentioned before, but without anything more from the chart or a model number on the TV then I'd lay odds that the chart actually refers to signals received via the aerial and for signals via the streamer/USB connection.

The manufacturers make it read like they're talking about all the inputs, but in actual fact you'll often find a small reference in the manual to audio via HDMI and how it handles PCM 2.0 which, by deduction, means it doesn't handle DD, DTS or any of the HD audio formats.

 

[Chud]

OK so a bit of an update on this - still needs a bit more testing to check I'm getting proper surround as opposed to a stereo DD or DTS output but I have success!

Buried under the full menus on the TV was a setting pushing out PCM...set it to auto it and now I'm getting passthrough to my amp. I may need to tweak the delay setting but it's looking good so far.

The TV is an LG UH668V in case anyone else has the same issue.