Hi

I have the above, have connected my Xbox 360, WD Media Player, SKYHD and my Sony BDP-360 to the HDMI's with the Optical out from the TV going into my surround sound system. The Xbox and WD Media player both output 5.1 surround, I know that Sky doesn't do that, but the Blu Ray only outputs in stereo, something, I believe, to do with DD EX or DTS? Any ideas on how I Can get the Blu Ray to output DD 5.1 to my surround?

Many Thanks

You need to connect the optical out from the BD player direct to the optical input of your surround sound amp - it's possible that the output over HDMI from the BD player may only be stereo?, and as far as I'm aware the optical output on the TV only outputs stereo, unless it's a 5.1 internal source (such as Freesat in the TV).

You also might try adjusting the HDMI settings on the TV, as it will communicate with the BD player via CEC - it's quite possible that the TV says "I'm a stereo TV", so the BD only outputs stereo over HDMI..

Thanks for the reply.

I've tried various settings on both. If I select "direct" instead of "mix" on the S360 audio settings and try a blu ray that is only DD 5.1 it works, but most blu rays have DTS as well. The TV definitely accepts DD5.1 from the Xbox and WD Media Player and I can get the optical out on the Blu Ray player to downgrade DTS, but for convenience sake having all 3 units connected via HDMI and one optical cable from the TV to the surround sound system, then using the remaining coax input on the surround sound for the SKY HD box would save me having to use the optical switch box...
Not a biggie and it's beginning to sound like it can't be done, but maybe someone somewhere has managed it?

In the Audio settings see if you can see BD Auduio MIX Settings and set it to OFF?
This is what was needed on the s370 so maybe the same for the s360 too.

How many HDMI inputs do you have on the surround amp? If it is a newer model it would make sense to plug the sources into the amp and use the HDMI out to the TV. If you have no HDMI ports on the amp, or not enough, a switcher is probably the best option.

No HDMI on the amp, it's an old Videologic Digitheatre DTS, still working well after 10 years... but thats the point, I was trying to avoid using switchers. I have managed to get DD5.1 only Blu Rays play through the HDMI, but most seem to be DTS as standard. There must be a way to change the default to DD5.1 as I can't imagine everyone who has a surround sound system has DTS decoders?

It is not the player but the disk that determines what audio formats are available. If the particular format you require is not included on the disk then your only hope is that the player can transcode from the format on the disk to another that your amp can handle.

Not something I have seen very often. Which probably explains why most AV amps have just about every decoder known to man built in.