I have an Onkyo 308 amp which I use with Sky HD, PS3 and an LG HD TV. Both the PS3 and the Sky box are HD cabled to the Onkyo and the Onkyo is HD cabled to the TV. I have set the PS3 to optical and have the relevant optical cable connected from the PS3 to the amp - works perfectly. I have tried to do the same to the Sky HD box (relatively old model as early adopter). I have asked the amp to try to use the optical route as opposed to the HDMI route on set up menu but it doesn't seem to want to as when I watch DD movies on Sky, the amp doesn't pick the DD signal up.

Am I missing something obvious here?? I have tried a few forums and the usual google search but cant quite seem to find the answer. Thanks in advance for any help.

Rob

Have you told the Sky box to output DD over optical? I have a recollection of reading something online on the Sky website that there is a setting in the menu somewhere that sets DD or Stereo out of the optical output.

You can easily check if the Onkyo is using the optical out of the Sky box by simply firing it all up so you are getting noise from a Sky channel then unplug one end of the optical cable. If it all goes quiet then you know it's using the optical link. If not then it's using HDMI.

I have told the Sky box to use DD. I have unplugged the optical cable and the sound is unaffected so its defaulting to HDMI. Is there somewhere on the SKY HD that I can set the optical output?

The optical output is always on, it's the settings of your amplifier that are incorrect.

I read on another forum that I might have to switch "PCM" off to let the amp handle DD from the Sky HD box? Also some have advised to connect the HD box straight to the TV but my cables are all tied away so would like to avoid this if possible.

If the Onkyo is using HDMI then that implies you may not have set it up correctly. I think the Sky box will output over optical all the time. As far as I am aware there is no OFF setting though I'm only going on what I have read online so willing to be corrected on that one.

In the Onkyo did you remember to use the AUDIO settings option to set the optical input in preference to the HDMI? Page 34/5 of the online manual http://www.eu.onkyo.com/downloads/1/...cda40c7510.pdf explains what I mean. It's the AudioSel option off the Audio menu.

Chris, thanks for this. I will have a play around tonight and repost then if I can get it sorted. Sometimes you need a hand just getting through the manual!! All the best to you. Rob

Have you unplugged the HDMI lead from the Sky box to the amp to test the optical connection on its own?

Derek, I get silence.

Which is expected if the input select button is defaulting to HDMI. Which just tells me it is likely the AudioSel setting is wrong.

One other thing you can do is assign the Optical in you use for Sky to another input selector button on the remote. Don't assign any HDMI source to this button, just the optical in. Then if you get audio on that input you know the optical is working. If so then it is most likely an assignment problem with the button you are using for the Sky box.

Then either

(1) your Sky box optical output is not working;
(2) your home cinema's optical input (that you have the Sky optical connected to) is not working;
(3) the optical cable between the Sky box and the home cinema is not working;
(4) you haven't selected the optical input as source on the home cinema.

Most probably only number (4) of those options is possible - as he's still getting sound via HDMI, so the amp is set to use HDMI on that input. I said 'probably', because there's a very slight chance that it 'might' revert back to HDMI if it doesn't find anything on the optical, but this is unlikely.

Thanks to all of you. I will get busy with it tonight and post the results. Rob

If the 308 is anything like my 507 it won't auto switch.

I suspect it is a set-up issue. The Onkyo's are quite a beast to get your head around if you don't read the manual at least three times to work out what bits do what.

I suspect the issue here is that you assign the inputs to the buttons on the remote in one section then assign which audio input to use somewhere else entirely. So it is easy to assign HDMI 1 and OPT 1 (for example) to the DVD button but forget you have to press another set of buttons to tell the Onkyo to take audio from OPT 1 instead of the default HDMI 1 you've assigned.

Chris,

My connections are as above and I have made the HDMI default assignments as per page 29 of the manual and have the PS3 going to Optical 2. What should my input selections be for the Digital Audio screen on page 29 be? I think I have set this up worng but am not in front of the kit.

Should they all be "- - - - -" apart from Game being "Opt 2" and CBL/Sat being "Opt 1"

Thanks again.

Edit - I do not have anything in HDMI 1 as do not have BD or DVD player. So I have HDMI out to the TV, PS3 to HDMI 3 and SkyHD to HDMI 2.

The labels on the back of the Onkyo are "for example only" as are the assignments shown on page 29 of the manual. The HDMI inputs are identical, there is nothing stopping you plugging the Sky box into HDMI 1 if you so wish. The labels on the sockets don't even necessarily correspond to the same labelled buttons on the remote as everything is freely assignable.

Anyway. On the SETUP menu select DIGITAL AUDIO and set everything to "- - - - - " apart from Cbl/SAT which you should set to OPT 1. There should be no need to set GAME to OPT 2 as the HDMI out from the PS3 should carry audio in all the possible formats anyway. Only the Sky box is contrary by only doing surround over optical not HDMI. So you could re-assign OPT 2 to some other device if you like.

Once that is set exit the SETUP menu and select Cbl/SAT on the remote then press the AUDIO button (6 o'clock position of the circular button array in the middle of the remote). Navigate to the AUDIOSEL option and set that to OPT. That will tell the Onkyo to take audio from OPT1 instead of HDMI 2 input. (page 35 of the manual)

If you get it right then pulling the optical cable out when watching Sky should make it all go quiet.

I'll let Chris sort the finer details out as they are more familiar with Onkyo.

One observation I have made is.......

There is no need to have optical connected from the PS3 to amp, just HDMI, that way you will get HD audio from Bluray when avaiable.

How did you know I have a split personality??

I know on my Yamaha Ap it has 2 optical in ports and only one will work with sky and the other only works with PS3 etc. Have you tried changing them around?

I would be very very very surprised if that were true. Optical digital is pretty much standardised so any optical input should work with any optical output. I would be more inclined to believe it is more how the beast is configured rather than anything "special" about the inputs.

And I know from my Onkyo that all the inputs of a particular format are identical to each other. I don't doubt the OP's 308 is the same.

Agreed. I would guess that Philip's system is set up so that one port is configured for DD only (so won't play back any audio which is not DD) and one configured for PCM only (so won't play back any audio which is DD/DTS etc).

All I know about mine is that both Sky HD and PS3 can both do DD, but if I plug the Sky Optical into the one the PS3's plugged into, I get no sound, plug into the one that is actually labeled "Satellite" (I think from memory) it works

Very odd.

Be interesting to know what the difference is then. What exact model Yamaha is it? And have you tried switching the Sky box output between PCM Stereo and Dolby Digital to see what happens? Similarly the PS3 if it does DD over optical.

No not tried, but that was my thought how does the amp know the difference, it's a fairly old amp now about 8 years or so, but does all the DTS etc so have never bothered changing it.

The amp should be able to auto-detect the format of the audio stream and select an appropriate decoder. So it shouldn't matter which input you use for what.

Unless for some odd reason the amp has fixed format inputs and as posted above only accepts PCM on one and DD on the other or something like that.

After all PCM stereo from a Sky box should be indistinguishable from PCM stereo from a PS3 or from a CD player or from any other device with an optical digital audio out. I'm not aware that Sky use some unique flavour of PCM stereo or Dolby Digital that is totally different to what everybody else does.