hi,

on the box it says ''requires an additional coaxial or optical cable to reproduce audio'' ( i havent opened the box yet - xmas pressie )

does anyone know, if that actually means to get any sound from the thing, i need to buy another cable?

That's exactly what it means - in terms of connecting other things to it. Most AV amps and receivers don't come with any cables to connect other pieces of kit to them - because they don't know what other pieces of kit you have got.

All DVD players support coaxial and/or optical out, Sky+ and Sky HD have optical out, I think the various games consoles are also optical. If you know what other things are going to be connected to it, see what kind of digital audio output they have and buy the required cable(s) before Christmas Day.

What it means is that to get a surround sound signal from another source - for instance a Sky box - you need an optical or coaxial digital lead. Which is not supplied in the box.

If you want a sneaky peek at what it does try this...

http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowProdu...a+Surround+Kit

You can download the full manual from there if you want to know how it works.

ok thanks for the replies, i have a sky hd box, and have optical and hdmi on tv, and so in order to get the best sound for sky and tv, it would be best to connect to the sky box??

Connect both.The Sony has two oprtical inputs after all. That way you can select the TV if you are watching from it's built in tuner (assuming you have an aerial) and the Sky box for when you are watching Sky.

You may find also that the direct feed from the Sky box is the only way to get surround sound if the programme you are watching has it. The TV feed may well be stereo only.

ok thanks, i bought an old TV back in about 1993 - big bulky toshiba tv - forget the model, but was in stereo with small surround sound speakers. it had many sound options, and the sound was lovely in surround sound ( sound from behind you ).

the tv i have now - tosh wlt - doesnt seem to have any sound options, just normal stereo. ( great tv though ) - so would be nice to have that surround sound back.

ok, so to connect a lead from the tv and a lead from sky to the sony system, i will need to look in the box i guess to see what leads it has,

Follow the link I provided earlier. From there you can find other links to download the full manual or just the basic operating guide. Either of which will tell you what is in the box.

Sky HD HDMI ---> TV HDMI
Sky optical out ---> Sony optical in
TV analog phono out ---> Sony phono AUX in

I am guessing that the TV does not have a 2nd HDMI out?

Rgds,
Scorp

after looking through the manual ( online ) it seems the sony system comes with a coaxial lead.

the tv has 3 hdmi, so i will connect
sony - tv with hdmi ( need to buy )
sony - sky optical ( need to buy )
sont - dvd - coaxial.

atm the dvd is connected to the tv via a component lead. the dvd has a hdmi socket though. the sony comes with a coaxial lead. i am not sure, yet, what this looks like. I have had a look on the back of the dvd, and there arent too many slots left. so i will have to wait and see if i can put the coaxial lead into the back of the dvd.

A digital coaxial connection on domestic kit is normally a bog standard Phono, usually coloured orange.