5.1 digital home cinema system

scorpiolady

Hi, I've just bought a samsung tv with a cinema system and sound comes out of all 5 speakers when playing a dvd but only out of 2 when on t.v , i'd like it to be set up so i can get all speakers working with the t.v so i bought an optical cable and now while on the t.v the sound just comes out of the front 2 speakers but not the other 3, the optical cable is currently plugged into the cinema system and sky hd + box
any help much appreciated
thanks

aliEnRIK

Whats the exact make and model of 'cinema system'?

scorpiolady

aliEnRIK wrote: »

Whats the exact make and model of 'cinema system'?

Its a samsung HT-C550

spike7451

Have you checked the sound settings on the Sky box to ensure they are set to 'Dolby D'?
(Settings-Sound)

Hammyman

scorpiolady wrote: »

Hi, I've just bought a samsung tv with a cinema system and sound comes out of all 5 speakers when playing a dvd but only out of 2 when on t.v , i'd like it to be set up so i can get all speakers working with the t.v so i bought an optical cable and now while on the t.v the sound just comes out of the front 2 speakers but not the other 3, the optical cable is currently plugged into the cinema system and sky hd + box
any help much appreciated
thanks

Assuming you've got the optical cable hooked up to the Sky+HD box, you'll only get surround sound in all speakers when the programme is indicated as broadcast in Dolby Digital by a DD in the top corner of the information. If there is nothing there or a W, it'll be broadcast in stereo so you'll only get two channels. If there is DS then that's Dolby Stereo and you'll get both front channels, bass cabinet and rear channels should work but will be in mono - same comes out of both.

On the Samsung HT-550, you need to press function to make sure you've selected D-IN. Looking at the manual, there seems to be no way to force it to output a stereo or DS source to all speakers.

scorpiolady

spike7451 wrote: »

Have you checked the sound settings on the Sky box to ensure they are set to 'Dolby D'?
(Settings-Sound)

Thankyou, yes its set to "Dolby D"

aliEnRIK

Sky HD only has surround sound on a select few channels (usually the movie channels)

First thing id try is getting a movie channel outputting 5.1

Then its a case of setting it for 2 channel sound, I suspect its set to 'stereo' in this case when it should be set to dolby pro logic

scorpiolady

Hammyman wrote: »

Assuming you've got the optical cable hooked up to the Sky+HD box, you'll only get surround sound in all speakers when the programme is indicated as broadcast in Dolby Digital by a DD in the top corner of the information. If there is nothing there or a W, it'll be broadcast in stereo so you'll only get two channels. If there is DS then that's Dolby Stereo and you'll get both front channels, bass cabinet and rear channels should work but will be in mono - same comes out of both.

On the Samsung HT-550, you need to press function to make sure you've selected D-IN. Looking at the manual, there seems to be no way to force it to output a stereo or DS source to all speakers.

Thankyou hammyman will check it out later

[Deleted User]

As already stated, you will only get full 5.1 if the programme was made with full 5.1 in mind, or at least broadcast in it.

If you check your manual there is a Samsung 'feature' that most amplifiers have to kind of create full 5.1 from a 2 channel broadcast. Makes it sound slightly better, that's currently how my PC is setup with a home cinema via optical.

almillar

aliEnRIK is once again correct. DVDs have 5.1 channels of sound recorded on them - left front, right front, centre, rear left, rear right, and the .1 is the subwoofer channel for low effects. These go straight into your amp, and straight out to the speakers.
The stuff you're watching on sky only has 2 channels recorded, and whatever your amp is set to (just stereo or straight through or something) is again passing the stuff straight through to the left and right fronts. You need to find a setting in your amp that will do clever stuff with these 2 channels (which have some encoding in them) to throw stuff to the other speakers. This would be Dolby Pro Logic or Pro Logic 2 or DTS Neo. I prefer Pro Logic 2, and there is probably a Movie or Music setting, which you should set according to what you're watching.

A.Penny.Saved

Dolby Pro Logic /2 is what you need to find, even my very low cost Dolby/DTS 5.1 that I purchased for use with my PC has it so most systems should have it available.