HDMI and audio help.

[RCW]

dont really understand this but.....

got a BT vision box other day, connected with just HDMI lead, sound and picture very good.

new DVD arrived today, Samsung 1080P7, wanted a cheapish HDMI upscaler with optical out so seemed like good option.

connected to TV with HDMI, optical to amp, picture very good, sound from TV speakers but not getting 5.1 from from my surround system. Audio options in DVD have PCM or Bitstream, switch to Bitstream, now get 5.1 but no sound from TV speakers, and a (brief) message on TV saying "HDMI audio not supported"

manual says when using HDMI also connect audio leads (red/white) from DVD to TV, did that, still no sound from TV speakers, only way to get sound from TV is to switch back to PCM.

Can't always use my surrounsd system as Kids room is above but can't find any settings in the player menu that will give 5.1 through optical out and sound through the TV speakers, which seems odd as I assumed the red/white audio cables would solve that

Dont really want to have keep going into the player menu to switch between the two, any ideas?

[nwgarratt]

Unfortunately that sounds normal. Bitstream leaves the audio digital 5.1 which the TV cannot work with so it does need converting to PCM first.

Not sure why the manual saids to use red/white. The red/white audio is usually used just with component, s video or composite video inputs.

[RCW]

ok thanks, will just have to put up with switching.

[Jonnof]

You'll probably find that the red/white analogue audio outputs on the DVD player ARE working - they should operate independently of whatever the digital outputs are doing.

But as nwgarratt says, they are probably only recongnised by the TV when you're in an analogue input mode - switching to HDMI will no doubt cancel these out, unless there's some sort of menu option to re-enable them (which would show a staggering amount of foresight on the part of your TV's manufacturers).

I think I'm going to be in the same boat when I put together a similar set-up over the next few days, but then I don't have kids to worry about if I end up putting everything through the surround system!

How's the picture on the Samsung, btw?

[RCW]

How's the picture on the Samsung, btw?

not watched much on it yet other than to test the multi region hack and make sure it was working ok, picture seemed fine to me (720p) with the discs I tried, not a massive improvement over my previous player (using component) but wasn't expecting too much and did it mainly to free up a component connection on the TV.

have to say that of the ones I tried LOTR & Sin City both looked stunning, so quite happy