Do Cable TV HD movies have surround sound, all 5 speakers work?

[traveler582]

I just purchased a Yamaha YHT-390 Home Theatre system, and am VERY new to this technology, I understand DVD's with surround sound will play in all 5-speakers, BUT, do the cable TV movies in HD also play in ALL 5-speakers? like HBO, Cinemax etc.
I do have a HD capable cable box and HD TV.

Thanks
Rob

[MrBoylan]

I just purchased a Yamaha YHT-390 Home Theatre system, and am VERY new to this technology, I understand DVD's with surround sound will play in all 5-speakers, BUT, do the cable TV movies in HD also play in ALL 5-speakers? like HBO, Cinemax etc.
I do have a HD capable cable box and HD TV.

Thanks
Rob

Hi, Rob,

Many movies and TV shows are broadcast in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround including many shows and movies on HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, other premium channels and the major networks. To get the discrete surround sound, where available (and on the shows that include it), be sure to connect your cable box to your surround sound system using a coax or fiberoptic digital audio conector, *NOT* the red and white analog stereo connections.

HDMI connections also carry digital audio and video but I believe your specific HTiB system does not support audio over HDMI so you will need the separate fiberoptic or coax digital connection to your receiver in order to get discrete 5.1-channel surround sound.

If you connect the red/white analog cables instead, you may get matrixed surround sound (Dolby Pro Logic) but the surround effect will not be as pronounced as with a digital connection.

the same is true for your DVD or Blu-ray player. Use the digital audio (or 5.1-channel analog audio) connection for that as well if you want to get discrete 5.1-channel surround.

Hope that helps...

-Chris

[traveler582]

Yes that helps! Thank you VERY much Chris!!
I do have the red/white analog cable connections set up (told you I was new at this!), but I'll definitely invest in two of the fiber optic digital audio connectors you suggested for the DVD and Cable Box. Are these with what they call a 'Toslink' connector? I checked the back of the DVD, Cable box and Home Theatre receiver and they appear to have the openings.

Another question:
In what year did this Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound come into being?

Thanks again!
Rob

[MrBoylan]

Yes that helps! Thank you VERY much Chris!!
I do have the red/white analog cable connections set up (told you I was new at this!), but I'll definitely invest in two of the fiber optic digital audio connectors you suggested for the DVD and Cable Box. Are these with what they call a 'Toslink' connector? I checked the back of the DVD, Cable box and Home Theatre receiver and they appear to have the openings.

Another question:
In what year did this Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound come into being?

Thanks again!
Rob

Hi, Rob,

Yes, the fiberoptic connection is also called TosLink (I think Toshiba had a hand in inventing it actually). The underlying standard is called S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interconnect Format), which can use either fiberoptic or coax connections for transmission.

Dolby Digital was originally called "Dolby AC3" and it first premiered in theaters in 1992 and on home equipment around 1995. I had a few laserdiscs that had AC3 soundtracks back in the day. Back then it required a separate RF converter that turned the RF/AC3 track into something that a receiver could decode.

Dolby Digital is now part of the HDTV broadcast standard so you'll find it on shows like "The Tonight Show" and "Lost" and many others as well as on loads of movies

You can read more about it on the Wikipedia page.

-CB

[traveler582]

Chris
I was going to call Yamaha tech support tomorrow but figured let me throw another question your way.
I've now watched DVD's in surround sound (5-spker) with no problem, soon as the movie starts the 5 speaker indicator lights go on, but when on cable TV watching what I'm certain to be a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround movie, say for instance: 'Doomsday", 2007, I only get 2-speaker sound (all 5 spkr lights don't come on, only two), I checked all other cable movie stations I have; Cinemax, HBO, Showtime, and none are playing in surround through my home theatre, I've gone through the book and read that maybe because Audio Select was on 'Analog', but it's correctly on Auto. I've checked all speaker settings and they appear to be on and normal. And I've checked the troubleshooting section also.

Could it be because I'm using those red/white cables instead of the coax or fiber optic cables??


Thanks for everything,

Rob

[MrBoylan]

Chris
I was going to call Yamaha tech support tomorrow but figured let me throw another question your way.
I've now watched DVD's in surround sound (5-spker) with no problem, soon as the movie starts the 5 speaker indicator lights go on, but when on cable TV watching what I'm certain to be a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround movie, say for instance: 'Doomsday", 2007, I only get 2-speaker sound (all 5 spkr lights don't come on, only two), I checked all other cable movie stations I have; Cinemax, HBO, Showtime, and none are playing in surround through my home theatre, I've gone through the book and read that maybe because Audio Select was on 'Analog', but it's correctly on Auto. I've checked all speaker settings and they appear to be on and normal. And I've checked the troubleshooting section also.

Could it be because I'm using those red/white cables instead of the coax or fiber optic cables??

Thanks for everything,

Rob

Wait. Now I'm confused. Did you get those fiberoptic cables yet or no? Because if you're using the analog left right RCA outputs from the cable box then you'll never get discrete 5.1 channel surround sound. If you've connected both the digital cable *AND* the analog cables then disconnect the analog white/red cables to make sure you're getting the digital output from the cable box.

Also, again assuming you are using the fiberoptic cable now and not the left/right analog cables, go into your cable box set-up menus and make sure you have selected "Dolby Digital" output not "PCM" and if there is any kind of an option in the cable box set-up menu to downmix the output to 2 channels then make sure that is off.

-CB

[traveler582]

Sorry for the confusion Chris, no I haven't received my fiber optic cables yet, I still have the red/white plugged in, my misunderstanding, I thought I would get some surround sound with red/white, just not as good...but I don't get any. I'll just have to be patient for US Postal.

Another question: I have all component cables hooked up: DVD/Cable Box/Home Theatre, 3-total. A guy at work told me HDMI cables have better picture quality, I should switch. True/False?

I know these are pretty basic questions for you, so again I say Thanks for taking the time out for a novice!!

Rob

[MrBoylan]

Sorry for the confusion Chris, no I haven't received my fiber optic cables yet, I still have the red/white plugged in, my misunderstanding, I thought I would get some surround sound with red/white, just not as good...but I don't get any. I'll just have to be patient for US Postal.

Another question: I have all component cables hooked up: DVD/Cable Box/Home Theatre, 3-total. A guy at work told me HDMI cables have better picture quality, I should switch. True/False?

I know these are pretty basic questions for you, so again I say Thanks for taking the time out for a novice!!

Rob

HDMI is not necessarily a lot better than component video for 1080i (cable box) or 480i/480p (DVD) sources. For the cable box, the maximum signal resolution is 1080i and component video is capable of transmitting that resolution to your TV. It is possible there could be some signal degradation in converting the cable box signal from a digital signal to analog (component video is technically an analog format), routing that through your HTiB and into your TV where it is turned back into a digital signal for display (assuming you have a relatively recent LCD or plasma flat panel or an LCD or DLP projection TV). But whether you will see a big difference in the quality of your HD cable signal over component video vs. HDMI depends on your specific TV. If it's a large native 1080p screen that has been set up properly, then you may see a difference in quality due to there being fewer analog/digital and digital/analog conversions along the signal chain.

For your DVD player, I don't know if you have a standard DVD player or an upconverting DVD player. Upconverting DVD players can upconvert the DVD's standard def resolution (480i or 480p) up to 1080i or 1080p resolution, but how well they perform this task depends on the video processor built into that upconverting DVD player. Some high-end DVD players from Oppo, and some recent Blu-ray players from Panasonic and Samsung (among others) do an excellent job upconverting standard DVDs to 1080i or 1080p resolution. It doesn't make them High Def but it does make regular DVDs look better than they normally would.

But the catch is that this upconversion process will usually only occur if you connect your DVD player or Blu-ray player to your TV via an HDMI cable. Nearly all Blu-ray players and upconverting DVD players limit the output for standard DVDs at 480i or 480p resolution when connected using component video, which means the TV itself does the upconversion from 480i or 480p to the native resolution of the display. If your TV has a good video processor inside it, then DVDs will look great whether they're connected via HDMI or component video.

So *IF* you have a really high quality upconverting DVD player or a Blu-ray player, then HDMI can give you a better picture for standard DVDs than you will get via component video. If you have an older DVD player or a fairly inexpensive upcconverting DVD player, then it's unlikely you'll see a big difference in the picture quality of HDMI vs. component video. Again, there are some advantages to be gained by keeping the signal in the digital domain all the way from the source to the display but these are more apparent on higher quality sources like Blu-ray Disc.

But it's easy enough to buy a few HDMI cables and experiment for yourself. Don't get caught up in the hype that you need to spend $100 or more on an HDMI cable. We use these ones from Cables to Go ($11 each on Amazon) and have found they hold up well.

One thing to keep in mind, though - because your HTiB doesn't decode audio over HDMI, you will still need a separate (digital) audio connection between your cable box and the HTiB system and between your DVD player and the HTiB system. Some higher end surround sound receivers support both audio and video over HDMI and this makes life much simpler as you only need a single HDMI cable for each component.

Anyway... wait for the fiber optic cables to show up and settle the sound problem first. After that, if you want to experiment with HDMI to see if you get a better picture, then certainly give it a shot.

-CB

[traveler582]

Chris-
I don't get it! I'm trying to plug in the fiber optic cable and it just won't 'snap' in, or pop in, almost as if it's not completely in....
. I'm almost wondering if that little 'trap' door that swings in to allow the plug in is blocking it or something? I was gonna try to pry off the door, but that doesn't look like a good idea.
I don't want to force it, but I can see at certain times ALL five speaker lights light up!!! so I know it works!!! but it keeps poping out. Like it's not properly seated. I bought two cables and neither one snaps in completely. And it's the same with the plug 'inlets' on both the cable box and HTiB receiver.
Isn't it one size plug?

HELP!

Thanks

[MrBoylan]

Chris-
I don't get it! I'm trying to plug in the fiber optic cable and it just won't 'snap' in, or pop in, almost as if it's not completely in....
. I'm almost wondering if that little 'trap' door that swings in to allow the plug in is blocking it or something? I was gonna try to pry off the door, but that doesn't look like a good idea.
I don't want to force it, but I can see at certain times ALL five speaker lights light up!!! so I know it works!!! but it keeps poping out. Like it's not properly seated. I bought two cables and neither one snaps in completely. And it's the same with the plug 'inlets' on both the cable box and HTiB receiver.
Isn't it one size plug?

HELP!

Thanks

Toslink is only one size but it only fits in one way. The shape is not exactly square but has a ridge that only allows it to be plugged in right side up. Make 100% sure you are trying to put the cable in the right way. Rotate it if you have to. You should not have to pry open anything. Unless the toslink jack has been damaged somehow, it should snap in if you put it in the right way.

-CB