said by bruin23: I've read some things online that says that HDTVs will only pass through Dolby 5.1 through Optical/Toslink and not through Coaxial. Is that true or will either work?
Actually neither will work to pass through 5.1. There is no such thing as digital audio pass through. You can thank the DMCA for this. (Digital Millenium Copyright Act)
The only 5.1 that will come out of the TV is that which originates within the TV's own tuner. All other audio is passed through as 2 channel stereo. So what this means is audio that comes in to the TV over HDMI as 5.1 will be reduced to 2 channel as it comes out the optical output.
In order to get 5.1 sound you will need to connect the audio of your external sources directly to the A/V reciever. You will need to connect the two external devices that you are planning to use like this:
For each device you will need to connect it to the TV via HDMI for the video and then also connect each device directly to your A/V reciever via optical (or coaxial) for the 5.1 audio. Then in order to watch and listen to either device you would select the appropriate HDMI input on you TV and then the corresponding input on your A/V receiver. For example, if you connected the Bluray to the TV using connection HDMI 1 and also connected the bluray to the A/V receiver on the connection labeled "DVD", then those would be the two selections you would need to make in order to watch the video and hear the audio.
As a sub note to all this, if you are planning to use a bluray player and want to listen to the HD soundtracks (Dolby TrueHD or DTS master audio) that are on the bluray discs then even this method will not work for you as the optical connection does not carry the HD soundtracks but rather is limited to the compressed digital 5.1 sound much like what is encoded on traditional DVD's.
I know for myself the HD soundtrack is perhaps the most important aspect of the bluray format. It carries a lossless type format soundtrack that traditional dolby digital is unable to replicate.
In order to get the HD soundtracks there are only really two methods.
First will require an A/V receiver that is HDMI equipped and capale of decoding the HD soudtracks. Ideally you would probably want a unit with three HDMI inputs and the single HDMI output. In this scenario you will connect all your HDMI devices such as bluray player, HD cable box, gameconsole etc. to the A/V reciever using HDMI cables. Then you will connect the A/V units HDMI output to your TV with another HDMI cable. This way the A/V unit acts as the "hub" of the system and recieves all the signals from the various devices. It then can decode and play the soundtracks and then "pass through" the video signal on tho the TV.
The second method is less common but no less effective for bluray playback. This method can be done without an HDMI A/V reciever.
In this scenario you will need a bluray player that has multichannal audio outputs and a receiver that of course has multichannel audio inputs. Many bluray players do not have these connections and are being phased out.
With this setup the bluray player has the proper HD sound decoders built in and performs the digital to audio conversion. It then outputs the 5.1 (or7.1) sound via the multichannel outputs ready for amplification via a receiver that has the multichannel inputs.
