This may be the wrong place to ask, but I know you guys are experts and I figure you would know. I have a Sony LCD 32' Bravia with a Sony 5.1 Surround Sound System. The problem is that there is only one Digital Optical port in the receiver. It works perfect when hooked straight into the PS3 or 360 (I use the Halo 3 LE Bonus Disc to calibrate), yet, it will not work on my TV using regular RCA cables (Red and Whites). This is because this mode will only work when Optical is unplugged. At my work (Best Buy) I was told to using the Optical through the TV to the receiver. At first, this seemed to work ok, but when I ran the Halo 3 LE Bonus Disc again, the 5 speakers seemed static-y, plus the effect of the Subwoofer was non-existent. What gives? Do I have any other options? Thanks
I'm not quite sure what you are trying to do with the stereo (red/white) cables. If you are trying to feed sound from the receiver to play on the TV's speakers through the stereo cables, most receivers will only be able to passthrough the same signal that they receive. In other words, if you have your systems plugged in to the receiver via an optical connection, then the receiver could only passthrough an optical signal. It would have to process and downmix the optical 5.1 to a two channel (four with Pro Logic II) signal to go over the stereo cables. If you are passing the optical through the TV's optical passthrough to the receiver, but also connecting a stereo cable from the TV's output to the receiver, you could be getting some interference if your receiver is trying to process both signals simultaneously. If the problem is that you are trying to hook up the TV's stereo output to the receiver and the systems' optical output to the receiver at the same time (so that you can go back and forth between games and TV without rewiring), then it all depends on the capabilities of your receiver. A lot of receivers have different modes (TV/DVD/5.1/SAT/etc.) that you can map the inputs to so that you can do different things. If it thinks that both of the inputs are in the same mode, then it will probably always try to use the optical.
Shoot me if I am missing something....can`t you just swap over the optical cable from the ps3/360 when you are using one or the other I do as not often one is used straight after the other.....so don`t need to move it that often I know a freind did get an optical splitter from somewhere but wasn`t up to much
