Apple TV sounds options with optical

slidelewy said:

I have a 5.1 home cinema system with optical input and of course apple tv has optical input, do I just connect an optical lead from apple tv to the system, and then an hdmi cable to the hdtv to get sound on it?

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The AppleTV does not have an optical input, it does have an optical output though.

The ideal setup is probably to have a receiver with HDMI. You'd run HDMI for audio and video to the receiver, then run HDMI to your TV.

If your receiver doesn't handle HMDI, then you'd want to do what you've suggested and run the optical out from the AppleTV to your receiver. You can then run HDMI (or component outputs) from the AppleTV to the TV.

the setup

I have a 5.1 receiver with optical input but no HDMI pass through.

I have the Apple TV connected directly to my HDTV via HDMI for video, and optical audio cable from my Apple TV directly to the receiver. I have the speakers on my TV turned off, and play audio only through my stereo system. This setup works great.

slidelewy said:

Sorry thats what I meant, basically what cables equipment do I need for surround sound for this.

Thanks in advance

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For best results, you'll want a good HDMI cable for video connected to your TV and a good Optical audio cable connected to your A/V receiver for surround sound. If you don't already have the cables (or even if you already do) I suggest cables from monoprice.com.

This is the same kind of setup I have. I just leave the volume on my TV turned off and listen to all audio through my A/V receiver.

Regards,
Michael

Since others have given confusing answers about using HDMI pass-through, I'll give you a straight answer: it'll work perfectly, and give you clearer audio than by analogue cables, while giving you 5.1 surround sound.

Kilamite said:

Since others have given confusing answers about using HDMI pass-through, I'll give you a straight answer: it'll work perfectly, and give you clearer audio than by analogue cables, while giving you 5.1 surround sound.

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The answers didn't seem confusing to me. OP wants to use an optical cable. Not much point in using HDMI cable to passthrough AC-3 to a TV (unless the TV does AC-3 decoding). He doesn't mention that his receiver takes HDMI, thus optical between the ATV and receiver are his best bet.

Kilamite said:

Since others have given confusing answers about using HDMI pass-through, I'll give you a straight answer: it'll work perfectly, and give you clearer audio than by analogue cables, while giving you 5.1 surround sound.

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Read his question and you can see thats not what he was asking. Seems like you are the one confused there my man.