Getting it Together

[Divemister]

With some help from Audioholics I managed to put together a system combining some quality speakers of yesteryear (2 front and 2 surround), a new plasma TV, a new AV surround receiver, a new Blu-ray player,a cable box/recorder, a new center speaker, and a sub-woofer. I managed to wire and place all the speakers properly, as well as connecting the components according to pictures and diagrams afforded by the manufacturers. (How clever I am!)
Briefly:
Cable from wall to hi-def cable box and recorder. (Signal is 1080i)
Box connected to plasma TV with ribbon of 5 RCA cables provided by cable company.
Blu-ray connected to plasma TV with HDMI cable. (1080p)
audio out from plasma TV is fiber optic to AV surround receiver.
AV surround receiver to all speakers.
Problem: Only the front speakers work as a stereo; the others are mute. (I'm not so clever any more. I'm reading manuals but tend to get lost in the language and vocabulary.
How can I kick this thing up a notch to the 5.1 configuration?
I only speak English, but found reading the back of the manual in French just about as easy
I suspect there is an switch on a menu somewhere, but I'll be darned if I can find it. Sure would like to find where that smelly rat is hiding. Thanks for putting up with my verbosity.

 

[Quickley17]

What Reciever and TV are you using?

The TV may have to be told to send the signal somewhere else. I know my TV has to be told that I am NOT sending it a sound signal for it to play nice.

Your reciever may also not be detecting the signal as 5.1, or it may need to be told that it should be detecting the signal.

Personally, I would set the whole thing up opposite the way you have it, and use only a monitor cable from your reciever to your tv instead of trying to send sound through your tv.

 

[Divemister]

Panasonic TC-54PS14 and a DenonAVR-1609.
Thanks, I was thinking of feeding the signal from the Hi-def cablebox and the Blu-ray into the tuner and then HDMI into the tv. Only down side is the tuner would have to be on every time I watch TV. Worth a shot though. Thanks.

 

[adwilk]

Theres a good chance that your TV doesn't pass through the digital information. Mine does not. I have to run separate audio signals from my DVD player (HDMI to tv and optical to receiver) to get the receiver to detect digital signals. I would run everything to your receiver first, and then to the tv, or just do both, sometimes I don't want the whole rig fired up.

 

[AVRat]

Unfortunately, the 1609 is weak in its capabilities. HDMI is audio pass through only, IOW the receiver doesn’t do anything with audio coming from the HDMI connection. Therefore, you’ll need digital coax/optical cables for each source to provide audio to the receiver.

The 1609 does not do Dolby True-HD or DTS-MA. If you want the new hi-def codecs from Blu-Ray, hopefully your player has multi-channel outputs because the 1609 does have the MC inputs and is the only way you’ll receive the high-def sounds.

As the others said, you can’t go through the TV for the 5.1 audio. To receive that signal, you need to use a digital coax/optical connection from the box to the receiver.

 

[KASR]

What model and brand is the Plasma? Might help us to look up the model and see what type of connections you're working with.