HDMI hookup for surround sound from cable

[Moviewatcher4]

My neighbor and I are hooking up his new HDMI compatible Panasonic Plasma HDTV (TH-37PX60U) and Home Theater system (SC-HT740). We can get everything to work, but we don't see any way to get full surround sound on cable movies. The home theater unit has no coax or optical inputs: just RCA left and right jacks, and an HDMI jack labeled "output." Am I correct that we can't get surround sound through the RCA left and right jacks? The Panasonic help line says we will, but everything I've read on this says we need a digital input. The TV has two HDMI jacks. We used one to run to the cable box, of course. We tried using the other to connect to the sound unit, but nothing seems to happen. We can keep trying, but if the jack on the sound system is correctly labeled "output," it seems pointless. Unless it's bidirectional? But then why would they label it "output?" At least to me, the manuals are incomprehensible. I can't believe Panasonic would build their units so that they aren't compatible with each other, with no way to get surround sound from the cable box.

 

[JaceTheAce]

You can get surround sound through stereo RCA hookups (left/right channels only) but you will be limited to Dolby Prologic I - the very basic surround sound decoding that was "it" in the 90's. Your rear channels will be mono, not stereo.

 

[tedmjr2]

No 5.1 for TV

Since the SC-HT740 doesn't have a digital input, you cannot have a discrete 5.1 output to your speakers from an external source. Your best situation is what the previous post mentioned, only Dolby ProLogic for TV broadcasts can be delivered by your system.

 

[Moviewatcher4]

Thanks--I believe I understand

Thanks, JaceTheAce and Tedmir2--I finally understand this. It's apparent that my neighbor's best solution is to exchange this system for one that accepts digital inputs to decode Dolby Digital 5.1. I find it odd that this rather expensive system wasn't designed to do it.