Need Help on Best Audio Setup for Time Warner Cable with Yamaha AVR

[jonny42]

I was trying to get the best, most correct setup with my Yamaha RX V471 and my Time Warner Cable HD Box. Is it best to use the optical audio cable for audio and HDMI for video? If I do that, I have the option for PCM and Dolby Digital, but "straight" says it's only coming through as stereo for both. I can use surround decode to put it in 5.1, but I feel this isn't true 5.1 surround. Is it because it's most likely compressed audio?

If I stick with HDMI for audio and video, then I don't have the option for PCM and Dolby Digital. The signal still only registers as 2 channels, but is decoding to full surround.

Basically, just need to figure out what is the best, correct way to setup my cable box with my receiver. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[jonny42]

Also, just noticed this, but I was testing this on and on demand video (specifically Fear the Walking Dead), and it looks like that might have not been 5.1 anyways. Just went back to live tv, specifically NFL Network, and "straight" is saying 5.1, all channels. But still, wondering what setup is best.

 

[highfigh]

Are you connecting the cable box to the AVR's HDMI input? Do that. Set the HDMI input to AUTO, to decode audio. If the program is surround, you'll hear it as that- you'll need to do all of the setup for the AVR to get the best performance.