Samsung FP-T5084, XBox HDMI, and 5.1 sound

[shokk]

I've had my Samsung FP-T5084 hooked up with digital audio out and component video since just after Christmas (ordered from Amazon) and it looks fantastic at 1080i from the XBox 360 for DVDs and games. Now, I wanted to take the next step up in HD, so I got an HDMI cable and hooked it up tonight. To my horror, the set is not redirecting the audio to the 5.1. I just saw this on the Amazon forums and nowhere else:

"The set does not pass 5.1 audio (only stereo) back out of it's optical link when it is receiving HDMI so plan your sound system setup accordingly."

WTF?!?! I paid $1980 for this set and now that the return window has passed, I find out that it's crippled. Someone tell me that I'm just being a bonehead and have something misconfigured somewhere. Tell me your set works OK in the above setup. I've been planning on getting digital cable for the beautiful HD picture and 5.1 sound, but now I'm thinking it's not all going to be high quality. Holy crap, am I steamed.

 

[shokk]

Hate to reply to myself, but this was fixed by taking a dremel to the XBox AV connector to allow it to fit next to the HDMI cable. HDMI is used for video to my TV and the optical jack goes to my receiver. Hopefully future things like an HD cable box or HD Tivo wil lbe as flexible.

 

[solomr2]

I'm not following this, but I have the same TV, with an XBOX 360 Elite, going through my Denon 3808. My Xbox and my TV are both connected to the Denon with HDMI.

I am outputting in auto, so it handles all resolutions (many XBOX games - like Gears of War - output 1080p). I get 5.1 signals no problem, although ironically not all XBOX games output a 5.1 signal. The Denon display tells me exactly what my source and output signals are, so it is very easy to see whether I'm experiencing true 5.1 processing.

The one thing that sucks is the Denon and the XBox have some handshake issues on HDMI, so you get some annoying flickering here and there.