Using optical audio for surround sound

Bub537

Estimable
Aug 28, 2015
4
0
4,510
I'm not the most tech-savvy and I had a question. So I just bought a new HD TV and it has three HDMI ports and all are in use. One for the cable box, one for the PS3, and one for the Blu-ray player/surround sound. I wanna use my surround sound for not only the Blu-ray player but for my cable and PS3 also. So in order to use my surround sound as the source of audio for everything wouldn't I just connect a digital optical audio cable from my surround sound to my TV itself? Then in theory wouldn't everything that's using the TV's built-audio (like the cable box and PS3) use the surround sound?
 

BuddhaSkoota

Estimable
Aug 16, 2014
60
0
4,610


Yes, most TVs will pass the audio signal from an external source through the optical audio output.

Depending on the TV, the audio out might only be stereo, even if the source is in a higher format. If this is important to you, you should check the specifications for your particular HDTV.

Just curious, are there no HDMI inputs on your surround sound system to connect your cable box and PS3? I would think a modern A/V system would have two or more HDMI inputs.
 

Bub537

Estimable
Aug 28, 2015
4
0
4,510


Well yeah there are two HDMI inputs on the surround sound but both the cable box and PS3 only have one HDMI port and both run to the TV for video.
 

BuddhaSkoota

Estimable
Aug 16, 2014
60
0
4,610


Do you mean two HDMI inputs, and one output connected to the TV?

If that's the case, then your PS3 and cable box would plug into the surround system, and only the surround system would be plugged in to the TV. That would be a standard connection method for an A/V system. The video would pass to the TV , and all audio would be played by the surround system. You would also hear the best audio with this configuration.

 

Bub537

Estimable
Aug 28, 2015
4
0
4,510


No I meant there's two HDMI in ports on the surround sound and three hdmi out ports on the TV and all are in use so I wouldn't be able to plug the PS3 and cable box to the surround sound because they need to be plugged into the TV in order to get the video.