I'm sure this has been asked before but I am curious if it's possible for me to get surround sound from a Hughes DirecTv satellite receiver that is plugged into a Sony receiver. The Hughes receiver has only 2 audio outputs. One for left sound and one for right sound. It would be nice to listen to more than DVDs in surround if the station is broadcasting in that format. Anyone have any suggestions?
If your current satellite box has only 2 outputs, RED/WHITE, you will not get "true" surround sound with the reciever. The receiver will use a mode (like pro-logic) to simulate a surround environment. You need a box that has either an optical (toslink) output or a digital coax output (orange) to feed the receiver. Using either of these cables will result in true surround (probly Dolby Digital 5.1) if it is being broadcast.
Don't let cable/satellite commercials fool you. Only a VERY limited number of channels are boradcasted in true digital surround sound (usually higher end channels HBO,Cinemax, etc.)The rest are in PCM.
Sony receivers have a blue light on the front display that will light up when the receiver is decoding multi-channel surround.
I appreciate your input Michael. If I can't get "true" surround with only the red/while outputs, is there anyway I can get sound out of my front left/right, center, and rear left/right, and sub?
Yes, you can. As I said above, use either the optical or digital coax output of your satellite box and hook one into your receiver. If for some reason your box is lacking the outputs, a call to your satellite company should allow you to obtain a box that DOES have the required outputs. This will give you true digital surround sound as long as it is being broadcast in that formate (this is your best bet for quality).
If you wish to keep your current setup, you can set the receiver to use dolby pro-logic II, Neo 6, etc. These formats use mathematical algorithms that allow the receiver to take a 2 channel input and then output it to each speaker accordingly. This is a simulation of surround sound.
Feel free to reply or e-mail me if I can help you further.