I am having trouble getting 5.1 surround sound while watching TV. I have a Dish Network HD box, HD TV, and a non-HDMI receiver/DVD player. The surround sound works fine when using the DVD player. Do I need a receiver with a HDMI input to receive all 6 channels from the satellite feed?
If there is a way without a HDMI receiver, am I losing much sound quality?
There are several things to consider to solve this issue. First and foremost is the center channel working? The next is what type of programming are you watching when you say there is no surround sound? For example, if you are watching the news or other programming that is just speech the center channel works but there is no surround information so your equipment would be behaving correctly. The bottom line here is that a lot of TV programming does not have any surround information for your receiver to output.
If you are watching some action movie where surround information should definitely be there (and the center channel is not working) then a setting may be incorrect as in the TV source is set to stereo.
There are a lot of arguments over the best way to hook audio up between components but my take is that any of three digital connections (Toslink, digital coax, HDMI) are all the same and most would be hard pressed to hear a difference between digital and the analog red/white RCA connectors. In other words any way you have the Sat box hooked to the receiver should work just fine!
The center channel does not work when watching a Dolby Digital program on TV; only the front left and right work. I have the audio from the satellite box going directly to the receiver so I wouldn't think the problem is a setting on the TV. Do I need to run the audio from the satellite to the TV and then to the receiver? Thanks for your help.
No you are correct in taking the audio from the sat box so the issue is either a setting on the receiver or you have a bad cable. I am betting on a setting. What is the make and model of your receiver? If that isn't it what type of cable are you using to connect the sat box and the receiver?