H21/200 Dolby Digital has dropped out on receiver, no more 5.1 audio on new Samsung TV&Digital Home Theatre

I thought Direct TV would broadcast stereo to the TV via HDMI cable

I then fed the digital optical out of the satellite receiver to the digital optical input on the home theatre receiver.

The TV and the Home theatre both say they are getting PCM not Dolby digital from the satellite reciever.  The way I had it connected worked up to two weeks ago for over 1 month but less than 2.

I will try your recommendation to connect the HDMI out of the Directv receiver into the home theatre, then from home theatre out to the TV to see if that remedys my situation.  I will post back here if it does.  Thanks.

marjala

If you home theater receiver is like mine, it will take the proper settings in order for the HDMI connection to work properly so read the manual and be methodical.

Ok, I have swapped out HDMI cords and have now added a rabbit ear antenna to the TV to see if my known High Def local channels would be broadasting in Dolby Digital.  I can get true surround sound audio thru my home theatre receiver and my TV when using the rabbit ears but only get PCM signal from HD Direct TV receiver.  I truly do believe something is wrong with the HD receiver audio output and will be contacting DirecTV to inform them of a rabbit ear antenna being able to deliver a Dolby Digitial signal.  Thanks all.

Suit yourself, but I'd gamble that you're wrong.  I've probably did troubleshooting on several hundred Dolby questions and I can't actually recall a HD receiver or DVR that had a faulty output.  Now, sometimes you get a bum box, but they will have lots of problems.  Almost all the time the problem was with some setting in the AVR.  I covered some of this in my first post but you seem to have blown past that.

I'll leave it there, good luck.

You can gamble all you want but if I am able to get surround sound and Dolby Digital thru rabbit ears from local tv stations but no Dolby Digital from the outputs of Direct TV via HDMI to the TV and then digital optical from TV to back of A/V receiver,  I truly believe the problem is the satellite receiver.  I have Dolby Digital and surround sound from the rabbit ears antenna and the DVD.  The rabbit ears are connected to the back of the TV and is passing the digital optical signal thru to the home theatre receiver.  I had Dolby Digital originally when this system was set up at the end of August on for Direct TV.    I have had a HD DVR set up for over 2 years with fantastic audio and video in a different room of my home with a different a/v receiver and a different TV.  I am amazed you don't think a Direct TV receiver can fail?

forgot to ask what exactly is PCM audio?  That is the only highlighted audio I can select while I Direct TV on.  I can not move the cursor to select Dolby Digital on the TV set up menu or the Home Theatre set up menu.

I have just noticed that you are passing the signal from the TV to the AVR. Virtually NO TVs will pass Dolby Digital 5.1 from their audio out port if the signal came in from an outside source (like the DirecTV box). I, they only pass it as PCM stereo. Signals received off-air through an antenna will pass DD 5.1 OK. If you want to get DD 5.1 from DirecTV, you MUST connect the DirecTV receiver to the AVR, via optical/digital audio, or via HDMI if your AVR will "intercept" audio while passing through to the TV (some won't). 

This is nothing to do with the DirecTV box, it is a limitation of the TV - I can only think of a couple that will pass DD 5.1 from their HDMI input. 

If you read the user manual for the TV you will find this "buried" somewhere in the fine print.

Hi,

I have connected the Digital Optical out from the Direct TV directly to the Home Theatre digital in with no difference for the Direct TV audio signal with no diffeerence in audio selection available only PCM no Dolby Digital. The home theatre has one HDMI out only.  I can try to connect the HD Direct TV to the Home theatre using component cables instead of HDMI to the TV.  I thought HDMI was the best connection for both HD video quality and digital audio.  If connecting via component cables gives me a selectable Dolby Digital audio setting for the Satellitle source than I will be pleased.  If  not and if the video quality looks worse I guess I will have to choose what I really want great video or great audio.  My older A/V receiver has 4 HDMI inputs and one HDMI output.  I have been pleased with the a/v quality feeding to an older LCD big screen on  that setup..  Thanks will try the component cables and post what I see. And ok the website specs for the HD receivers state Dolby Digital audio so the fine print stuff is annoying to hear about at this point. 

I'm talking about the fine print for your TV, nothing to do with the DirecTV box.

The DirecTv box outputs Dolby Digital when there is a DD5.1 signal coming from the station, and PCM when it's only PCM.  You should connect the DirecTv box to the TV (not the the A/V recorder) using HDMI. You can use component video if you want (and the picture quality will be the same) but there's no point, just use HDMI.  Make sure the DirecTV box is set to output Dolby Digital. Then connect the DirecTV box to the A/V receiver using an optical audio cable (this carries the same audio as HDMI). . Set the AVR input that is connected to the DirecTv box to "auto detect" or something similar. Then when the DirecTv box is sending DD5.1, that's what you will get, surround sound. When the DirecTV channel is only delivering PCM, your A/V receiver will create "pseudo" surround sound (Dolby ProLogic or something similar). You do NOT need to change any settings, your A/V receiver should automatically detect the different types of signal.

Boy, I'm glad you posted back.

I missed the part about the "digital optical from TV to back of A/V receiver" and I apologize if it was in your prior posts.  This is your entire problem.  Let me explain.  The TV receiver is capable of receiving an off air signal, displaying the video (obviously) and splitting out the full video signal from the off air signal and sending it to the the digital audio out port.  This is why you are getting Dolby from the rabbit ears.

However, the TV, when fed a Directv signal, is not using it's receiver, it's basically just a monitor, and it lacks the capability of sending a full audio signal to its digital out port.  That port is simply not designed to be used with a Directv signal, as you've discovered as well.  If you take that optical cable from the TV and attach it to the digital audio port of the Direct receiver, you'll find that all of the info that I posted previously will become true.

Give it a try and let us know.  By the way, we've seen this very situation dozens of times and I should have queried you on this earlier.  However, alls well that ends well, hopefully anyway.

Dear DCD,

Thanks will keep trying and posting.  Still amazes me that rabbit ears generates the DD signal .  Take care, M

Rabbit ears work because the TV is using its internal off-air tuner to receive the channel and sending that channels DD5.1 audio to your AV Receiver.  But most TVs CANNOT pass DD5.1 audio from an external device, like your DirecTV Receiver, from the TV INPUT back out to your AV Receiver. That's why you must connect the Receiver's digital audio directly to your AV Receiver, not through the TV. 

I'm fearful that you dismissed my last post.  Your entire problem can be corrected by moving one connection.