Hello, I'm new here so please bear with me. My old Toshiba DLP finally lost it's light engine this past week so I'm planning on purchasing a Panasonic Viera TC-P54S1 54" Plasma TV next week. Upon further inspection the only audio output on the back is that of an optical digital audio output.
Previously with my old TV, I had RCA cables running from audio out into my receiver. As in, I had my gaming systems hooked up through a selector box, with the output of that running into my TV. I also have DirecTV HD going through HDMI, my PC going through HDMI and my PS3 going through HDMI. My receiver does have a digital audio input on the back but I've never really messed around with it much.
What my question essentially is, if I hook the TV's digital out to my receiver's digital in, will I be able to hear sounds from all the sources plugged into the TV (gaming system's through selector box, component connections and HDMI connections?) Thanks in advance for any help or advice that is given.
Long answer: your connection method may not be the best but if you are switching all of the components with the TV and a switch box (as opposed to using the receiver) then an optical should work.
Ideally you would have an audio receiver capable of switching all of your HDMI devices. Assuming that your receiver does not have this capability your method using an optical cable will have better audio than you did before.
