Is there something special about the hdmi port your computer is plugged into? Can your theater system handle input from 3 sources? Is it setup too? Any other connection from the computer to the theater system or directly to the computer?

 

Is there something special about the hdmi port your computer is plugged into?

No. There are three HDMI inputs on the back of the surround system. The satellite box connect to the Satellite HDMI port, the computer is connected to an HDMI port labeled "DVD", and the PS3 is plugged into the Blu Ray HDMI port. I've tried swapping inputs (running the PS3 into the satellite input, the computer into the Blu Ray input, etc). Everything works just the same, regardless- the PS3 and Satellite deliver 5 channel surround, the computer gets played through the TV

Can your theater system handle input from 3 sources? Is it setup too?

Yes, and yes. The three inputs get routed through the surround system and deliver their video output through an HDMI cable to the TV and their sound output through the aformentioned six speakers connected to the system. Except that for some reason the computer's sound output gets routed to the TV.

Any other connection from the computer to the theater system or directly to the computer?

Nope. Computer > surround system (via HDMI cable) > TV (again via HDMI cable). Which is why this is so puzzling. What is it about the sound output from the computer that the surround system interprets it as being so low-quality that it routes it to the TV?

 

Your TV/monitor should have an optical audio out, and your HT system an optical in. Just connect those two with an optical cable, set your HT to "Digital In," or something like that and BOOM! you're done (just turn the volume down on the TV/monitor).

 

Your TV/monitor should have an optical audio out, and your HT system an optical in. Just connect those two with an optical cable, set your HT to "Digital In," or something like that and BOOM! you're done (just turn the volume down on the TV/monitor).

Wouldn't that be for using the TV as a receiver and playing the audio through the surround? I use the satellite system for my receiver and send the signal from that to the HT system, which in turn splits it into a video output (sent to the TV via HDMI cable) and audio output (which is sent to the surround speakers).

The only thing I want to use the TV for is for video display.

 

Check and see if there is a setup option that allows you to turn off the audio follows video-in effect, you TV is doing the audio switching for you and sending audio to the monitor. That happened to me until I turned it off for my surround stereo feed.

 

Check and see if there is a setup option that allows you to turn off the audio follows video-in effect, you TV is doing the audio switching for you and sending audio to the monitor. That happened to me until I turned it off for my surround stereo feed.

If that was the case, wouldn't the satellite input (a composite audio/video signal that enters the HT system via an HDMI cable) also play the sound through the TV speakers, instead of the HT speakers?

 

I use optical out to my amplified system. On the computer, I go into my sound program and select DTS bitstreaming. My receiver detects the bitstream and turns on the appropriate speaker channels for passthrough (no sense in decoding twice).

The HDMI port on your discrete video gaphics acceleration card (I am guessing this is what you have, unless you have an H61 or H67 chipset and are relying on the Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge's integrated GPU...etc), may have a 2 or 3 pin connection that you can route to your motherboard, if it also has a secondary"spdif pin out" to enable bitstreaming through the HDMI cable.

Your computer may be plugged into a passthrough port on the receiver or configured for passthough and the computer without an DX OpenAL would use PCM decoding, instead of ffdshow, AVX, ACM or DTS etc.