Expert: Wayne Tapia - 4/29/2009

Question
I just purchased a Samsung BD-P3600 Blu-ray player and need to know what audio connections would give me the best sound on my five-speaker Yamaha RX-V363 receiver. My Yamaha has Digital Dolby and DTS Digital Surround decoders. For input, it has a Digital Optical port and  multi-channel 5.1 analog audio. The Blu-ray supports the latest HD audio coding and has both Digital Optical out and analog 7.1 out.

Is there any way I can pass the HD sounds from the Blu-ray player thru to my Yamaha receiver?
Since the Blu-ray supports the new HD audio standards, I was wondering if the multi-channel analog output would give me the Dolby HD sound that I could pass thru my receiver if I used the multi-channel input slots. Someone told me that I couldn't use the Digital Optical connection to do that.

So my questions are:
- Is there any way to get HD audio through my Yamaha receiver? If so, what connections should I use.
- If I cant get the HD audio, Should I use a single Digital Optical cable or use the 5 channel analog connection?

Thanks  

Answer
Use the optical connection. You'll get 5.1 surround. You'd need a 7.1 receiver to take full advantage of the BluRay.

The optical cable will carry whatever digital signal it is fed, whether it's 2 channel or 7 channel - the cable doesn't make any distinction between the two.

Some prefer to use the analog section - it's truly a matter of personal preference as to which "sounds better". Both would give you the 5.1 surround that your system allows.