A crap load of TV's decode Dolby Digital and a lot more can pass it through to an AV receiver.
HDCP digital rights prevents it. In most instances TVs can only pass DD from their ATSC tuners, not as passthrough from another HDMI device.
My LG 47" lcd passes 5.1 through just fine.
So if I rent and HD movie w/ 5.1 DD, and I have my AppleTV hooked up to the tv via HDMI will I get sound out of my TV?
So if I rent and HD movie w/ 5.1 DD, and I have my AppleTV hooked up to the tv via HDMI will I get sound out of my TV?
Now how about the 5.1 files created with VisualHub? I think they only contain one track right? So if I play one of those through my TV w/ HDMI I will get no sound then? Or will it downconvert the audio to 2.1?
I think VH only puts in the AC3 track. If this is the case, and your TV does not have Dolby Digital decoder you will get static. This is what happens with my Samsung LCD TV. It has no DD decoder and when there's only one audio track (AC3) I get static on my TV's speakers.
My understanding is that VH does one or the other, but not both.