How to get surround sound?

[Lost in Tech]

Thanks to these forums, I figured out how to connect my MBP to my HDTV and get both audio and video. It took me at least 10 hours to read all the posts and figure out which cables and adapters to get and then connect the whole thing, but I did it!!

Now that I have it connected, I realized that I cant get surround sound by just connecting the MBP to the HDTV...I now realize that I have to some how run this connection thru the receiver and I have no clue how to do this...

My receiver is relatively new and it has lots of things on the back of it that I don't know how to use.

Can someone tell me what cable I need to run from the MBP to the receiver and then where I need to plug it into on the back of the receiver? And then do I have to run something from the receiver to the TV? If so, what cable do I need?

My main reason for connecting the MBP to the TV is that I want to watch Netflix on demand, but I would like it to be in surround sound thru my speakers that are attached to the receiver rather than thru the TV speakers which aren't that good.

Any help is greatly appreciated.....

 

[Matt-Man-Plus]

You need this cable
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10229&cs_id=1022902&p_id=1557&seq=1&format=2

Plug one end into the headphone jack on the MBP and the other end to an "optical-in" jack on your receiver.

 

[Cave Man]

My receiver is relatively new and it has lots of things on the back of it that I don't know how to use.

What is the make and model of your receiver. Does it have digital optical input?

 

[waw74]

One thing to note, netflix only streams in stereo. So any surround you get will be generated by your receiver.

 

[the-oz-man]

One thing to note, netflix only streams in stereo. So any surround you get will be generated by your receiver.

Actually Netflix will stream in 5.1 but you have to have a constant download speed of greater than 5mbs

 

[waw74]

Actually Netflix will stream in 5.1 but you have to have a constant download speed of greater than 5mbs

*apparently only if you have a PS3 or Xbox, and available later this year.
from looking it appears that silverlight (the microsoft streaming format netflix uses) doesn't support 5.1 - Link

Multichannel (5.1 and 7.1 surround) audio content is automatically mixed down to stereo.

source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc189080(VS.95).aspx

I also stream netflix using a LG bluray player, and i've never seen my receiver get anything but stereo. even though it is an HD stream.