No surround sound from ATV when playing music

[badlydrawnboy]

I have an ATV hooked up to a Yamaha receiver and LG LCD. When I play a TV show or movie, all five speakers + the subwoofer are engaged. But when I play music, it only comes out of the center speaker - not the front or rear speakers or subwoofer.

Any idea why this is happening and what I can do about it?

 

[steve-p]

I have an ATV hooked up to a Yamaha receiver and LG LCD. When I play a TV show or movie, all five speakers + the subwoofer are engaged. But when I play music, it only comes out of the center speaker - not the front or rear speakers or subwoofer.

Any idea why this is happening and what I can do about it?

Maybe down to a setting on the receiver. Typically the receiver will choose an output mode for a given input signal type. If you change it, it will remember that for next time. Movies and TV shows are usually DD5.1 or PLII so all speakers will be active, but perhaps when it gets a 2.0 channel source your receiver is set to output in some particular mode. My AVR for example allows various options with 2.0 sound including fake 5.1, stereo using left and right speakers, stereo using left, right, centre and sub, mono using front 3 speakers plus sub, mono using centre channel only, etc.

 

[badlydrawnboy]

Here's another piece of the puzzle in case it helps: the problem I described only happens when I'm trying to play music with the TV off. When I turn the TV back on, no surround sound. Sometimes I like to listen to music without the screensaver/CD art on the screen.