short Version : never really get 5.1 surround work . I spend way too much time fiddle with this as it be . longer Version : I purchase this with the hope of get a easy , affordable surround sound system into my house . I do not like a\/v system and I just want something easy and decent . after bring it home , and hook it up to my system , I come to find out that I can not get surround sound from the xbox or my BluRay player . therefore , I will be return this over the weekend . I have both the BluRay player and xbox go into my Vizio tv via HDMI . I have a optical audio cable from the tv to this soundbar . however , while I can hear 2.1 sound easily , I can not get the soundbar to acknowledge the 5.1 sound stream . I have play with the setting of all of my device . this be a no go . who know what the problem be -lrb- maybe it be I -rrb- but it should not be this hard . UPDATE : turn out I can get Dolby Digital to work , but not dt . remember , the intent of this soundbar be to route all sound through the tv and then out to the soundbar . my tv , a Vizio VL420M , be not capable of carry the dt signal from my BluRay to the soundbar . if I plug the BluRay player directly into the soundbar -lrb- via optical -rrb- then I hear dt 5.1 not sure who to `` blame '' here , but the current setup be not compatible .