In reply to:
One thing that is puzzling to me is that when I set my cable box to output Dolby Digital sound and then set my reciever to stereo mode, I get a signal sent to my subwoofer. BUT, if I set my cable box to HDMI or 2 channel only sound I get no signal sent to my subwoofer. Not sure whats going on with that?
Just ask yourself - where does the sub source come from... and where is it sent? All about sources and destinations.
For sources, there may or may not be a discrete LFE channel. Stereo sources (CD, most TV channels) don't have them... even if you have your cable box set to DD, sometimes that's Dolby Digital 2.0 (digital, but 2 channel).
And then, what does the receiver do? If it gets a "dot 0" source, it can use an internal crossover to send the low bass to the sub, or just send full range to the mains. If it does receive an LFE channel, it can choose to play it out through the appropriate speaker (the subwoofer) or to reroute it to the mains.
Names of settings and DSP modes change from manufacturer to manufacturer, so there's no clear cut answer.
Bren R.
