Hi Wegiz,

You are not alone in getting "your brain wrapped around always having the receiver on." I also find having full Dolby Digital 5.1 surround operating to watch a newscast or simple talk show overkill, so I use the analog stereo outputs from my cable box directly to the stereo analog audio inputs of my Samsung DLP.

Of course it also depends on whether your TV's internal speakers are adequate or not. Many are truly terrible, but some DLP rear-projection sets have rather large chassis and enough room for OK speakers. That's the case for my own DLP. Do I need to hear Charlie Gibson in 5.1 if I watch the evening newscast? No.

Keep in mind that some HD cable boxes won't let you simultaneously run the HDMI output and analog video outputs such as component video.

Regards,
Alan

Alan Lofft,
Axiom Resident Expert (Retired)