Reconnect all the speakers to their respective outputs.
Check you have full dolby surround sound selected in the TV menu for sound options. As most TV's will also have other options such as Centre Channel + Front Right & Left only, (for users who don't want to run it with rear cables.)
All equipment with dolby surround decoders have a built in Test Tone somewhere within the set-up options. It is important as this signal is guaranteed to properly test the whole sound system as it is dolby encoded and passes through the entire audio process, decoding and amplification.
Locate and turn on the Test tone. The tone (which sounds like a hissing noise), will cycle through each speaker output.
If you don't hear the test tone, the TV surround amplifier is possibly faulty. If you do hear it through each speaker your system is definately working ok. In which case, if there is no surround sound on certain programs or external inputs (eg. DVD), it will be because the program or sound track is not dolby encoded.
(PS. Don't connect more than one speaker to any single output as you could damage your TV sound amplifiers).
Cobweb
December 2004
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