I received my 1070 a few weeks ago. I'm still tweaking a few things here and there, but was surprised when I watched the HDTV version of the Sopranos on HBO last night. It's broadcast in Dolby Digital 5.1, but the 1070 only picked up a 2.1 signal, which left the surrounds cold and unused.

I have the 1070 connected to my Comcast HD box via an optical cable, so I don't think that's an issue. I could hear the show just fine through my left, center and right front speakers, but nothing at all from the surrounds.

I went back later and confirmed via the internal test tones that my surround speakers are connected and working properly and double-checked them with a test DVD. No problems with DVD, just with HD CATV.

Any suggestions? I checked the cable box user settings menu under Audio Settings. I can select mono, stereo or matrix. I tried all three and didn't notice any difference at all (even, surprisingly, between mono and stereo).

[Side note: The front panel of the 1070 briefly showed "3/2.1" where the volume level is usually displayed, underneath "Dolby Dig." I suppose this is where the 1070 shows what kind of signal it is receiving. What does the "3" mean? And how do I get that display back after the volume level reappears?]

It sounds like your unit is set up and operating properly. If the 1070 reported a Dolby Digital 3/2.1 signal, that means it was seeing a 5.1 input: "3" being the front three channels, "2" being the two surrounds, and ".1" being the LFE. A Dolby 2.0 signal would be listed as 2/0.0.

It sounds to me like either a weak surround mix (not familiar with Sopranos to know what sort if mix it usually offers) or a screw up at the local cable company. I've had the local network affiliates screw up 5.1 soundtracks before (the worst case being when they took a 5.1 signal and made it 2.0 by throwing away everything except the left and right channels, leaving the resulting signal devoid of dialogue).

Apparently the brodcast is in Dolby Digital 2.0 and the 1070 is recieving as it is. Quite a few movies shown on the cable networks are brodcasted in this digital format. That's more important than anything. The only other option is switching to Pro Logic. There's more info on LucasFilm's website. I wont take the time to list the link. Sorry.

Dolby Digital 2.0 is common on many HD cable broadcasts (I see it all the time) and I initially suspected that 23V was running into that, but in this case I think he really is getting a 5.1 track because he said the 1070 reported getting a 5.1 signal (the "Dolby Dig 3/2.1" bit).

I just purchased my 1070 2 weeks ago and I watched The Soprano's in HD in 5.1 surround. I also have DirecTV for my provider, that may be the difference.

How active were the surrounds, SRX98?

If you're running one of the comcast motorola boxes, I think I know what's going on. There's a bug in those boxes where it gets stuck on 2 channel when you watch 2 channel programming, and won't switch over automatically for 5.1 content. Try cycling the power once the opening credits start rolling, that fixes it for me.

This kind of crap happens with the Moto DVR HD boxes a lot when recording, and it's a big pain in the @ss. Motorola has yet to fix it, AFAIK. Hope the suggestion works for you, let us know.

Gonk:

Everything worked very well..

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and help. I'm not 100% sure what the problem was, but I think everything is working now.

I cycled the power on the Motorola cable box as sluggo suggested and triple-checked all of my settings on the 1070 and the cable box. Thanks gonk for letting me know that 3/2.1 indicates a 5.1 signal. (I expected to see "5.1" on the display.)

I tested the system today with a HD movie on HBO as well as the Cubs game on WGN-HD. Both were broadcast with DD 5.1 audio track and both were correctly routed through all five speakers plus the sub.

I'll have to wait until Sunday to see if everything works for The Sopranos, but for now, things look -- and sound -- good.