How To Connect Your Sky Box To Your Home Cinema System

One of the most common questions we get asked here at Home Cinema Buyer is how to connect your Sky box to your home cinema system so you can enjoy surround sound from all your favourite television programmes, movies and sports as well as from DVD’s.

The process is actually quite simple when you know how, but like a lot of things with technology it’s never quite as easy as it should be. To start with, you’ll have to do a little bit of research:

1. Find the connection option from your Sky box
   Modern Sky boxes come with a single HDMI socket which you will have used to connect it to your television, and earlier ones with a scart socket instead. So to get the audio to your system you will need to use either the red and white phono sockets (shown far right to the image below) or preferably with an optical cable (circled below) if it is available on your box. Use your manual or simply look around the back to see what you have.
2. See what spare inputs you have on your home cinema system
   If you have not connected anything to the system before, you will more than likely have an optical and/or red and white phono input spare. You may even have an HDMI input spare which would be great if Sky boxes came with more than one output – but they don’t so it’s of little use here. Either carefully look around the back of the system or use the instruction manual or quick start guide if you have it.
3. Then it’s a case of deciding how to connect the devices:
   • If you have an optical audio (Toslink) connection on both devices
     1. Using an optical cable is the best quality option and will transfer Dolby Digital sound. Optical cables are cheap but they rarely come supplied with home cinema systems or other devices, so unless you have one lying around you’ll need to order one (this one from Amazon is good).
     2. Remove the protective cap from each end of the cable, and the plug from the optical socket on each device and keep them safe. Then simply plug each end of the cable in.
     3. Then you’ll need to tell your Sky box to actually output a surround sound signal. To do this go to ‘Settings’ and then ‘Sound’ and change the ‘Stereo’ setting to ‘Dolby Digital’:
     4. To test, put on a programme or film you know is in surround sound (any programme marked with DD or DS next to it on the electronic programme guide).
     5. Finally, switch on your home cinema system on, and it may automatically detect the signal and switch to this input, or you may have to select the appropriate input using the remote – this is different on every model so check your manual if it is not obvious.
   • Connecting with stereo (RCA) phono connectors
     1. This is not the best option but it is the most accessible and easiest. You are very likely to have red and white phono cable knocking around and it is highly likely the your home cinema system will have these sockets. The only downside is that you won’t be able to transfer Dolby Digital digital sound.
     2. The process is the same as with the optical connection above but you will not need to change any settings on the Sky box – you can leave them set to stereo.
     3. Again, select the appropriate input on your home cinema system and you should hear the correct programme.
     4. Your home cinema system will normally play the audio in stereo. However, if your system has Dolby Pro Logic II support, it will convert the stereo signal to surround sound. This won’t be as good as the full on Dolby Digital surround sound but it’s certainly an improvement over stereo in most cases.

Enjoy!