According to the manual, yes it will play sound via HDMI.

Either the Receiver Switch (HDMI audio switch selector in the manual) button or the HDMI (Input mode selector in the manual) button should switch to the HDMI connection instead of the optical from the cable.

See option 2.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1416509248.jpg

^^^Don't try the smoke test...

+1 on check your DSP settings, some of the modes on my HT system are pretty "boomy"
+2 on sound should be carried on the HDMI, I have a fairly old Pioneer receiver and I get 5.1 surround with nothing but HDMI from HD satellite box and Blue ray player.
+3 on I would not run an output from the TV to the receiver, all inputs should go directly to the receiver and it should do all the switching between signals.
Just IMHO

When I got home I looked up the make and model and started doing some diagnostics. The problem is Time Warner - their cable or their cable box. I thought the scratchy, burbling sound was present with all inputs, but the other observers here say it is only there with input from the Time Warner box, not the DVD player or Apple TV. It is DEFINITELY worse with the Time Warner input. I switched HDMI cables between the Apple TV and the Time Warner box to eliminate the cable as a problem - no help.

As for the reason for the optical cable between the TV and the Onkyo HT-S5100 AV receiver, from Onkyo's website:

" ..as in the manual for the HT-S5100 on page 36 under the AUDIO SIGNALS:

• If you want to listen through the speakers connected to the AV receiver, in addition to an HDMI connection, you’ll also need to make a separate analog or digital audio connection.
This receiver utilized an early version of HDMI which only support HDMI video and not audio- so you will need to also provide a separate audio stream; unlike our later models that support HDMI audio and video."

Thank you to everyone who rang in with suggestions for fixing this.

Aha! So you don't have the Pyle receiver referenced in the manual you posted! That explains much!

Do all of your source devices have their own digital audio out? I'd think the preferred method would be to have the audio go from the source, to the receiver. You'll have to assign the digital input to match the HDMI input. On the other hand, if the TV is truly just passing the digital signal back via the optical cable, there might be no benefit. If the cable box does have its own digital audio out, it would be interesting to see if the sound was still off with a direct connection. between the cable box and receiver, taking the TV out of the equation.

No, that was just a generic photo I found on line. I took the logo out of it when I posted it the second time to eliminate confusion. I should have gone back and edited the first one. I didn't mean to confuse anyone.