First, make sure you have a digital audio cable between your DVD player and your receiver. This is a single wire with either square-ish black plugs on the end (for Toslink or fiber optic digital audio) or looks like a normal audio connector but is labeled as a coaxial digital audio cable. You probably don’t need an analog connection between your DVD player and your receiver. If you lose the audio signal when you disconnect the analog audio connection, something else is wrong.

Second, check that your DVD is set to output a digital signal from the digital connector. Most players will enable this function by default, but I’ve seen some that don’t, or installers that change the setting. Enter your player’s setup mode and look for the audio settings. The digital audio output should be set for “bitstream” or something similar.

Third, assign your surround receiver’s digital audio input to the DVD player. In some equipment, certain digital audio inputs will default to the DVD video input. In other (read: better) gear you need to assign particular audio and video inputs from the receiver’s back panel (e.g. “digital audio input 1” and “component video 3”) to link up so that when you press the DVD button on the receiver’s front panel or remote control you’ll get the corresponding audio and video signals. Look in the receivers setup menu for the audio configuration.               

Last but not least, make sure your player selects the 5.1 soundtrack on the DVD. Older titles from Sony, Warner Brothers and Fox often default to the DVD’s backup 2-channel soundtrack, even when a 5.1 channel soundtrack is available on the disc and the system is set up for 5.1 playback. It’s asinine, for sure. Fortunately, this no longer seems to be the case and should rarely be an issue.