Stereo and Surround Sound Backwards?

@_mviz_- That certainly is a mystery.

I would like to connect the HDMI output to a TV that does not have a surround decoder & see if it works when set to stereo & is silent on surround.

Is it possible that the onkyo is not decoding the surround (just playing stereo) & it is creating a virtual surround from the stereo. i.e. does it have such possible function & are the settings in place to cause it. - Try different settings in the onkyo

It would be interesting to see how the Onkyo reacts to an optical connection& also a red/white stereo connection. There are TVs that can use HDMI for video & red/white for audio (option selected by menu). Can the Onkyo do that? Is there also a red/white connection in place?

What channel are you using? Surround will only be on HD channel that is sending surround.

I would like to connect the HDMI output to a TV that does not have a surround decoder & see if it works when set to stereo & is silent on surround.

I'll try this.  This is a wireless U-verse receiver that's typically connected via HDMI directly to a TV without surround sound.  It's usually set to "Stereo" but I'll see what happens when I set it to "Surround Sound".  In this case, I brought the U-verse receiver downstairs to connect to the projector/speakers since it's wireless and I didn't want to -pay for an extra dedicated U-verse receiver.

Is it possible that the onkyo is not decoding the surround (just playing stereo) & it is creating a virtual surround from the stereo. i.e. does it have such possible function & are the settings in place to cause it. - Try different settings in the onkyo

I'll try this too.  It's my first time setting up a receiver such as the Onkyo so I won't rule out user error.  One thing I'll say though is when I connect my laptop via HDMI to the Onkyo and play a movie with surround sound, it works.

It would be interesting to see how the Onkyo reacts to an optical connection& also a red/white stereo connection. There are TVs that can use HDMI for video & red/white for audio (option selected by menu). Can the Onkyo do that? Is there also a red/white connection in place?

I can get an Optical cable and give that a try.  The Onkyo has a red/white connection so I can try that too. 

What channel are you using? Surround will only be on HD channel that is sending surround.

I tried a few different HD channels (NBC - The Voice), CBS (Presidential Debates), ESPN.  I can try some others too.  Is there a certain channel or show that's known for broadcasting in surround sound?  That would be cool if there was something like a "test" channel for this.

Thanks for your help.  I'll let you know what happens.

Sorry for the extreme delay in response, pick an excuse (work, kids, vacation, holidays, etc.).

Troubleshooting why certain speakers weren't working on movies with surround sound, I ended up doing some rewiring and it appears that surround sound is working correctly from U-Verse now.

I have at&t tv not u-verse. But YES the same thing! Now sometimes in surround depending on the channel it will be surround  on the surround setting but very low. I have an Onkyo  tx-nr626 and Samsung smart tv  all is HDMI cables running to reciver. So I gave noticed this as well.

Same thing here not U-verse but at&t TV

ONKYO TX-NR626 ,SAMSUNG TV smart

ALL HDMI to reciver. I thought I was going nuts. So glad to see someone else  thinks same thing.Sometimes on some channels the surround setting will do surround  if the channel broadcasting. But it is super low sound.