How does surround sound work?

How can I make My iPod work with a Dolby Digital Surround Sound System?

• I currently own an iPod video, a Kensington iPod dock, a Polkaudio 5.1 surround sound system, and an Onkyo receiver/amplifier. I'm trying to connect my iPod with the sound system; since my iPod dock doesn't have digital outputs, the best way I can think of is to use a Y cable (headphone plug on one side and RCA-red & white- on the other) to connect to my receiver. However, I was told that only digital audio connections (coaxial & optic... can fully work with Dolby Digital 5.1 while RCA cables can't. So my question is that is the information above true? Or Is there a way to make my iPod work with my Dolby Digital surround sound system Fully (to make it functional 5.1 not "2.1")? Thanks Jimmy

• Answer:

  I would stick with what you have right now. I have been searching for an ipod dock that has a digital output and it looks like you have to spend more than your ipod to get it. http://www.msbtech.com/products/productsHome.php Try $1995 for an ipod dock with digital coax out!!! They must be joking right! There is nothing wrong with your connection right now. You can still hear the sound properly. The AV receiver should have some kind of proccessing power to at least make the analog signal sound better on the 5.1 system. You can spend $1995 if you truly want digital audio. OK, I have consulted with other people and they said that the ipod output is analog audio anyway. So that ipod dock is probably using PRO LOGIC or something to convert analog audio to digital audio...which means it's doing the same thing as a receiver with PRO LOGIC processing. Which means...you really don't need to spend $1995 on the dock-spend it on a good receiver with Pro Logic processing. Besides is there really a 5.1 (surround sound) content comming from Apple or any other source? Not likely...