How do I hook up surround sound?

How to hook up surround sound on new 3D TV?

• I recently purchased a brand new 55'' 3D LG HDTV. I have had on my old TV (12 years old) a 2.1 surround sound system, which had the red and white output cords. The new tv does not have that input. All the audio inputs that I see are a headphone jack, an optical output, and a RGB/DVI audio input. Is there any way that i can hook up my surround sound? the tv itself came with a 3.5mm adapter with a yellow, red, and white extensions. I tried going through the headphone jack, and plugging in the red and white (leaving yellow open), with no luck. It recognizes the adapter is in because the speakers on the TV turn off, but nothing comes out of the surround sound, which I am sure works because it worked right before we bought the new TV. Am I doing something wrong? Are there any cheap adapters I can buy? I don't really want to by a new surround sound system.

• Answer:

  Do not use the TV speakers for anything. Get a HTiB or Home Theater in a Box. Make sure it has the ability to switch between HDMI inputs. Make sure it has the ability to decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD. The idea is to get a copy of the audio into the home theater before you send the HDMI signal to the TV. The TV simply serves only as a display device. That size rarely has decent speakers on it because they expect most of us use some sort of home theater on it. Note, Optical out can NOT transfer Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD. This is why you want to extract the audio before it gets to the TV.