Samsung HT-C5500 - does it route HDMI in standby?

[tbourner]

I'm going to be getting a Samsung HT-C5500 home theatre thingy, but having never had one before I'm not sure how best to wire it up?

 

We have a Virgin HD box with HDMI into the TV (Sony KDL32S2010 I think) which has only 1 HDMI input, we don't currently have a PS3 or anything, just Wii which we use on component anyway.

 

When we get the HTS I was thinking of doing Virgin to the HTS via HDMI, then HTS to the TV via HDMI - so I get 5.1 on Virgin and Blu-Rays/DVDs, and still get HD TV. But would I need to have the HTS turned on ALL the time? Or could I still just use TV speakers for Virgin if I wanted to? ie: does the system just route the HDMI inputs to the output?

The other option is optical, but with only 1 HDMI port on the TV I'd need to swap cables when I want to watch a Blu-Ray/DVD? Are Y-cables any good for HDMI or would I get a problem trying to watch Virgin and have the HTS on (both ends of the Y-cable powered would the TV get confused)?

[tbourner]

Somebody on avforums just said if I want surround sound from the Virgin box I'd need to use optical as the HDMI doesn't support it! What's the point of an HDMI input on an audio device if it doesn't carry an HD audio signal?

[johnny g]

Somebody on avforums just said if I want surround sound from the Virgin box I'd need to use optical as the HDMI doesn't support it! What's the point of an HDMI input on an audio device if it doesn't carry an HD audio signal?

 

I was sure it was DVI that didn't carry audio and HDMI does?