Hooking up surround sound, how to disable tv's speakers?

[KingNothing]

In my house we have a big-screen TV that has pretty crappy sound from it's own speakers. One of the guys brought in his receiver & amplifier to use with it to improve the sound. Now ideally I would just want to leave the receiver/amp alone and never touch it - just controlling everything from the TV.

In other words, I want the sole input on the receiver to be the audio output of the TV. However, I don't want the TV's speakers going at the same time.

Does anyone have any experience doing this? Any suggestions? I really, really want to avoid asking people to deal with the receiver at all.

[tchitt]

I think most TV's have an option for disabling the TV speaker. I'm looking at mine right now and under the audio menu there's an option called TV Speaker which you can toggle on and off.

Consult your owner's manual... and if you lost it or never had it then consult google.

[arunbg]

Why can't you just press the mute button on the TV remote, or turn the volume down to zero if there is no mute option. Or do you want to control your amp volume with your TV remote?
Btw you should have posted this under the technology forum.

[pantaz]

TV brand and model?

[jtbell]

I think on most TVs, the audio outputs that you would connect to an external receiver etc. are not affected by the TV's volume control. They carry a constant "line level" output that is supposed to be controlled by the external device. At least the TV's I've owned work like this. So you simply turn the volume to zero on the TV and leave it there, and adjust the receiver's volume control as necessary.

If you don't want to use two remotes (one to change channels on the TV, one to change the volume on the receiver), you need a remote that can be programmed to control both devices. Some devices come with remotes that can be programmed to control other devices. Maybe your receiver's or TV's remote is like this. Or you can get a third-party universal remote. (I splurged on a Logitech Harmony remote that can control all my audio and video devices, turning on/off appropriate combinations of them for various activities.)

[EnumaElish]

Maybe headphones (just plugged in to turn off the speakers -- you don't need to actually wear them).

[Ouabache]

You could take signal from the headphones jack on the TV as input to your receiver. I have done that. Using a suitable plug in the headphone jack does disable the TV speakers and your can route the signal directly to your receiver.