i've installed a pioneer 810s receiver, 50 inch pioneer plasma, toshiba sd9200 dvd, 5 polk 7500 spk, 1 polk 650 sw, vcr with cable tv input.
the dvd is connected via digital coax to the receiver.
i get sound from the front speakers, none from the back. i have been told that the back speakers work only in rare occasions.
the tv sound only the front speakers as well as cd's.
is that normal?
thanks
debbie

Without knowing much about the receiver model, and assuming that the speakers (etc) are all connected properly, you probably need to turn on the prologic and/or dolby digital/dts modes. There should be instructions for this in the manual (I hope). It sounds like the receiver is set to 'stereo' rather than a multichannel mode.

It's NOT true that the rear speakers only work on rare occasions. They are used less than the front speakers, more often than not; and they are quiet in prologic, compared to dolby digital and dts. But, you should be able to hear at least a little sound in them most of the time (assuming that you're playing an appropriately encoded source).

Sorry. You should also check whether you have to assign the digital inputs to a specific source (eg, assign the optical input as the CD source). Once again, the manual should be able to help you with this. In the 'setting up your receiver' (or similar) section, I'd assume.

i think most of the time, the biggest problem in setting up the receiver is assigning your dvd and cd modes to the right digital input type. My receiver default's was coax and i was using fiber.