Yamaha HTR-5850 Receiver Audio -left front speaker output problem

The signal that comes from most tv's via the optical output is a stereo signal only. That is what your receiver is reading. You would have to manually set your receiver to decode the signal into surround,.

Some features do not give surround sound such as tuner. If input cables attached to analog dtv/cbl and speaker cables attached to wire end output serround should work fine when set to dtvcbl on front display.

How is TV sound coming into your Yamaha? If it's from the TV analog audio then maybe the TV's audio output is muted.

If it's from the Cable Box maybe ITs audio is muted. I'd refer to the guide for the Cable Box.

MUTE on the receiver is not source-specific.

Try running digital audio from the source - cable/sat - to the receiver. The fewer intervening connections and entities, the better. TV's are NOT considered sound sources for high end purposes or we wouldn't have Yamaha HTR-5860's and better speakers, would we?

Get a 1/8" miniplug-to-RCA-cable adapter and plug the headphone output directly into any compatible input on the receiver. Press PLAY.

Read the article (it's short). Don't buy into the hype about better cables. IPOD's don't stack up as hi-fi to begin with and cables are cables are cables....

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/connecting-your-ipod-to-a-home-stereo.html

You will need an adapter cable available on ebay or at radio shack.

Should have a 1/8" mini male stereo plug on one side and a set (left and right) male RCA plugs on the other end.

Simply plug into the output of your sound card or motherboard (usually blue or green) into any available input (EXCEPT PHONO) on your receiver.

select that input and it should work

hope that helps

What do you mean by "sound programming"? -- I guess it's the ability to change the sound processing, such as from Stereo to Dolby Digital, or to Dolby Pro Logic or Virtual Surround, etc.? Maybe there's a "Direct" or "Pure" or "Tone Control Defeat" button that was pushed, which often (or always!) bypasses all the sound-processing circuits? Check the front panel and/or your remote for such a button and try that.
If it's a DVD player, it may be that the audio connections were accidently pulled or changed. Assuming it's the latter (more likely): Either the digital/analog output setting of the DVD player or the setup of the receiver could have been changed. Next, this is a guess, but most likely, it is the receiver that was tweaked -- in order to listen to some other source (such as the tuner), and it is no longer set up to process the digital signal, but stays in analog mode -- AND there's no analog audio connection from the DVD player (or it was not set-up to output analog to the receiver, since the preferred signal is digital surround). Am I getting warm?

You can at a minimum, bi-wire your speakers by wiring the speakers with the A and B speaker outputs. The A speaker outputs end up running the tweeters and the B will end up powering the woofers.

I have the same issue if I connect my digial audio cable from the Yamaha receiver directly to the HDTV. But, I get all 6 speakers working when I connect the Yamaha receiver directly to the Comcast HD box (instead of TV).

As simple as this sounds, try hitting the speaker a/b button on the front of the unit, next to the headphone jack. I had the same problem, and was about to package the whole thing back up and go back to Best Buy when I hit this button and then the audio test worked.