Ok here is the problem - I have a Yamaha RX-V1 receiver and recently got Dish network HD package. I tried connecting the HD receiver to the Yamaha Receiver using the optical audio connection but can't hear any sound. When I connect with regular RCA cable (Red and White) I do get sound. What am I missing - should I not be getting digital sound???

There is probably a setting in the HD menu that turns on dolby digital(optical). If still no luck you can keep connected to the HD receiver and remove the optical cable from the yamaha receiver and look to see if there is a red light shining through the optical cable.

if still not getting sound, try the settings of your yamaha and make sure it is looking for the correct audio input(optical) and that it is looking for sound on the correct optical input.

hope this helps.

I went to the HD menu and selected PCM/Digital option and saved it but still no sound from the optical connection. The RCA works though.
I did play around with the Yamaha receiver and forced it to do auto select for sound but when it is in Dolby digital mode, no sound. If I change the setting to Pro logic the sounds comes from the RCA connection.
I called up Yamaha and they said that this is plug and play. Most probably the channels are not sending the audio through digital signal so the Yamaha receiver can't select that option automatically.
Any thing else I can check?????

Try another optical cable. The one you are using might have a problem. Then try plugging the optical cable into every optical jack on the RXV1 in case the input is mapped to another location as AV Friend suggested

The optical cable works as I switched my DVD audio with this cable and it worked fine. I will try putting it in different opticable jacks and see if that works.

The channels on Dish - do they produce digital audio? That is the only thing I can think of why I can't seem to get digital audio signal and that's why the RCA jacks work in pro logic....

We connect with optical cable from the Dish HD811 receiver all the time. Never had the issue you are experiencing. The Yamaha is probably the culprit. Try connecting both audio and video from the Dish receiver to the DVD input of the Yamaha and see if you get your sound. If you do, it is the Yamaha receiver; if you don't, you may actually have a bad HD811 receiver.

Oh yeah, by the way, I am sure you are choosing the HD channels to check for dobly digital sound, right?

He says hes not getting ANY sound though.
Yea, try Penny's suggestion. Since you know that the DVD optical in works, try that input. If still no good, then just get mad and dump Dish Network! HA!

Don't know the Dish box very well. Was wondering if there's another digital option besides PCM/digital? Again, not knowing this unit well, I would only expect DD5.1 on the HD channels, although Dish does broadcast a few non HD programs with Dolby. "DD" is listed in the guide for the shows with 5.1 sound

With everything you've tried and everything suggested here, if you still have trouble it's time to swap components.

Exchange the Dish box first because a) it weighs less and b) the manufacturing is farmed out, probably to the lowest bidder, and is more likely to fail than the Yamaha product.

The DVD player is hooked to the Yamaha receiver via PCM cable but I will try to hook it up to the CD player connection as that's connected via an Optical cable.

There is no such thing as a PCM cable. It is either a Coax with RCA on the ends, or a optical cable.