Solved! Maybe I'm Crazy. Maybe I'm Going Deaf...

[MartinD55]

OK, I could swear that I'm getting 5.1 audio sometimes from my set top. Certain shows sound very washed out and voice is almost unintelligible. However, commercials seem fine? I have an old Cisco set top, and a not-Smart Samsung 40 in. TV. Comcast Support is, of course, useless.
Unfortunately, my sound system is 2.0 stereo. I am assuming that the TV is also 2.0. I have an OPPO BDP-103, which i can use to mix 5.1 down to 2.0 that does that just fine as far as I can tell, both on the set top and Netflix.
What I need is a device that I can connect to the HDMI coming out of the set top that will tell me whether the audio is coming out as 5.1 or 2.0.
Anybody have any ideas?

 

[americanaudiophile]

There isn't a box just to do that. An AVR would indicate that but I don't think it matters in this case since you don't have a 5.1 set up.
In the set top box audio menu set the output to stereo and it will do that regardless of whether the content is 5.1 or not.
Your TV can also be set to output in stereo only. Check the TV audio menu.