I had the exact same issue nearly a year ago when i purchased my tv. Only the cheapest models offered analog outputs. None of the tvs with optical outs offered a dolby/pcm conversion option. To make maters worse digital broadcast is now all in Dolby 2 or 5.1.
To solve the problem I picked up a used ht processor for 65$. It works great for processing the tv optical signal, but it won't win any prizes for high fidelity. still it is certainly better then the processor that are built in to the cheap tvs and is better then rat-shack crap. The unit is a technics sh-ac500d.
I have it set to down mix 5.1 to 2 channel stereo.
I wasn't able to find any other solutions, and I must say i am quite satisfied except that the device looks really ugly in my rack and takes far too much valuable space for what it does. I hope this helps.
To solve the problem I picked up a used ht processor for 65$. It works great for processing the tv optical signal, but it won't win any prizes for high fidelity. still it is certainly better then the processor that are built in to the cheap tvs and is better then rat-shack crap. The unit is a technics sh-ac500d.
I have it set to down mix 5.1 to 2 channel stereo.
I wasn't able to find any other solutions, and I must say i am quite satisfied except that the device looks really ugly in my rack and takes far too much valuable space for what it does. I hope this helps.