Brianpack, We checked, with ABT store Audio/Visual specialist, Panasonic's manuals and we found that it outputs only 5.1 Dolby with digital broadcast. We also checked the menu structure for output format setting and we found none. Perhaps Panasonic, to make it simpler, set it to Dolby only which is fine if you have AV Receiver but it doesn't work with 2 channel DAC like my Benchmark DAC1. I searched internet and found many people complaining. Samsungs have selectable format but Sonys are preassigned to 2 channel only (not 100% sure about it) according to salesman. It is possible that Panasonic fixed it but better check it out. Go to store that sells them and look for Digital output format setting in the menu.