PS3 audio output question

[BD_Newbie]

Hi everyone,

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, but I have a pretty basic (I hope) question about the PS3 and audio decoding.

My (brand new) setup - PS3 (of course), Samsung 4061F LCD, Yamaha NS-SP1600 receiver.

My question is this - my receiver has 2 HDMI-in ports but the manual says that it will not play audio directly from the HDMI signal - it outputs it to the TV. My TV has optical audio out. So my thinking is that I would end up with a setup like this:

PS3 >(HDMI) Yamaha Receiver >(HDMI) Samsung LCD >(optical out) Yamaha Receiver.

Given this setup, in what format does the PS3 output the audio (and in turn, does that format change when it gets routed through the TV)? Will it still be 5 channel PCM? I'm excited to hear that as of today the PS3 handles the decoding of all the Blu-Ray audio codecs, but I'm afraid that it might not work if it's routed through the TV.

Is it possible to go directly from the PS3's digital optical audio out to the receiver for audio while using the HDMI signal for video? Would that give me better sound or would it be the same?

Sorry again if this is a really silly question - I'm usually pretty good with this stuff, but I couldn't find a clear answer on how the PS3 handles audio out in addition to if the digital optical audio out can handle the PCM signal in its full form. It's my first day as a blu-ray owner and I'm excited to get my feet wet. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't short-changing myself.

Thanks so much!