Confused on receiver settings

[Vargas01]

Just bought a Polk Surroundbar 42 and hooked it up tonight.

I am using an older receiver that does NOT have HDMI hookups so I am using the optical connection from the Samsung BDP-1500 to my Pioneer VSX-D498 receiver. I also have my Cable Box hooked to the receiver with an optical cord.

My question:

When I play tv through the receiver, it recognizes that it is in 5.1 and has the graphic on the receiver listing all the speakers that are being used (SR, R, C, L, SL, SW). When I play a blu-ray dvd, despite getting sound out of the surround bar, the graphic for 5.1 does not show up but instead the receiver only recognizes that it is Digital. I can clearly hear the sub firing but the surround is not very good and certain things seem muffled.

Do I have some settings wrong on either the blu-ray player or the receiver?

Is the surround bar just not that good (I know it is not TRUE surround)?

Help. I can't decide if I want to keep this Polk surround bar so any help would be appreciated.