Jesus, none of you lot not got optical out on your TVs? Come on, get with the times!!
unfortunately in most cases, the tv does not carry the surround sound through the TV. Optical out of a TV is generally only to get surround sound from cable/ or a coax connection input into the tv. If you pass hdmi to the tv, then Optical out, Pretty sure it is standard regulation to down sample to stereo, or no audio at all.
It sucks, I think it is a part of DRM rearing its ugly head.
My surround headphone receiver only has 1 optical audio input. Both the ps3 and 360 are being split/merged in to 1 line. Even though My TV does have Optical out, I do not think I will be able to get surround sound out of the wii u.