I have a 26LB30QD and I get digital audio out (COAX) when using the HDMI port for input. Is there a way to get digital audio output when using the internal DVD?

You'll need to update your cable box with one that has an HDMI out port on it. Nothing else will work.

This will depend upon what outputs the VCR has. Find the output ports for the VCR, they should be labeled OUT, find the same shaped input on the TV and connect with the appropriate cable. The most common denominator in connections is a coax out to the antenna in on the TV. May have to connect the cable box through the VCR to do this. Next are the RCA outputs. Round things usually red yellow and white, if the TV has them and are labeled input or at least not labeled as output, try these. Common stereo wires will do although you may wish to get a better shielded wire for the video, yellow. If you have HDMI jack on the VCR use this for connection to the TV.
On the TV there is some way to switch between inputs. You will need to do this using the RCA and the HDMI connectors. For the coax solution most likly you will need to select a channel that the VCR outputs on.

There are other possible inputs and outputs, the above are the most common.

Get a hdmi switch

Not likely that all those things are faulty.

The TV and DVD player make and model would be helpful to know. I would recommend running its BEST digital audio to the receiver and its stereo analog audio to the TV just in case you want to watch and hear the DVD in a lo-fi setting without the Denon. I generally advocate for connecting anything high-end (audio or video) ONLY to equipment that can use it or enhance it. Otherwise you may just be wasting expensive cable and adding unnecessary hops and connections that can fail.

Why do you want the audio to go from the DVD to the TV through the Denon? Are there no speakers on the Denon? Modern TV's have lots of inputs for the flexibility I recommend but rarely have decent audio or speakers.

Take one co-axial cable, and connect the "input" port to your cable-company's wall-port.

Look at the connectors on the back of your TV. You could have:
* coaxial input (lowest video-quality)
* S-Video input (better video-quality)
* component input - three cables for video, two cables for audio (better video-quality)
* HDMI input (highest video-quality)

Look at the connectors on the "output" side of the PVR. You could have:
* coaxial output (lowest video-quality)
* S-Video output (better video-quality)
* component output - three cables for video, two cables for audio (better video-quality)
* HDMI output (highest video-quality)

Connect the "outputs" to the "inputs", using appropriate cables.

Turn the PVR on. Turn the TV on.

Use the "source" button on the TV's remote-control to select from the various inputs
(Coax, S-Video, Component, HDMI1, HDMI2).

If your TV has 'PIP' ("Picture-In-Picture") capability, connect more than one output to a second input, so that both tuners inside your TV will receive a signal.

Let's treat this as TWO functions - audio and video.

Your best video would be HDMI output (audio & video) from the cable box and EACH other video source (BD/DVD) directly to your TV and receiver. But, I'd still WATCH the video from the direct TV connection. The fewer intervening cables and electronics, the better.

Your best audio performance will come directly from each multichannel source via a digital (HDMI, coaxial or optical) cable to the receiver. I would LISTEN to audio through the receiver for best quality.

See a trend here? TV's best at video; receiver is the master of audio.
And neither one adds much by handling the other. Usually the opposite.

You mention coax. Do you mean coaxial digital audio????? As coax is also shorthand for the thick black cable bringing video to most cable boxes, connecting antennae to TV's and such.

You don't actually define what the problem is. Only YOU can be the judge of what 'better' is.

There are a multitude of (mis)settings you should master before declaring a hardware problem. I'd dive into the manual.

There are several video and audio inputs named DVD. For video you have HDMI, component and composite. For audio you have standard analog stereo and digital coaxial spdif input.
You need to configure the receiver to use the correct inputs - that means HDMI and coax. Also you need to connect the BD player via coax spdif cable to the receiver, because rx-v365 doesn't support audio via HDMI. If BD player has only optical output, use DTV/CABL HDMI input and DTv/CABL Optical input on the receiver.

the avr-588 apparently cannot carry sound via hdmi - don't know why; just what i found out from the geek squad at best buy; solved the problem by connecting optical cable from cable box to receiver; be sure to change the input on the receiver for opt-2 (system setup >2 inputs) to correlate with tv

What port do you have the HDMI from you BD player into on the 510. If you have it on the DVD port then fiber optic will do you no good, the DVD HDMI only supports digital coax, the Video2 HDMI only accepts fiber optic, and there is an extra fiber optic for the Sat input. If your BD player does not have digital coax out, or if you dont want to buy another cable, just move the HDMI from DVD to Video2 on the 510. I am willing to bet you have the BD player plugged into the DVD HDMI port and the fiber optic cable from you BD player to the Video2 fiber input.

As dumb as this sounds here is the mistake Sony made. The receiver does not process sound from the HDMI, it will only pass through that data to you TV. So you will not be able to get sound from your 5.1 speaker setup if you only connect the HDMI, you have to use the matching audio input for that respective HDMI input. Make sense? So the HDMI DVD Input must have digital coax for sound, HDMI Video2 must have fiber optic for sound, and there is another fiber optic port for the Sat input. Yes thats right, if you have 2 HDMI HD components and each only has fiber optic(neither one has digital coax) you cant hook both up properly the way you would think. Sony made this receiver poorly, turning High Definition Multimedia Interface into High Definition Multimedia Except For Audio Interface.