A television (10) for use in a home cinema or surround sound system is provided with an additional audio input (58) for a center audio channel signal from a multi-channel surround sound receiver/amplifier (38). Through system control logic, a control and switching stage (28) within the television couples (72) the televisions internal audio channel signal processing and amplifier stages (G.sub.TV,A.sub.TV) in parallel to the input (58) when in the surround sound mode, at the same time disabling the audio signal path from the televisions tuner (60) to the audio signal processors (G.sub.TV,A.sub.TV) and setting (74) the volume level on all channels to a predetermined level to allow volume control (63) from the remote source (38). A home cinema system featuring such a television configuration is also described.