How to have Apple TV Audio on my Home Theater System?

I have Apple TV which is connected to my TV by HDMI but I was wondering how I can have my home theater system play sound instead of my TV... My home theater has only one HDMI slot which I am using to connect it to the TV for watching movies etc... Is there any way of making the audio from Apple TV play on my home theater speakers? If there is, what do I need to do? My home theater does not have optical wires or anything.

You can use optical out (Toslink cable) on the ATV for 5.1 while still using the HDMI for picture which is exactly what I do.

There are a variety of ways to do this depending upon the capabilities of your receiver. Mine for example has several HDMI inputs and one HDMI output. What I am able to do is run all the gear into the stereo and then run one output to the tv.

A bonus to tis arrangement is that I can plat the sound two different ways. Using the HDMI feed my wife can hear the sound through the TV without needing to have the stereo on. When I want surround sound I can turn on the stereo which is connected to the ATV via the optical connection.

BTW if your receiver doesn't have enough HDMI connections there are some switches that can give you additional connections.

If your amp only has RCA (phono) inputs then you'll need something like this:

Digital Optical Coaxial Toslink to Analog RCA Audio: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics