Sound output from TV to Denon AVR-X2400H

AV is needlessly complicated 

ooookay.  I went back and step through the auto configurator for Audio and explicitly told it to use Optical. Now it is what I would consider correct setting for normal listening levels.  Got dang AV is a jungle. 

Thanks for the responses:

I switched over to optical and left the HDMI Arc cables in so I could manage the Denon.   The TV is set to external sound system.  

I got sound and am controlling the volume of the Denon with TV remote now.  Still the same issue though, having to run the volume near 80%. If I cranked the volume on that high while listening to just music it would be blasting. 

Get into your Denon menu settings and make sure set to ARC and that everything else is where it should be. You haven't said that you were using external speakers but if you are your tv speakers should be off.

Using the HDMI ARC connections.

Probably you don't have external speakers on or PSM output turned on.

I suppose I could go optical out of TV to DAC

Probably better.