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Hdmi vs optical cable audio passthrough.

4K views 19 replies 10 participants last post by  gazoink 
#1 ·
Hey guys. What would be your opinion? A hdd media player with both optical n hdmi outputs. Should i be comfortable with the audio from the hdmi port or should i assign audio only through the optical cable? Which would be superior if applicable.
 
#2 ·
If your media player does the HD audio formats HDMI is the only way you can hear them.
 
#5 ·
The optical cable will only pass the lossy Dolby Digital and DTS signals while HDMI will pass Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master along with lossy Dolby Digital and DTS signals. In other words, the optical cable won't pass the high def codecs.
 
#7 ·
Are your sources plugged into your AVR? or your TV?

Usually, you would want your AVR to be the heart of your system.
ie.

Source (BluRay) --> AVR --> Display (TV)

Some of the older TV's don't have the Audio Return Channel (ARC) enabled on the HDMI port so you have to bring audio back to the TV (for tv programs) back to the AVR via RCA or optical (like what yo've done). But if your sources a plugged directly into your AVR via HDMI, then you should be getting the good stuff.

General rule of thumb. Used HDMI where possible.
 
#10 ·
Actually if you are hooking up everything to the TV first and not through the receiver even DVD will be only 2.1 Dolby digital as TVs are not allowed to pass through audio with more than 2.1 channels.
 
#12 ·
After spending an hour trying a number of cable configurations I have concluded that:

1 Optical 'toslink' will pass 5.1 but not 6.1 or 7.1 or higher
2 ARC via Hdmi will pass 5.1 but nothing 'higher' also

your mileage may vary but these are my results

Hdmi 'splitters' overall don't work at all.... (unless you spend big bucks) but this one works acceptable from parts express: HDMI Super Slim 4x2 True Matrix IR Compatible $85 ..... needs to be 'reset' often, has overly bright blue leds, but has excellent picture quality and passes 7.1 lpcm just fine... my cable length is 26 ft no problems
 
#15 ·
You can try but it still won't pass any of the Uncompressed audio formats.
 
#18 ·
optical ability:
it can pass surround sound lossy (i.e. DD, DTS)
it can pass up to 2.0 lossless high resolution (i.e. flac 24/96)
it cannot pass surround sound lossless high resolution (i.e. Dolby TrueHD, flac 5.1 24/96)


optical output from TV:
TV's are allowed to pass any quality that is suitable for optical
TV manufacturers decide whether to limit/restrict capabilities (I don't know why many restrict it to 2.0 or 2.1)
 
#19 ·
TV manufacturers decide whether to limit/restrict capabilities (I don't know why many restrict it to 2.0 or 2.1)
I think the reason is that TVs only have two speakers and why put in a 5.1 or 7.1 decoder for two speakers? Also, a lot of the channels only carry two channel information.
 
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