Optical Might Be Better Than HDMI ARC For You... Here's Why

hdmi arc and e-arc are super popular at the moment with most sound bars including these connections but digital optical is a very overlooked cable that has some benefits over hdmi and may make it the better option for you hey team i'm josh in this channel i like to help you guys set up and get the most out of your entertainment system so let's get straight to it digital optical has been around since 1983 making it nearly 40 years old it's been a popular cable amongst home theater enthusiasts and rightly so as for the longest time it gave you great audio quality without the electromagnetic interference that copper is susceptible to then in 2009 with the addition of hdmi 1.4 audio return channel was born this gave users another digital option with a few tricks up its sleeve so why would someone want to use optical over hdmi in 2022 well for starters the optical cable contains glass fibers and uses light to transmit data this allows for greater cable runs over the copper-based hdmi optical can reach distances of up to around 30 meters before being boosted whereas hdmi over copper is only really good up to 15 meters and even then i personally wouldn't use cables longer than 10. there are other alternatives for hdmi and i'll touch on that soon at that longer distance you won't get any interference whereas copper cables can you can also easily adapt optical into cat cables with cheap extenders whereas to do the same with hdmi and have the arc functionality would cost you five times the price hdmi can also have communication issues as it tries to do a lot whereas optical is tasked with doing a single job of sending an audio signal toslink optical cables make it super easy to see when they're working properly if there's a red light coming through when your tv is turned on then your cable is good whereas hdmi you may need to test a few cables to check the issue we also have lots of devices connected to our tvs and using an optical connection doesn't take away from the four precious hdmi ports we have available most samsung and lg tvs from the last five to six years have a universal control function which allows you to instruct the remote to output the correct ir signal for adjusting your sound system's volume on top of that some products such as sonos will automatically turn on when it receives an audio signal from the tv through an optical cable if you have a setup that has 5.1 channels or less then optical can supply your system just fine as it can do a compressed version of dolby 5.1 surround sound hdmi tries to do a lot and it will often fall short i've heard many people complain that their tv will randomly turn on in the middle of the night and that's down to the connected devices sending the tvs signal to wake up through a single cable hdmi carries audio video and control if you find arc is giving you lots of problems this is where optical can come in handy whether it's to test your sound system and making sure it's working properly or using it as your main connection type optical can be super useful that all sounds good but what does hdmi do that optical can't well for starters hdmi arc will allow you to turn the sound system on and off as well as adjust the volume all from the tv remote this is down to hdmi cc which looks after the control function of up to 15 devices at a time you'll notice that when turning on say your xbox that your tv wakes up that's all down to cec doing its job it's a major part of what makes hdmi so useful aside from the control art can handle almost three times more data and with that comes better audio formats hdmi arc is still limited to 5.1 channels but can also do dolby digital plus which is how most streaming services send audio and allows for a compressed version of atmos i've made a video that explains this further and details how to obtain the best atmos click here to find out more although arc uses one of your tv's hdmi ports quite often your sound system will replace it and sometimes give you extra hdmi cables are a lot more forgiving and can be coiled up tighter than optical if you need to run cables through the wall and over a long distance you can adapt hdmi to ethernet it's a lot cheaper this way as cat cables are much thinner than hdmi so easier to manage hdmi over fibre is also available albeit at a very steep price tag but comes with the benefits of long distance through a single cable without interference if you guys are finding this video helpful then can you let me know by hitting the like button i really appreciate it so optical and arc have limitations but what if i want the best audio quality possible well that's where hdmi arc comes in as the enhanced version of arc this connection requires both the tv and sound system to have an er enable port many tvs and soundbars dating back to 2018 include this when hdmi 2.1 was introduced you get full dolby atmos and dcsx compatibility with the added bonus of atmos being able to be sent through the dolby true hd format which for those who don't know is the best way to experience atmos the compressed 5.1 channels of arc gets upgraded to uncompressed 7.1 channels through e-arc and can carry 37 times more information this is a massive step forward and further unlocks everyday watches to bring home the movie experience one final thing i want to touch on is the ability to combine optical and hdmi for a better experience if arc isn't playing nicely through this method you connect both cables the audio gets passed through the optical and hdmi is used for control this is great for those struggling to get audio pass through hdmi due to the tv and sound system not playing nicely together but you're still able to control the system from the tv remote so which cable should you use optical is best for those who having issues with arc due to an incompatibility between tv and sound system or to test that everything is working if arc works for you then use it as you'll get control from a single remote better audio quality and a simple setup and if your tv and sound system have eark then that's the best outcome as you'll have all the benefits from standard arc and get the highest audio quality with that i put together this video of my favorite atmos movies to test your system and i walk you through what you should be hearing from each scene so take a look at that next anyway that's all from me see you guys soon

Channel: Archway Tech

Views: 331,602

Keywords: HDMI VS Optical, HDMI ARC VS Optical, HDMI ARC VS eARC, HDMI Soundbar, hdmi fibre optic cable, hdmi fibre optic vs copper, hdmi vs optical cable, hdmi vs optical audio, hdmi vs optical audio soundbar, hdmi earc, what is arc, audio return channel, HDMI ARC No Sound, HDMI ARC Problems, hdmi earc explained, Optical vs HDMI ARC vs eARC, what is earc, HDMI CEC, Long HDMI Cable, Long HDMI ARC, Hdmi Extenders, Optical Extenders, Toslink Optical, Best Digital Audio Cable, Sonos

Id: TL_Bd6vqVZk

Length: 5min 49sec (349 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 30 2022