Optical cable better than HDMI ?
[Deleted User]
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Before I go and spend quite a bit of money on a sound bar cannot (for the sake of a happy marriage) go the multiple speaker sub woofer route.
All my kit is quite difficult to get at, so some advice would be grateful.
Would a toslink optical cable from my SkyHD box straight to my LED Smart TV (maybe remove the existing HDMI cable) help to improve the quality of sound coming from my LG 3D LED Smart TV ? As always your thoughts most appreciated.
All my kit is quite difficult to get at, so some advice would be grateful.
Would a toslink optical cable from my SkyHD box straight to my LED Smart TV (maybe remove the existing HDMI cable) help to improve the quality of sound coming from my LG 3D LED Smart TV ? As always your thoughts most appreciated.
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No - it wouldn't even work.
The TV optical is an output (like the Sky one), you would need an input.
But regardless of the connection, the limitation is the crap tiny speakers in the TV - the connections makes no difference.
If you set the Sky box HDMI and optical outs to the same format then exactly the same digital audio data gets chucked out of both. So they would sound exactly the same. Unless you are one of those strange types who believe that digital ones are more "oneish" and digital zeros more "zeroish" because they are transported in pulses of light rather than electricity (or vice versa, difficult to keep up with the lunatic fringe of the Audiophile world)
And out of interest how were you planning to watch Sky with the HDMI lead disconnected?
The only other possibility is the Sky box is chucking Dolby Digital surround at the telly and the telly is making a mess decoding and down-mixing to stereo assuming it is even capable of doing so). Though that should only apply to the HD channels with surround sound audio tracks. Otherwise the audio tracks are stereo.
Presumably by 'better' he meant louder?.
If you are going for a soundbar I would get one with an optical input and connect the optical output from the Sky box directly to it.
We have a full AV set up and we very rarely use the TV sound as it is so poor.
But I seem to recall HDMI audio from Blu-ray players offering higher bit-rates and quality than over TOS?
The highest quality usable over a s/pdif connection is DTS surround. Blu-ray has the capability for High Definition very high quality lossless sound with more than 6 channels. Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio which require a hdmi connection to a an amplifier with suitable decoders. All pretty pointless if you are using a TV for the sound, you might as well stick to lpcm stereo (converted from ac3 or MP2) delivered either by hdmi or s/pdif.
As it'd make sod all difference, why bother
There's always that! - but you HAVE to resist!! :cool:
Also notice that a few manufacturers are doing "sound bases" or "sound plinths". A combination of TV stand and sound bar. For example this
http://www.richersounds.com/product/soundbars/denon/dhtt100/deno-dht100
An option that might be worth looking at.
No, I'm a service engineer!
It doesn't even need to be 'half way decent'
The speakers in modern TV's are so crap you probably couldn't find a sound bar anywhere near as poor.
But rather than the OP trying to borrow a sound bar, why not try plugging a pair of PC speakers (which he might well have a pair of?) in the headphone socket, and see how they sound?.
I say it like it is!, I wouldn't try and encourage someone to buy something they didn't need