Stop Using Optical Cables (Toslink) For Home Theater!!

Optical has always "just worked" for me. With HDMI, I often get "no signal" errors, version mismatches, HDCP handshake errors, no audio or no video, interference problems, and bent connectors. Never once had those issues with optical.

I’m a recording engineer, and for many years the industry has been sending 8 channels of 24bit 48khz audio simultaneously through optical digital cables. Maybe TVs dumb it down? No idea. But I can assure you optical can handle 8 channels of full res audio. I’m using optical for my home theatre because ARC gives me a jumbled stuttering digital mess.

Chris, as a 25 yrs. plus veteran in a/v high-end sales, design, installation, service, etc. i can say optical still is quite usefull and a serious problem solver. Furthermore, in many cases it is the only way to extend the life of an older good receiver that does not have ARC or e ARC when using a new smart tv's apps and features. And optical can support thae bandwith in theory, just not implemented.

Yes, "Toslink" is inferior to HDMI, but fibre optic (in general) is far superior to HDMI. It's a shame they never updated Toslink. Fibre basically has no limit on cable length, is immune to EM interference, has much higher bandwidth, and is very cheap to make. Plus, no licensing fees need paid to the HDMI forum. Example: in networking, copper wires (like HDMI) can only support 10Gb bandwidth and max out at 100 meters (if you lucky). Fiber can support >100Gb and max length is measured in kilometers. There is a reason all telco and cable ISPs are installing fiber now. It surprises me that 30 years later, fiber cables haven't taken over everything. The only thing they cannot do is carry electricity. Image how nice it would be to use only the mini-Toslink connectors instead of HDMI that are big, often expensive, and must be inserted one way. Mini-HDMI and Micro-HDMI exist, but they are more fragile and can still only be installed one way. Yup, Toslink is inferior, but fibre is not. Here's to hoping someone introduces a fiber standard to replace Toslink, HDMI, and all the others.

Optical is hassle free. It just works, you plug it in and that´s it. I never understand when I see people saying "stop using this" "stop using that" There are pros and cons for everything. People should use whatever suits them best.

Thanks for the clarification, I'm in the middle of upgrading. Going with optical for convenience in a medium-budget setup, but always appreciate knowing.

Chris, thank you for this video. I was having a problem with my optical output on my fairly new TV running through a conversion box to RCA output for my stereo. It was all working fine and so I put everything back together and cleaned up my cabling with twist ties. I would never in my wildest imagination thought that twist-tying the optical cable would cause it to fail. After an hour of troubleshooting, I came across your video. I took of the twist tie from the optical cable and now it works again. Crazy but true. Your video was instrumental in getting it working again. Thank you!

I love that the guys says it's incapable of "lossless audio" of more that two channels. ADAT uses the exact same fiber optic cable and can transmit 8 channels at up to 24 bit 48khz. It's not the cable that is the limiting factor, it's the S/PDIF format.

It comes down to 3 things. Equipment, settings, and specs. Once you gets these matched correctly . Everything will work fine. I found that optical works fine up to DTS 5.1ch only receivers and most standard sound bars. But after that format and multi channel. Its best to go with HDMI. Its also best to find 4K blu ray players that has two HDMI outputs across two separate HDMI cables. One for your TV or projector and one for your receiver. The one that goes to your TV/projector will have both audio and video. So you can still use your TV speakers if you want. The one that goes to your receiver is just audio only.

Through 3 different TV/Soundbar/Receiver setups I've only found one where I can use HDMI Arc on them. The other 2, there was some type of interference I had to use a Optical cable to get the audio reliable. Wished CEC was a ton more reliable than it is. Even still, great video!

Awesome info man, thank you!! Subed after watching this and now I'm going to binge your sound system library cause I bought soundbars for three households this Christmas and now have to set them all up. Your vids are gonna be a big help, thank you for getting all this info out to folks.

Chris you are indeed THE MANNNNN. I know one day I’m going to understand every word you’re saying. Until then l’ll keep one hitting the thumbs up button. 😂

HDMI ARC/eARC almost always introduces random handshake/lip sync/input switching/device power issues. On paper, it sounds great, but it rarely works without a hitch in practice (in my experience, of course). The only quality upgrade ARC offers over optical is the ability to carry DD+ and DD+ Atmos, which is still lossy. Yes, eARC will carry lossless audio, but that's only relevant for Blu-Ray or UHD Blu-ray Discs. If you're really concerned about getting lossless audio for discs, then you should have a proper A/V receiver that handles your input switching and just passes video along to the TV. if you have a high-end soundbar, it should have HDMI ins so you can connect a BD player and proper streamer (Apple TV/Shield/Roku Ultra) to it, so again, you don't have to fuss with ARC/eARC.

Thank you Chris! I work at Best Buy part time as a Home Theater Advisor and every video has made me extremely smart. Thank you

Thank you for clearing this up! I've always wondered about this and never got a good enough explanation until now.

helped me out as well. I think me and my broke a** are going to stay in the optical lane for now because my soundbar isn't top of the line, but if I ever ball hard enough for some upgrades, I will consider this more fully! Thank you so much

I learned something today. Thanks! 😁

I was ready to fire off an angry rebuttal to this video BEFORE I watched it. Then I watched it. Excellent explanation, saved me from making a mistake with my HTS. Cheers 👍

Ok, back it up. I'm still learning some of these updates on home audio/video. But that shirt's got me rolling. When I worked for a studio and we'd see some rando- covering the same event, we'd ask if they kept it in "P for Professional".

Actually, fibre optic using Toslink connectors, can handle 8 channels of 48 kHz 24 bit digital signal using the ADAT light pipe format, so, 5.1, and 7.1 are quite easy to use.