TV sound output to AVR..should I buy a toslink/SPDIF ?

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krishpiscean

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Hi All,

I have a Samsung series 5 LCD with optical out and denon 1911. I want to transmit sound from TV (videso from TV USB) to AVR for surrond sound.

I searched the forum but still confused, is Toslink the best way for sound transmission. Is there any other way to do it ? Are both toslink and spdif same?

I saw smthing is ebay..pls let me know if this is the one which serves the purpose.

eBay India: Belkin AV10033-06-WHT Digital Toslink, 6' White + BILL (item 170617098569 end time 23-Mar-2011 15:15:00 IST)

eBay India: Optical / SPDIF Toslink Fiber Cable 1.5 meters (item 120698902175 end time 23-Mar-2011 20:23:58 IST)

thnx
 
krishpiscean said:
Hi All,

I have a Samsung series 5 LCD with optical out and denon 1911. I want to transmit sound from TV (videso from TV USB) to AVR for surrond sound.

I searched the forum but still confused, is Toslink the best way for sound transmission. Is there any other way to do it ? Are both toslink and spdif same?

I saw smthing is ebay..pls let me know if this is the one which serves the purpose.

eBay India: Belkin AV10033-06-WHT Digital Toslink, 6' White + BILL (item 170617098569 end time 23-Mar-2011 15:15:00 IST)

eBay India: Optical / SPDIF Toslink Fiber Cable 1.5 meters (item 120698902175 end time 23-Mar-2011 20:23:58 IST)

thnx
Click to expand...

There are 2 ways to transmit digital data using a S/PDIF link. Using coaxial RCA cables or fiber optic TOSLINK cables. The both carry the same signal. So in general, when you are transmitting compressed music from ripped/downloaded movies, there is no real difference between which interface is used.

Rather than add a converter to the mix, I would recommend getting a TOSLINK optical cable and using that to connect your TV to the AVR.

If you have no spare optical inputs on the AVR, then replace the connection between one of your existing equipments using TOSLINK cables with a regular RCA cable.

Personally I have never faced any problems using cheap RCA cables to carry coax S/PDIF signals. They sound the same as the optical cables or expensive "Digital" cables.

Wikipedia S/PDIF article here: S/PDIF - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

-- no1lives4ever
 
I too have a samsung LA40C530 lcd and I recently bought a digital optical cable to connect my tv to my 3300 htib. I bought it on ebay for around 500 rs and its 3 meters long. Just spot a seller with good feedback and you are good to go. I have tried many DD 5.1 and DTS movies on the tv and it just sounds amazing!!
 
waveking said:
I too have a samsung LA40C530 lcd and I recently bought a digital optical cable to connect my tv to my 3300 htib. I bought it on ebay for around 500 rs and its 3 meters long. Just spot a seller with good feedback and you are good to go. I have tried many DD 5.1 and DTS movies on the tv and it just sounds amazing!!
Click to expand...

Thanks Waveking.
Can you give details like the seller in ebay and approximate price, so I can safely go for it.
 
I have found that some of the Samsung's slim TVs having external SPDIF to Optical transmitter do NOT need an optical cable. Instead you could use ANY 3.5mm headphone to RCA cable directly through the TV instead of the transmitter and the Right channel RCA cable carries the same SPDIF as a regular coaxial does! Hope this helps many in saving for those unreliable and expensive optical cables.
 
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optical and digital coaxial have the same quality sound , if your AVR has optical input then you should buy an optical cable and go with optical. If both TV and AVR has digital coaxial then any regular RCA cable will do.
 
I have a Samsung LCD 40C650 and an onkyo 3400 HTiB.

I am playing the HDD thru the TV and want to have the audio sent to 3400.

TV has 'Digital Audio Out (Optical)' and 3400 has 'Digital In Optical (2) TV/CD'

I connected both and set the AVR to TV/CD but the audio is not routed to AVR but still plays from TV.

Do i need to do any other setting. Pl help.

ps 1 :
I believe the Digital Optical Cable is the TosLink Cable, when i connected the cable to TV, there is a red light appearing in the other, indicating the cable works.

ps 2: I have connected the set top box thru AVR to TV works perfectly fine.

Edit: Got it working. After connecting the optical cable, we need to switch off the AVR and Switch it on. Guess its a microsoft guy who designed this.
:ohyeah:

jtde said:
optical and digital coaxial have the same quality sound , if your AVR has optical input then you should buy an optical cable and go with optical. If both TV and AVR has digital coaxial then any regular RCA cable will do.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
soundbar said:
I have a Samsung LCD 40C650 and an onkyo 3400 HTiB.

I am playing the HDD thru the TV and want to have the audio sent to 3400.

TV has 'Digital Audio Out (Optical)' and 3400 has 'Digital In Optical (2) TV/CD'

I connected both and set the AVR to TV/CD but the audio is not routed to AVR but still plays from TV.

Do i need to do any other setting. Pl help.

ps 1 :
I believe the Digital Optical Cable is the TosLink Cable, when i connected the cable to TV, there is a red light appearing in the other, indicating the cable works.

ps 2: I have connected the set top box thru AVR to TV works perfectly fine.

Edit: Got it working. After connecting the optical cable, we need to switch off the AVR and Switch it on. Guess its a microsoft guy who designed this.
:ohyeah:
Click to expand...
You DONT NEED to switch off and on for optical connection to work! Must be something else. Remember, usually toslink cables are UNIDIRECTIONAL and hence you should connect accordingly as per the DIRECTION POINTER on the cable. Also, you need to assign the Optical input on the AVR to a particular connection named like Cable, VCR, DVD, CD, Bluray.
 
prankey said:
You DONT NEED to switch off and on for optical connection to work! Must be something else. Remember, usually toslink cables are UNIDIRECTIONAL and hence you should connect accordingly as per the DIRECTION POINTER on the cable. Also, you need to assign the Optical input on the AVR to a particular connection named like Cable, VCR, DVD, CD, Bluray.
Click to expand...

Yes, the connection was given as per the instructions provided in the booklet.

actually, i was trying very hard to understand what could be wrong and out of frustration swictched it off and went out. Later, when i again started to check, the moment i switched on the the AVR and TV, it started working.

my Onkyo 3400 has an TV/CD Optical In port and i have connected to that.
 
soundbar said:
Yes, the connection was given as per the instructions provided in the booklet.

actually, i was trying very hard to understand what could be wrong and out of frustration swictched it off and went out. Later, when i again started to check, the moment i switched on the the AVR and TV, it started working.

my Onkyo 3400 has an TV/CD Optical In port and i have connected to that.
Click to expand...
Probably Onkyo was somehow not detecting the signals coming and restarting the AVR fixed it... Might have been a temporary issue, however if you disconnect and reconnect the cable, if all is well connected, it should work without restarting :)

Nevertheless, as long it works, I recommend leaving it that way as optical cables are VERY FRAGILE to work with and can easily stop working if you keep pulling them out and pushing them back in the sockets. This is the reason I have been recommending using RCA cables which have always been most rugged. However, you may not have the option as STRANGELY enough almost all the TVs (excluding few LGs and Phillips) have Optical Audio outputs (though we could use Samsung's slim TV's "optical output" to connect a 3.5mm headphone to RCA cable to get coaxial digital output without these rather silly optical cables).
 
Does your set top box support HD with 5.1 channel? .. are you able to get 5.1 surround sound in your Onkyo 3400 with toslink optical cable connection ?

soundbar said:
Yes, the connection was given as per the instructions provided in the booklet.

actually, i was trying very hard to understand what could be wrong and out of frustration swictched it off and went out. Later, when i again started to check, the moment i switched on the the AVR and TV, it started working.

my Onkyo 3400 has an TV/CD Optical In port and i have connected to that.
Click to expand...
 
soundbar said:
Edit: Got it working. After connecting the optical cable, we need to switch off the AVR and Switch it on. Guess its a microsoft guy who designed this.
:ohyeah:
Click to expand...

I am facing the same issue. Bought a Belkin Toslink cable over the weekend but just didnt get any sound when connecting from TV audio out to AVR

I tried connecting the audio out of DishHD box too - same result. No sound

Did not think of restarting AVR (I have a Denon X1000)
Will go home and try it
 
Sorted it out this weekend. With the Denon X1000 you have to assign each input as digital or analog - it cannot autodetect
So I went into the input sources menu and assigned TV Audio as digital. After that it worked perfectly. I think the volume is a little low - will sort it out later
 
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