General Question

Sandydog's avatar

How does optical audio outlet work?

Asked by Sandydog (1265points) May 17th, 2010 from iPhone

My satellite receiver has a socket for optical audio, and Im not sure how this works?
Ive always used auxiliary outputs, so how does optical differ? Is it better quality?
Its called SPDIF whatever that stands for?
Thanks for any info

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3 Answers

MissA's avatar

It is a means of connecting components to your receiver by virtue of a tiny little “optical light”. Some audiophiles argue that the sound can never be as good as being hard wired. I’ve used optical signals for other things, but not my speakers.

There’s a lot to be said for the simplicity of wireless.

Lightlyseared's avatar

You need a home theatre system with an optical input port thingy and then can connect the satellite receiver to it so that you can get 5.1 surround sound with yout satellite TV (where available).

InspecterJones's avatar

If you’re not connecting through HDMI, optical is the easiest method for connecting sound, one cord, no fuss.

Careful though, unlike normal cords, if you step on an optical it’ll break it.

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