Hi Josh, I have a Sony 2011 KDL46Ex520 television and for the past 2 days have been trying every troubleshooting idea to connect a Yamaha ATS-2090 sound bar. Thanks to your video I have used the optical cable and now everything works. Thank you so much 😊

A Toslink cable is what I used on my older Pioneer VSX-D508 in our living room. It impressed my buddy while watching Mr. Brooks using DTS decoding from the DVD. Now I am using the same optical digital toslink cable from our Samsung UHDTV 50" flatscreen to our Vizio soundbar. Very good sound with NO hum nor RF interference of any kind. Never knew this format came out in 1985. Still a good idea to use today.

Very, very good informative video! Thank you. I have all my devices using HDMI to my TV but optical from my TV to my audio receiver. It was really just happenstance from the ages of my components, but it sounds like I have the best designed system, and I didn't even realize it! Sweet.

Informative video. I was wondering about the old, reliable optical cables.... I recently upgraded from an old, 2004 Pioneer 7.1 non-HDMI receiver... a unit with all RCA connections. That old. With that receiver, I used an optical cable for years... The sound started dropping out so I recently bought a Pioneer DSX-935, 7.2 receiver, equipped with HDMI 4K and 8K capabilities (for my 8K TV) and of course, the eARC return. What a pleasure! I bi-amped the towers with the Surround Backs and run the system in 5.1. Sounds and looks superb.

I'm in the weird world of needing audio extractor for HDMI 2.1, as the series x has issues with digital audio. There aren't so many of them and they all have different price ranges and most don't even have stuff released in Canada.

If you want Atmos then you need eARC not Optical, otherwise there’s not much difference. Despite what people say very few can actually hear any difference anyway. Many say they can but blind testing proves otherwise.

Great video brother! Helped tremendously

Thanks man you covered that very well and I learned from this video!

My Sonos Playbar words superbly with the optical link. Years ago I bought a Van Den Hul cable.

My issue with ARC that made me switch to optical was this: My (slightly older) receiver was able to handle DD5.1 over ARC but not DD+. It could handle any audio format up to TrueHD and DTS-HD MA, including DD+ on any HDMI input, but not on ARC because it was out of spec. Now, my TV sends both DD5.1 (which works fine) and DD+ (not working) over ARC, no matter how I configure, but always sends DD5.1 over optical, transcoding all audio format supported. Fortunately, the remote can be configured to send the volume up/down/mute signals for the receiver when audio output is set to optical, so there's no need to use the receiver's remote.

Thanks this was very educational.

The optical on your consumer devices, which is called S/PDIF or Toslink, has a max distance of 10m without degradation, if you are lucky.

Brilliant video mate, I have been a home theatre / AV installer for 24 years. I have generally preferred optical but you have clearly explained reasons why, especially eARC can be better. Thanks for your efforts.

Very nice overall view of the issues. I often find optical the best work around even if I have to use an audio remote and a tv remote. I did this with a mid 90's Sony 5.1 receiver and 4 diffferent TV's from an NAD cathode to an LG C8. While it could handle mp3 it did not work at all with mp4 the C8 can send down it to the reciever even with optical. I kinda knew it probably did not have the codec but I got 25 years out of that system. I updated to a sound bar which allowed me to get more exotic with where the TV could be and had issues as it would only work if things were plugged in a certain way. Unfortunately the sound and speed of changing a tv channel or skipping things while watching recordings got clipping via HDMI where optical plays nice and quick. But no 7.2. But the C8 does not even have arc. So that will have to wait till I update to another tv. This one is basically used for sports, not movies, where I do a fair amount of time shifting to the live stream.

Hi. Congratulations for the your channel!! It's very good!! I have a Yamaha RX V683 receiver, and a LG CX 55 conected in ARC mode. When i try to define DSP setup in other modes that STRAIGHT, the AV receiver show "Not avaliable" and not change for the other sound modes. How i can have a solution for this case? Thank you.

Hi great simple video. I'm having trouble with this, new Samsung TV new denon amp. Tv doesn't like, me using eARC, . The sound option on TV doesn't show amp. Hdmi option to auto works for a bit then next time sound only though TV. Optical cable might work?

I have noticed my sound bar turning on in the middle of the night. Although, my Sony tv has some software issues. So I'm not too sure I can blame it on the HDMI port.

Is it worth getting a optical to hdmi for a surround sound system as atm im using aux. Worth upgrading even if its just optical?

when i first got a Blu-ray player my receiver (pretty old at that time, no hdmi input) could not get the audio from a blue ray over the optical but the same player would send the audio from a dvd. not sure if this is still a problem today. i currently use arc over hdmi and have had zero issues.

Like mentioned in the video's description: This is just a workaround for people who have problems with their HDMI-Arc connection. Anyway, there is still a severe downside when using an optical connection if you want to enjoy any of those modern 3d sound formats. Optical doesn't provide enough bandwith for Atmos, DTS:X or Auro. I just hope there will be a 'better' standard for HDMI-eArc in the future that makes connecting soundsystems and TVs/ streaming devices less of a pain to deal with.

I currently have the HDMI + optical setup mentioned at the end of the video. I'm using a 13 year old Denon AVR1612 with a 4k Samsung TV. The Denon has HDMI ARC, which is enabled, and ARC is enabled within the TV, but no matter what input I select on the Denon, audio from the TV will not pass through the HDMI cable via ARC. Interestingly though, I can use the TV remote to control the volume of the stereo, so the control side of ARC is working. That's where the optical cable comes in. For some reason, audio is still sent out of the TV via the optical jack even though the TV's audio output is set to "HDMI control" and not "optical". So with the Denon programmed to receive audio through the optical input, I'm able to get sound through the stereo but still control the volume via the TV. It almost seems like this shouldn't work but it's actually working out great. I'm getting true 5.1 surround sound via the optical cable and the sound quality is perfectly fine. I can definitely see how ARC can be problematic. I had to turn off ARC on every other device hooked up to the TV or things were turning on and off without me wanting them to. Luckily the Denon had a setting to have ARC on, but power control off. Another thing I ran across was when switching inputs on the TV, the stereo's input would also change, and it was changing to modes that didn't support surround sound. This was remedied by going into the settings for the Denon and actually "deleting" the other inputs, so it couldn't automatically change over to them. All in all seems like this can be a good setup for someone experiencing some issues with slightly older equipment.

This is great to hear! I use digital optical because my ARC HDMI broke, and I honestly can't tell the difference in sound at all. Though, DOLBY ATMOS is supposed up be best, which you need ARC to function. It bothers me psychologically even though I don't notice the difference. Ugh! Stop my inanity lol

I have a Vizio and I finally got a Vizio sound bar. As luck would have it I'm lost hooking it up. The biggest question is, are the HDMI and HDMI arc the same or are they 2 different types of HDMI cables? Also, if I want to connect my Xbox how do I do it the simplest way. Sound bar is Vizio-V Series 2.1 Model V21d-J8 Tv is Vizio E390-B1E I have the optical connection on tv.

Hello! After using it for years, suddenly there is no sound coming through my Vizio sound bar when using my Apple TV 2. It works when watching basic cable, but not Apple TV. Any ideas?

I can use my tv speakers as channels if I connect an optical cable making my 5.0 soundbar 7 but I'm wondering if it's worth the loss of vertual Atmos?

Thank you for your video. My tv Samsung Q90R only ARC capable, Soundbar Samsung HW90 with eARC HDMI port and 2 other HDMI ports. Panasonic blu ray player with HDMI audio out and HDMI video out. Samsung TV with one box connection har 3 HDMI and an ARC HDMI. How do I have to connect those to get lossless audio from my Panasonic playing 4K disc to my soundbar? Thank You very much in advance.

My issue was the other way, my samsung tv use to wake up at night when connected through optical cable but it stopped happening when I started using hdmi arc port. It was good to know the cause now.

I just purchased a Bose smartsoundbar 900. My Damsung tv has ARC hdmi connectors and optic connections too. I am wondering if optic would be better being that I only have ARC hdmi? What is your opinion on this?

if i want to.use optical instead of arc to send tv audio to my processor do i need to turn arc off in the tv. thanks tom

I use Tewtross DAC Digital to Analog Audio Converter (SPDIF Optical to Aux) with an AUX splitter. So I am using my TV, Soundbar and 2.1 Speaker system all of them together. With bypass all are in sync and no delay. Wonderful experience. Maybe in future I will buy a good earc sound system to use with my C2.

Great breakdown. Thank you so much.

Is there a device that I can use to connect my record player to my USB or optical soundbar input?

Thank you very much for the information. Great video.

I have a problem. Maybe you can give me a suggestion. I have an tv with hdmi and optical out and I have an tv box where I stream movie from internet,the tv box only have hdmi - the picture quality is fantastic, but the sound is good but not so loud as the life tv channel (I have set the sound to max on the tv box) so I have to turn op the sound on tv when I use the tv box - it works ok But when I go back to see live channel then the sound is way to loud if I forgot to turn the sound back to normal! So I was thinking that I want to use the optical out on tv - convert it to analog and send the sound to my audio amplifier - or is there a better way ?

I am wondering if there is some delay introduced with optical. I am running hdmi video with optical audio and there seems to be a slight delay in audio. Today I going to try hdmi for everything And or try shutting off the auto sync.

When I run arc or Earc I eventually get audio lag on ALL streaming.(YAMAHA RECEIVER) I HAVE DONE EVERYTHING. WILL OPTICAL HELP THIS. CAN YOU HELP ME

I had my Samsung 2012 smart tv and works perfect with my sonos bar with the optical I change last year Samsung criystal UHD 2021 and now I can’t figure out i don’t have sound come out from the tv idk what happen I’ll try everything and nothing. You thing you can suggest me something .??

Is this why I have bad lip sync issue with my new Q990b? Bc it has eArc but my LG B7 only has Arc? The sound bar is a 11.1.4 system or w.e Am I only able to send it 5.1? I'm not actually using my TV if that matters. It's coming from Nvida Shield Pro with a 2.1hdmi cord

But didn't you say that streaming services only output Atmos through compressed 5.1? If so will you get Atmos with Optical connection or only through HDMI? And as its compressed will you get Atmos from the streaming service if your TV only has ARC and not eARC? My Panasonic TH-50730EZ has ARC only but does have and optical out too. However it doesn't list Atmos support but does list Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus and HDR10. So hoping when my new Samsung Q800B Soundbar arrives tomorrow Ill be able to get Atmos via Netflix and or Amazon Prime both of which are included Apps on the Smart TV.

If you don't need the optical cable, with AV Receivers... HDMI I found to be better - because the receiver uses HDMI for OSD display.

ive been using a cable for about 5 years and its started to do strange things to the TV from the laptop so ive ordered a fiber cable , i think the plugs might be a bit worn out

Is it possible to control the Sonos volume (amp via optical) with the LG Magic Remote?

I currently have a Panasonic SA-BTT490 cinema surround system connected to a Samsung QLED television. I also have a Sky Q box connected. When using sky the TV sound is echoing the cinema sound - any ideas appreciated. Connected with an HDMI ARC cable and optical

I got a lot of electronic noise using ARC until I changed to optic

i have about a 10 year old tv ready for an upgrade although my stereo system died. i want to get a new theatre system and love the sonos products although i will only be able to run it through an optical cable, and since sonos don’t provide a seperate remote for the volume control i don’t know if it will sinc to my tv remote if it is using optical. does anyone have any ideas?

Good video. My old 4k tv worked fine with my receiver i plug my computer into my receiver and then the receiver into the TV but this new 4k TV i bought it says no signal. When i press menu it shows so im going to have to try optical because my comp works fine when plugged direct into the TV but not through the receiver

HELP ! I have a 2019 LG webOS TV SJ8500. I connected the Roku stick to an HDMI port but my sound is not great on streaming apps (AppleTV & Max) and I can barely hear the dialogue from the background music on the show. So should I connect the Roku stick to the HDMI ARC port ? Will that give me better sound ? Or is the ARC port ONLY for soundbars and external devices ? The Sound Out setting on the TV is currently on "Internal TV Speaker + Audio Out (Optical)". This is TOO MUCH for me to understand !!

Can I use my Sonos Playbar with a Roku ultra for sound on the Roku Thanks Mike Powers

Do i need a hdmi 2.1 cable for earc? or can i use a normal hdmi cable

Hello ! I have the Onkyo HT-R390. When I try selecting the listening modes options, the display does now show me any DTS or Dolby D options. 1) Does that mean my source is not transmitting DTS or Dolby D? 2) I ask because Im using a optical audio cable, so maybe that would be the reason; 3) I can select Neo 6 DTS and that option lights up a red DTS logo on the display, but does that mean Im getting DTS 5.1 from my BDs or is it just upscalling stereo to 5.1 speakers?

I’ve bought the LG C3 along with top of the line Soundbar by LG the optical IMO allows for better surround sound quality over hdmi and it’s noticeably different on my setup not sure why but I love the optical output better

Great job bro! 😎👍

I need a suggestion I have a B6 series soundbar from samsung and my tv is also from samsung the problem is my tv supports Q-symphony but my soundbar doesn’t But my tv also supports dual sound via optical shall i switch to optical for dual sound or should i continue to use my soundbar via hdmi Earc Any suggestion is appreciated Thanks

Hi brother. Can we make bluetooth speaker and hdmi work together?

Thank you so much for your SONOS critique and suggestions for improvement. My greatest hope is that the company will carefully and seriously review all the info you present. I would add ongoing, annoying and inexcusable connectivity issues. SONOS will inevitably loose current and future customers (read money) if they don’t quickly make the improvements to their systems that are sorely needed. That said, my two subs might be able to be transitioned into very effective binoculars after 14.12 and 14.14 “updates”.

My Epson projector has 2 reg hdmi ports and my Bose 900 has only hdmi arc or optic. Will using the optic on the 900 and converting it to hdmi on one of the hdmi ports and fire stick in the other hdmi port on the projector. Will this work? Please help thanks

i use an optic fibre HDMI cable for a longer length. Works perfectly; no issues with this kind of cable, with my Sony Bravia TV. Monday am 15th May 2023. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Southampton England

I’m still a 2 channel guy and I connect ALL my sources to my new 85” Samsung tv then just feeding the audio to my new Emotiva PT1 pre-amp that feeds their A2 power amp which feeds my BOSE 901s which I will never part with. It’s easy and sound fabulous.

I have a LG TV I believe has ARC, but i have a Bose Solo 5 Sound bar that I connect to the tv using optical because it does not have HDMI. I am searching for a solve because my PS5 has good sound quality through sound bar cinematically but voices drop. I can't sort out if it is the PS5 or the streaming service or game because it happens in a variety of applications. I could play a movie in Paramount Plus and Appletv will handle it fine through same setup but PS5 will play all sounds except voices. My setup is HDMI to every device except optical to the sound bar; all connected directly to tv. Any help is appreciated, if there is a video addressing PS5 sound issues with solves and setup. thanks

I use the optical out of the CD player straight into the Onkyo AVR, for the rest of the other devices it is HDMI arc.

I have an LG c2 television capable of earc as well as a vizio soundbar capable of earc. I have turned earc on but it only ever works as an arc connection. How so I fix this?

I’ve literally never seen nor heard of anyone having the problems mentioned with HDMI.

You had mentioned in your video that Optical and HDMI ARC can send a “compressed” Dolby audio signal. Did you mean to say “lossy” signal, since Dolby TrueHD is also compressed but lossless?

Does optical have any less delay than HDMI? Like if you're having AV sync issues with HDMI would using optical offer any benefits?

Great video 🍻

I only just changed over to eArc and honestly optical is so much easier, eArc can be so finicky

One hidden bonus of optical: When lightning destroys all your HDMI ports on your TV as well as your receiver, you can still fall back onto your optical connectors. Found this out the hard way.

Great video! I was hoping to get a quick clarification from you. I have a Onkyo TX-SR806, circa 2008. Back in the day this was somewhat high end and supports Dolby Digital+ and TrueHD along with DTS HD Master. I have a Google Chromecast connected to it via HDMI and then it connects to the TV via HDMI. I find that the HDMI connection does not always work but cycling the power on the TX-SR806 one or more times will fix it. When it fails to connect, if I plug the Chromecast directly into the TV (via HDMI) it seems to work. I suspect the HDMI related electronics in the quite old TX-SR806 may be the issue. Until I decide to upgrade to a new receiver, to eliminate this hassle, I suspect I can hook the Chromecast to the TV, then use an optical cable from the TV to the TX-SR806. I currently have a 5.1 surround sound speaker setup. From poking around on the internet, I am under the impression that the optical cable does not support Dolby Digital+ but does support Dolby Digital. Realistically, does this mean I might be giving up some sound fidelity when using a streaming service such as Netflix with my 5.1 surround sound speaker setup powered by the TX-SR806 if I should switch to using an optical cable as described above?

Good video! Is there any adapter to change optical into 3.5 or 1/4" audio?

earc can also do 7.1 and passthrought if your sound system has a hdmi in and out

Tv has eArc and soundbar has 5.1 Arc the sound coming only from2.1 😢channel . How to get sound from 5.1 Can you help

I'm having a issue here I plug in my HDMI Into arc Into my sound bar And I lose some of my Picture quality on my TV but when I disconnect it And I use only opt cord The picture is perfect can you tell me What is wrong could it be that I am using 2 different HDMI cords I'm using the xbox series x HDMI IS 2.1

Nothing but problems using my Bose, 900 sound bar with the HDMI arc. I would get no sound sometimes in the morning when I turned the TV on and would have to unplug the TV and sound bar to get it to work. Sometimes it would randomly switch back to the TV speakers. I switched to fiber optic, and all the problems went away.

I like optical because it’s like digital and analog at the same time

My LG TV only has arc. My 5.1 sound bar has earc. Can you suggest adapters that can convert my TV arc to earc to hear better sound than before.

1:25 which device had communication issues? or are you talking about the TV having issues forwarding certain Codecs? that can also happen for optical cables if you use them like hdmi arc (hdmi into TV and then arc/optical out). the TV has to not suck at audio stuff. (I had an older TV that didn't support forwarding eac3 (dolby digital plus) at all, so it didn't support forwarding it over optical either, sadly and my source device had to recode eac3 to ac3; this got fixed by switching to a newer tv) hdmi as an arc port only has one job though so what are you talking about? ("as it tries to do a lot") ok later on it's about certain audio devices doing stupid designs because hdmi is more complicated. if your hifi/av thing turns on your TV over hdmi in the middle of the night I'd return it probably. That's an issue of the device not the standard imo (if a device updates itself in standby and sends a wakeup command afterwards even though it was in standby earlier for example). Yes, it leaves people frustrated and might happen too often. But if you don't want to return your device: simply disable the hdmi wake up feature and only wake up the hifi, when you turn on the TV. you can disable these kinda things in tvs in both directions (receiving or transmitting wake up signals)

Anyone able to use Bluetooth audio via eARC connection from TV to receiver? Have been trying configurations for days and cannot get it to work.

My 2018 tv only support Arc hdmi. If i could be patient enough buying in 2019, maybe i can get the eArc hdmi port for true Dolby Atmos now.

I want the audio benefits of eARC, but also want the video signal to go from my pc in another room so will likely need an optical cable. How do I get the best of both worlds? Wanting to run above 5.1 system.

I need help please .I have samsung hw-q990b sound bar and vestel tv .My tv doesnt have atmos optıon.so far I connected wıth Hdmı .my tv and sound bar has arc Which one is better .I didnt try optic cable yet,İs optic cable better.will ı get atmos sound.I dont even know how atmos sounds like And on tv which options I should enable .They mantion about the passthrough or Pcm when ı watched on other videos I will appriacte if you can help me ,Sorry my english is not good , Thank you

Let's just say I have a 5.1.4 Dolbyatmos system. Can I stream all 10 channels through HDMI eARC from my tv to my home theater receiver uncompressed? I believe I can...am I right? Whereas optical is limited to 5.1

You know, it's amazing how many people covering the subject forget to talk about what's important for quite a few people personally, I have a PlayStation and Xbox, a 3-D Blu-ray player. My Roku device all hooked up. Nothing was covered in that. Also you didn't say anything about transmission speed if I'm playing on my PlayStation, which is better for me to use because I noticed quite a bit of significant lag when I use an HDMI cable through my Panasonic elite system but if I use my headphones there's zero lag whatsoever so it's being lost through the eARC channel

My tv only has ARC can i GET A receiver to upgrade to Earc sound?

Greeting from accross the Ditch ....

Maybe for a sound bar, but, for those who really have a good Home theater setup, they are going to use HDMI all day every day. Once I found out how to get sound through HDMI on sets I have in different rooms, I disconnected the Optical cable!

It's a bit confusing my soundbar didn't play on my Phillips TV through ARC

I have been using optical since 2002. Next week I will receive my new receiver and I will finally switch over to hdmi audio. I'm curious to see if there is a small or big difference

Will optical cable works from a 4K Tv to a old Bose surround system that has optical input? Thanks

My parent's Hisense tv and Yamaha sound bar failed the digital handshake via HDMI and ARC the dozen or so times i tried to connect them except one time the signal got through which was a one off. So I chose the HDMI directly to tv for video and the Optical for audio. Since my parents sound bar has no surround speakers so in effect no true surround set up, I opted to set the bluray player to down mix all audio to uncompressed PCM stereo. This way they are still getting DTS HD and Dolby True HD. This sounds richer and more full bodied than using the compressed Dolby Digital 5.1 surround option.

The cable that I didn't know exist. I started using it today as output from my HDMI extractor

Bro may I know your opinion about the affordable Lg sl4 and Samsung hw b450 soundbar?

75 4k tv and a Yamaha 7.2 receiver not 4k so use optics?

I put hdmi to my soundbar, and max volume was 40 and verry low sound. Then i try optical, max volume 100 and better sound. How is that possible? I have LG sp8ya

A question why when I connect my tv to sound bar, all the 5 speakers has voice coming out, I need help anyone? In using a Sony Tv

I have a ps4, a monitor with speakers/sound and a yamaha soundbar. The soundbar has 3 hdmi ports and 1 arc, the ps4 has only 1 hdmi, which goes to the monitor, then an optical from ps4 to the soundbar. I know that optical does not support dolby atmos or DTS, so does anyone know how i would connect to make optimum sound and vision ? TIA

I love SPDIF

I could never get my Sony 4k AV reciever to activate the subwoofer when connected to my xbox one elite. Works with every other source component just not xbox. Basically, speaker channels work fine but no signal to my subwoofer from the reciever when uaing xbox. Anybody know why?

what if you had optical Ethernet and internet no copper wire involved at all what about that one?

I also prefer optical for a single reason, HDMI BOARDS GO WRONG very often! It's my greatest fear for expensive av receivers!

You saved me spend Rs 50,000 (INR) which is 700$ approx to buy a new Denon receiver. I don't need to buy it now as my TV remote is control to control the audio reciever.