Your production and presentation are getting better with every video. I know it's a lot of work but you're doing an awesome job. ✌

Thanks Larry. I've been wondering that for some time. Nice to know I went the right route. Very articulate and to the point. Well done. Subbed.

Just watched your video and I really like how you get straight to the point! You don't scream or even waste time with a bunch of pointless talking about nothing, other than the issue at hand and I REALLY appreciate it!! I found you very relatable and extremely helpful! Thanks again for the video ☺️ I liked and subscribed ❤️

You made it very clear for me, thanks 😀

Thank you very much, I never knew this. Clear, concise, to the point and informative...subbed!

TY for the upload.

Thanks man! I just bought a JBL sound bar and was trying to figure this out. Can't believe this video popped up in my recommended!

Just subbed! Very professional, im glad this video was recommended to me I hope you find favor with the youtube algorithm, also thank you fir helping me switch to hdmi on my home theatre, it sounds better!!!

If your running a 2.0 or 2.1 sound bar, the audio quality should be near identical. Optical can send stereo audio uncompressed. You may get more functionality out of the hdmi cable with volume controls Ect, depending on manufacturer. If how ever if you sound bar is a 3.1 or 3.1.2 type system, the optical can only send compressed audio. Having said that, it’s still surprising good. I was installing a tv the other week and the audio was running into an old denon receiver, made before the days of arc, powering a 5.1 speaker set up. It still sounded damn good.

That’s why you are my boy cause you are always researching and finding the beast ways to do things and making yourself more knowledgeable.

This was a very informative video. I had no idea which cord was better and actually think I am using optical cord currently . I will change it to hdmi now!

Thanks for that good information !

I bought a sound bar second hand that didn't have an HDMI port but I'm finding that the audio is still very good compared to the tinny little speakers in the tv. How far have we gotten into ever decreasing returns with newer and "better" tech?

I'm 51 and since 2002 I've been using optical. My old ass was too stubborn to switch over to hdmi. Well, last week I bought a 4k receiver and finally switched over to hdmi audio. I can definitely hear the difference. HDMI audio just sounds cleaner. Optical is still good but hdmi does have an advantage.

great video,i think i will use my hdmi cable and see how it sounds, thanks

optical / tos link is still better then arc in a way , because you get less trouble shooting with getting the audio to be in sync , with the tv. Of all my exp i keep having sync issues , with arc , or sometimes it wont work at all. and tos link it works with not trouble

I have a new Bose 900 soundbar and sub. I also have a new LG TV. It has both eARC and regular HDMI I’ve plugged into the eARC from TV to soundbar. My continuous problem is sometimes the audio from the Bose just stops working altogether so then I have to switch over to the tinny TV speakers. I have older HDMI cables so I ordered new ones that are 8k top end blah blah. Any ideas as to why the Bose randomly stops working?

Hi Larry, I recently purchased a newer receiver and it has optical and HDMI but my tv is a 2014 model and only has HDMI inputs but has an optical output. I'm thinking that seeing my tv only has an optical output I'm stuck with using the optical cable to get tv audio to run through my newer receiver.

I don't have anything with arc or earc. I'm still running with basic hdmi so the optical cord is better in my situation

Just a couple of additional thoughts on this. The fiber optic cables used in home theater applications are actually made of plastic, not glass. Fiber optic cables don't really get into using glass until we get into the computer networking and telecom industry applications. Also, fiber optic cables still do have one advantage over HDMI: they are immune to RFI/EMI noise. If you are in a setting where that is of concern, then a fiber optic cable may actually be the better choice.

My av receiver has HDMI but it doesn't say ARC, so I guess it is not ARC compatible. It's about 14 years old. It has two optical in ports. SAT and video 1, can I use one of these to get the sound from my TV onto the home theatre system?

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 !!

short ans sweet and to the point. thx

if you're listening to music I definitely recommend HDMI ARC

The TOSLINK cable works every time for me, but I'm only needing 2 channel audio. My eARC on my new Samsung TV has been hit or miss.

I recently got a new LG OLED G2 TV together with a 5.1.2 sound system and it came with an optical and E-ARC hdmi port. Tested both, must say that E-ARC with Dolby Atmos is like million times better than what the optical does.

In this video you were actually “Larry the cables guy” lol

My reason is why I am using optical on my bose 700 is my tv is from 2014 and although I have arc it is buggy and constantly disconnecting, so optical is more reliable.. when I upgrade my tv once it breaks down, I will definitely use earc.

Optical cable originated 80’s, didn’t know that. HDMI Arc info, didn’t know that. Right now for my listening Coax is king. Tx for info.

So I have my sound bar connected with the optical cable. I want to switch to a hdmi but unfortunately my TV only has 2 hdmi ports. Is there an adapter of some sort that I can get to create more hdmi ports?

One thing I think should be added here. Many Newer TVs and Amps have "eARC" rather than "ARC". If you want uncompressed DTS-HD and / or Dolby TruHD audio you will need "eARC" on both your TV and your Amp / Receiver / Soundbar. Otherwise you will not be getting the higher quality Uncompressed audio.

I have an enclave 5.1 and was told optical is ancient technology that they only include for old TVs that don’t have HDMI?

Everything you said is right but… 😆 if you’re currently using an optical cable, i would argue that it’s absolutely not necessary to try to "upgrade". If all you have is a soundbar, I don’t think you’d notice any substantial improvement to sound quality. TLDR: not worth the hassle if you like your current optical setup.

I have my Sonos sound bar connected to my tv directly using hdmi in my bedroom.. in my HT room, I have my Blu-ray player connected to my AVR for audio and the video to the tv via hdmi.. My Att box is connected to my tv via hdmi but the sound is via optical cable as the eARC on my tv does not send the sound to my back to my AVR for audio.. wish I could get help from someone.. Got the Best Buy geek squad and they could not fix it.. ATT Box I think is the issue.

From the engineering and sound quality side optical is better it doesn't require power on the bus (cable) like HDMI and USB do, that power introduces all sort of electrical noise that it usually filtered out by professional equipment audio people . A more modern way few people know about is to take the HDMI signal from your computer graphics card using an HDMI to USB cable to your DAC and then to the Amp, the signal from the graphics card is unpowered and introduces no noise !

I have a Phillips Sound Bar from 2013 and a Samsung TV from 2018, The Sound Bar doesn't have a HDMI but does have an Optical and the TV only has a Optical..What can I do to hook them up???...Thanks!

Hello Larry, I just purchased an LG model SLM5Y soundbar, and connected it to an LG tv. I tried the HDMI connection, with no luck. My tv does not have an "optical out" port to hook up using that option. Any suggestions would be greatly welcomed. Thanks, Mark

How can you hook up a subwoofer and a soundbar then with only 1 arcHdmi slot on the back of your Tv...

Hi. Some Hi-Fi components you don't get rid of! ( in my case anyway)

So is there a big difference between Bluetooth and HDMI sound I have a JBL That sound very low in sound during Bluetooth settings

I want to use HDMI passthrough on my sound bar but I get static when I do so.

Well, HDMI emits extreme EMI in the GHz range. Enough to seriously restrict things like TV reception on weaker channels that would otherwise be fine. It also gets through the shielding of interconnects & devices within several meters & supresses WiFi range. You may or may not be noticing it but it's certainly measurably stronger than any other shielded interconnect EMI. The problem is twofold. 1) The HDMI shielding spec is inadequate & manufacturers are making poor long pig tail shield connections that present as infinite impedance in the GHz range, preventing grounding of EMI egress. 2) The signal is an uncompressed analogue square wave in the GHz range, so the steep rising and falling square wave acts like a much higher frequency that it really is, higher than GHz. So wire conductors present as extreme impedance as this is directly related to frequency, so the EMI is extremely difficult to shield and ground out. It can be a serious & intractable problem. Your better off using shield cat6 for video in regard to EMI egress and you better off using the lowest video resolution that is suitable for the installation. Consider the screen size & resolution relative to viewing distance to minimise the video signal frequency. The maximum discernible visual resolution is about 1 second of arc. Measure the screen size & viewing distance, then calculate the number of seconds of arc that is, will give you the maximum resolution that you can actually see on your screen. Just set your output resolution to whatever is the nearest option to that & you'll still get perfect resolution just with minimal EMI egress now.

Does the quality of the HDMI cable make a difference i have all sony and have a regular hdmi cable for the sound bar just bought a sony hdmi cable waiting for it to come in to switch it out

My question is this. I keep hearing people talk about tv’s with HDMI Arch or e Arch but doesn’t that mean everything has to be plugged into tv direct? And if tv only has 1 Arch??? I understand the benefit for tv apps. But what about say blue rays or video games, Apple TV, etc. Wouldn’t it be better to go straight to receiver? And does it matter what Hdmi the device is plugged into? And does it need to be hdmi arch to gain any benefit over optical?

So what are the limitations of optical audio?

I’m hooking up my sound bar to a Philip tv and it’s telling me that it’s doesn’t hv signal

My new Samsung doesn't have an HDMI output for my Klipsch 400 Soundbar only a USB OUTPUT. How can I fix this? It sounds terrible

The voices sounded much better in optical than earc.

Hdmi is better, problem is, some of the mainstream manufacturers like Sony, have (mostly lower end) soundbars that only decode dolby digital 5.1 through optical and not hdmi, or the tv itself doesn't send multi channel audio through the ARC port but through optical..furthermore, on soundbars that dont have rear speakers, that ability is sort of wasted since they downmix multichannel audio into stereo..i have such a set up, so im forced to have both the hdmi and the optical cable connected.hdmi for CEC and optical cable for dolby digital .. you'd think manufacturers would be clear about this but most times they are not

Soooo what’s better than lol

What about optical vs component?

Hello I really need your advise

i prefer use optical and coaxial , hdmi is worse, and the receiver or tv or any stuff bet burn,

Optical is a more stable delivery system over longer distances. HDMI biggest claim to fame is its convenience.

What's up Brother. When there's a HDMI in and HDMI out What's the HDMI out for? I've been using the HDMI in from my TV 📺 😐 put What's the HDMI out for?

As far as audio quality in a two channel setup the optical is more than suffice. No meaningful difference in audio quality.

Optical sounds better than hdmi.

Omg wtf

Optical is the best 4 2.0 2.1 stereo system and of you r a surond freak and only love the new Movie sound than music you need HDMI to make the system work like it shud me i am a 2.1 stereo system lover and i know i have one of the best sound in my city

Optical is perfectly fine for most systems. The tv behind this guy has nothing for a sound system.

get to the point buddy

This guy has no idea what he’s talking about and is just spouting audio industry hype.

If you only have a 2 channel/stereo bar it doesn't freakin' matter