optical audio VS RCA jacks

[hooklahoma]

My DVD player and my HDTV reciever both have optical outputs, but my Audio amp has only one imput. I have high quality RCA jacks that I can run from either component but if optical is that much better i might invest in an optical a/b switch.

Any thoughts??

 

[hlaustin]

Question for you on your AV receiver. Does it have a orange colored input called a digital coax input. It will look like a standard RCA jack. If you go back to using Left and Right RCA jacks you will not get Dolby Digital or DTS. So check out what your receiver has on board and if you DVD player has a digital coax out and it will help you out.
Let me know if you have any other questions on hook up of this unit.
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Hook'em Horns

 

[hooklahoma]

no digital coax input. Hell, my brand new prog scan DVD and HDTV tuner dont even have dig coax. Must be super high end stuff

looks like I'll go with the A/B switch for my optical. I'll eventualy upgrade my audio when I recover from what I spent on my HD monitor.

Thanks for your help

 

[hooklahoma]

correction

When you said coax i was looking for something that looks like a cable TV input. Actualy both my hdtv tuner and dvd has dig coax output as well as my audio amp (one audio coax and one optical input)

So now the question is ...... Is the dig coax better than the optical ? Can I use the monster cable RCA jacks to connect my dig coax or do i need a special connector

Thanks again

 

[BNB]

I've never sat down and compared both, but optical is better (fiber optic). Yes the monster cable is fine for the coax digital.

 

[OrangeHair]

Yeah, why the question about the digital coax?

My reciever at home has 1 optical and 1 digital coax but I think they are both for the dvd mode (so I have just my dvd with 5.1 sound). Sometimes I physically change the connection to get 5.1 with my tuner but not often. I assumed I could only use one or the other connection for 5.1 sound under my dvd mode. But I guess as long as only one component is turned on the amp would recognize which input is active and broadcast that sound (amp under dvd mode). So to hear your tuner plug in your tuner to whichever connection is free, turn off your dvd but set your amp to dvd mode? To hear your dvd turn off your tuner and set your amp to dvd mode. Not sure what would happen if both dvd and tuner were on? I HAVEN'T TRIED THIS. Might work, might ruin something! Maybe hlaustin can elaborate.

 

[hlaustin]

The difference between digital coax and optical.....You will not hear any difference at all. If you are sending it over a long distance then a fiber optic is prefered. For what you are doing any RCA 75ohm cable will do for a digital coax just make sure you use something that has good shielding to it. In your receiver set-up you should be able to label the fiber optic for one input and digital coax for the other allowing you to use both. Check in the receiver set-up menu under digital input assignment.