Using the digital output on TV

[Chris]

Has anyone used the digital audio output on their TV, just wondering what the sound quality is like? I have a Sony Bravia with digital optical output that I thought I could feed to my DAC, would need to get Toslink cable.

Chris.

[Really Aardvark]

Yes all the time. I have 3 optical connections to my AV amp - TV, BD, PVR. Sound quality is as good as I expect it can be and there is a lot of detail in most programmes lost when using the TV's own speakers. (I've never got my head around what digital formats the TV will pass through intact hence not relying on a single feed from the TV.)

[John Caswell]

Hi Chris,
Having been in Broadcast TV for many years, the sound quality transmitted is FM standard plus. We spent years getting quality as high as possible both video and audio, only for it to be thrown away with compression, MPEG, multiplexing etc. (I was doing high definition 20 plus years ago!!) It is all about bandwidth (= money) but at 15Ghz there is lots of bandwidth!
However I now run only Freesat on the tv and other satellite channels on a sat Rx fed from a steerable dish.
The audio from the Tv/Sat Rx is optically coupled to the surround sound amp and is very high quality, and just in case I also tried it via a good DAC into the Hi Fi.
No complaints whatsoever.
Just do it you wont be disappointed, just get a good quality TOSlink cable. The connector/cable does not require gold plating or any fancy crappani on it (it relies on a property called total internal reflection) although a glass core cable would probably/possibly be better but somewhat expensive.

John

[colin.hepburn]

Yep I have my HDTV and the freesat PVR. optical outs feed into my dac as john said just do it

[Chris]

Many thanks for your replies...will try to get TOSlink cable very soon and give it a go..

I think with the improvement of picture quality that can now be obtained through HD it makes sense to match that with good quality audio, I notice on YouTube there is more and more music videos in HD and also with Virgin there is music on demand I can only seeing the choice increasing.

Chris.

[FreddieT]

Chris,

I have both my Panasonic TV and Freesat HD box plumbed via Toslink into my Rega DAC and the results are pretty good as others suggest. I use the Freesat box for radio as well and find the result much better than a DAB radio with Toslink out.

The TV passes through the digital audio from the Freesat box (set for PCM) via HDMI to the Toslink. I find the direct result (Freesat to Rega) preferable - I presume lower jitter but haven't got the fancy kit to prove it. Stuck with the pink things on the side of my head!

F.

Originally Posted by John Caswell

Hi Chris,
We spent years getting quality as high as possible both video and audio, only for it to be thrown away with compression, MPEG, multiplexing etc.

Here's an interesting article about this topic. The sad thing is that technically, we would be able to record, edit, master whatever... the best sound quality ever. But due to music listeners' habits (and maybe other reasons?) we have mp3 mostly which means a minor sound quality. This ranges over to recording as well. So there ist practically no high quality sound recording today.