Totally dumb question

Parachoute

What is the best way to wire a dvd to a a/v receptor between analog (rca: red, white, yellow), digital (optical), digital (coaxial), analog component vid

engtaz

Best are optical or coxial. Both are digital audio. HDMI or component cables for video.

engtaz

michael_w

My vote is for coax.

jjeckelxz5

why not hdmi for sound also?

McLoki

HDMI would equal or exceed digital coax or optical (depending on source), but since the OP did not mention it, I do not know if his DVD or AVR support them.

tecmo04

i like optical.

ben62670

Coax for sure. Optical has to go from digital to optical, and from optical to digital. Unless real long runs are necessary coax beats optical in my Sony/Outlaw 990 setup.
Ben

Fongolio

+1 for coax

Fallen Kell

ben62670 wrote: »

Coax for sure. Optical has to go from digital to optical, and from optical to digital. Unless real long runs are necessary coax beats optical in my Sony/Outlaw 990 setup.
Ben

huh? Optical is digital... If you mean it has to convert from electrical (electrons) to optical (photons), then yes there is a conversion. However, depending on your situation, it may well be better to NOT have an electrical connection between components to keep noise from being introduced and propagated. Now, that doesn't mean it is always the best, as you pointed out that for your the optical out/in on your setup is worse than the Coax. This happens a lot of times because it is expensive to make a quality optical converter, and in the consumer electronics industry, the difference between putting in a quality optical convert could add an additional $50-100, which might be the difference between a over-priced part which does not sell.

Coax is a lot cheaper to produce a quality output, and thus many times will be a much better connection, but it depends on the equipment. If you go out and buy a $1500 DVD player, then you can probably expect that the optical out on it will be a quality optical out, and in terms of sound quality, equal to the coax, with the additional benefit of allowing you to electrically isolate the DVD player from an audio pre-processor.

So in this case, "it depends" is really the best answer. For the most part, you can be sure the coax will have a very good output. If you have the right equipment, your optical connection will also be a very good connection, and will not suffer from electro-magnetic noise that can be introduced into the signal along the wire run, or electrical noise from the DVD player's power supply or pre-processor's/receiver's power supply, as well as keep any ground loops from being introduced by the addition of the DVD player (rare, but it can happen).

michael_w

Great response! I had never actually taken into account the shielding issues when you compare optical versus coax. It sounds like optical is another technology that has potential but again, as per customer demand and mass market gear, is never really utilized fully. I mostly stick with coax because I haven't noticed a difference between the two with my setups and coax is much more rugged since you don't have to worry about cracking a cable.

Face

Coax sounds better IMO also.

My PC is used as a music server and has a digital coax and a optical out. The coax sounds better by a obvious margin.

zingo

Two arguments for optical are no electrical interference and connecting two components without them being electrically connected (think 60hz hum).

Two arguments for coax are no conversion of signal and cables are more flexible and less fragile.

Parachoute

When I first start the thread, I thought it was a pretty dumb question. You guys are turning it in a really relevant question. It's great, I'm learning a lot! thanks

engtaz

Yes it's is another cable debate. Wow something new.:D I am sorry, I just get a laugh out of cable debates because of the passion people have about it.

engtaz

danger boy

i don't know about sound quality.. but I like coax too.

Rivrrat

I went with optical for the single reason that I play in that world at work, and there, optical is king (like that matters with this stuff). I've thought about getting a coax cable and seeing if it makes a difference, but I think for most people either would be fine.