If you have a fancyhome theater systemwith a soundbar and fence well-grounded speakers , then how you plug in it toyour TVis an important consideration . There are legacy options you may be more intimate with , like a digital optic orTosLink cable , butthe same HDMI cablethat you employ to join yourOLED , QLED , or LED - powered screen to your biz cabinet or jell top box can also be used for fancy Ab systems too .

Using a technology bed asARC ( or eARC , depending on your HDMI reading ) you could simplify cabling and unlock much greater support for uncompressed , lossless sound recording . That ’s not the good solution for everyone , but it ’s an intriguing option for anyone . Here ’s how to adjudicate whether optical or HDMI ’s ARC engineering is best for your home theatre of operations apparatus .

A war of audio capabilities

essentially , both HDMI ARC / eARC and optical let you send digital audio from one piece of hardware to another . The idea behind this is to be able-bodied to ship whatever digital content you be after on enjoying — from your telecasting toBlu - ray playersandgame systems — into a larger , expert audio organisation without losing any quality along the way . Without adigitalpathway , we ’d call for to win over all of those ones and zippo into an parallel signal first , and that ’s a job well left to our AV receivers orsoundbars .

Whether you ’re observe movies and telly shows through your goggle box directly   or using astreaming twist , you’re able to recollect of your idiot box as being the primary hub — everything connect ( or is built into ) your boob tube , with a freestanding speech sound system as the gimmick you ’re post audiointo .

In terms of how that signal get from your TV to the audio peripheral , there are two options — HDMI ARC(or ARC for brusque ) and digital optical .

Digital optical: The old hat still fits

build up byToshiba in 1983 , the digital opthalmic cable system was invented so consumers could convey digital audio signals from CD and Laserdisc actor to an Ab receiver orstereo scheme . Thanks to the optical cable and its singular connector — known as a TosLink ( a shortening of Toshiba Link ) connecter — we could send a digital audio signaling between two components for the first time .

That digital sign is known as SPDIF ( Sony / Philips Digital Interface ) , and it can be commit along an optic cable as a beam of reddened light , or it can be passed from A to atomic number 5 over coaxial copper RCA cables if your equipment supports it .

SPDIF can deliver uncompressed stereophonic two - channel strait , also known as PCM , as well as compact bitstream surround sound data format likeDolby Digital or DTS Surround System . But SPDIF was never stand for to hold more data than these digital formats required , and there ’s no means to upgrade it . Thus , your opthalmic ( or coaxial ) digital connection is similarly limited as to what it can do .

ocular ca n’t pass along higher - bandwidth format such as Dolby Digital Plus , Dolby TruHD , or DTS :X , because the signal just can not support them .   This intend that if you wantDolby Atmosor DTS :X object - ground environment strait , an optical cable plainly wo n’t work .

That being say , you may still get non - object - based surround strait with an optical connection — up to 7.1 channels of Dolby Digital or introductory DTS — but if you need to experience enhanced formats like Dolby Atmos , Dolby Digital Plus , Dolby True HD , or DTS :X , you need to use HDMI ARC or eARC . And if you happen to be into encoding like DVD - Audio or SACD , you demand HDMI ARC for these formats , too .

And while digital optical is limited to these old data format , that does n’t mean it sounds bad . you could still get really ripe - lineament surround auditory sensation out of an optical connection . So if that ’s your only choice , then use it !

What’s the difference between ARC and eARC?

As great as HDMI ARC is from an improved bandwidth point of panorama , it too is modified . It can back up Dolby Digital Plus , which is what nigh every streaming inspection and repair today utilize to hand over high - quality surround sound with or without Dolby Atmos . But that ’s where it stop .

If you desire to send very - gamy - bandwidth digital audio data formatting like Dolby Atmos , Dolby TrueHD , DTS :X , DTS - HD High Resolution Audio , or DTS - HD Master Audio from your TV to your audio train , you ’ll need the additional capacity ofHDMI eARC . And while almost any HDMI cable length that can suffer ARC can also back up eARC , that is not true of the components you ’ll be tie . verify that both your tv set and the machine you ’ve connected it to , have the HDMI eARC label on their several ports , or it might not work .

You ’ll take a comparatively modern TV to take advantage of eARC , though , as it needs thenewer HDMI 2.1 portsfor that functionality . concerned in an upgrade ? Check outthe honest TVsavailable today .

HDMI ARC: remote control

Besides the enhanced reasoned tone , using an HDMI ARC connection let you take reward of HDMI CEC — or Consumer Electronics Control — which lets you change the volume of your soundbar or AV telephone receiver with the volume clitoris on your TV remote , turn everything in the system on or off at the same time with just one power clitoris , and perform some other clever tricks .

but put , if you have the option of usingHDMI ARC ( or eARC ) between your devices , go with this option for the most optimized home dramatic art experience .

Streamlined cabling

One of HDMI ’s chief strengths is its ability to send both digital audioandpicture from a ten thousand of sources to your TV , projector , or Ab receiver . Digital optical , on the other hand , is only capable of institutionalise audio from one component to another .

HDMI has always possessed the ability to send digital telecasting and audiofroma ingredient to your TV , but the veridical magic demand in the gain of ARC / eARC is that the same cable can be used to institutionalise digital audio back to the same element from the TV . So , one cable , three potential digital signals . That mean you do n’t need an HDMI cable for one affair , and an optical for another , you’re able to juse use a individual string of HDMI cables from gadget to gadget and it ’ll handle everything .

How do you use HDMI and digital optical cables?

Connecting both types of wires could n’t be easy , although HDMI ( and optical , to an extent ) are go bad to demand a few tweaks in your TV or receiver ’s preferences .

With ocular , just stop up one remnant of the transmission line into your TV or the optical output of a standalone component part and the other end into the optical stimulus of your Ab receiver or soundbar .

With HDMI , simply link up one end of the cable to the HDMI port marked ARC ( or eARC ) on your AV pass catcher or soundbar and the other end to the interface mark ARC ( or eARC ) on your goggle box . From there , though , you need to go into your television ’s audio background and check a few things .

For those of you using HDMI ARC , you might desire to first go make certain that HDMI CEC is turned on , if that ’s an option . Some system wo n’t turn ARC on until you turn CEC on . Next , go into your audio output options and choose either HDMI ARC or digital opthalmic .

For those of you using the optical connection , you ’ll want to go one step further and select either PCM or bitstream . Choose PCM if you have a two - channel soundbar , even if it does virtual , fake surround sound . And choose bitstream if you have a surround audio soundbar that decodes Dolby or DTS so that it gets a legit surround sound signaling .

All this said , if you do have HDMI ARC or eARC on your television set and your audio gimmick , our advice is to utilise that over optical . It ’s superscript , no doubt about it .