What is an optical digital audio cable?

Jacques Vaquera: You cannot just 'hook speakers up' to your TV.You need something that decodes the optical to 5.1 speakers. Then you need 5.1 speakers and an amplifier for each of the 5 speakers (the .1 is assumed to be a self-powered subwoofer).You can buy a decent 5.1 AV REceiver and speakers from B&H photo (search for "Denon Home Theater").Or you can buy a soundbar that tries to put everything into one long speaker cabinet.WARNING: Some sound bars accept left/right RCA analog and this is NOT compatible with your HDTV. Look for the ones that accept optical....Show more

Neville Dautremont: https://www.google.com/search?q=optical+cable&rlz=...

Barton Sease: An Optical Digital audio cable is a glass fiber or clear plastic cable, normally sheathed in black plastic, used to carry optical S/PDIF signals from (in this case ) your TV to your Sound Bar or Receiver that powers speakers for audio that is superior to what is provided by built-in TV speakers.S/PDIF (Sony! /Philips Digital Interconnect Format) is a digital audio signal capable of up to 7.1 multichannel sound. It comes in two kinds, Optical and "Coaxial" (an electronic signal over an RCA style cable). The Optical version is also known as Toslink (TOShiba LINK). The Toslink carries pulsed light from a laser diode and has a squarish connector and a cover over the Output so the laser won't blind you.Of course you need an amplifier of some sort - you can't connect speakers directly to Toslink... here's info about S/PDIF and Toslink:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIFhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOSLINKHope this helps clear up any confusion... Good luck!...Show more

Nancy Mansell: Never mind to much what exactly it is, except to be sure to get a speaker/sound system that has that for an input. If you must know, it carries a digital audio signal, up to 6 channels, on one optical conductor.Your speaker system needs extra hardware to deal with it.

An Trebil: - You can use ! a audio cable and plug a output device (such as computer, game! console, dvd or blu-ray player.ect) into a input device such as a receiver. Passive speakers plug into the receiver (receiver is amp).- You can use a audio cable and plug a output device (such as computer, game console, dvd or blu-ray player.ect) into a input device such as a home theater in a box. Passive speakers plug into the disc player (disc player is amp).- You can use a audio cable and plug a output device (such as computer, game console, dvd or blu-ray player.ect) into a input device such as active speakers (built in amp in speakers). (Soundbar speakers, computer speakers, regular speakers.ect). (If computer speakers does not have regular audio ports, then it should have green fronts, black rears, orange center+subwoofer ports that plug into those same ports on a computer's sound card).= I recommend a receiver and passive speakers because the components are separate. = Some manufacturers are good at making receivers (amps) but terrible at speakers and vice versa. ! = If one of those two components break you don't have to toss the other.ect= I do not recommend home theater in a box systems because the components are not separate. = Everything is bundled and thus you get a crappy disc player and crappy amp and crappy speakers. = If one of those three components break you have to toss the whole thing because they are not compatible with anything else.= Along with a receiver and passive speakers, some people like to use cheap active speakers to knock around with. If you do a lot of tv watching or game console gaming.ect you can use a soundbar for audio or if your on your computer a lot you can use computer speakers for audio.= (Audio cables: DisplayPort, HDMI, S/PDIF Optical, or S/PDIF Coxial carry digital audio). (Red/White or Headphone jack carry analog audio).- DisplayPort (v1.0 to v1.2) or HDMI (v1.3 to v1.4) cable: Up to 7.1/24bit/96khz or 5.1/24bit/192khz (192khz for PCM). Up to 8 channels (7.1) uncompressed PCM and lossless compres! sion surround sound formats DTS-HD-MA or Dolby TrueHD and lossy compres! sion surround sound formats DTS-HD-HR, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS 96/24, DTS-ES Discrete, DTS, or Dolby Digital.- S/PDIF Optical or S/PDIF Coxial cable: Up to 5.1/20bit/48khz (96khz for DTS 96/24 and 192khz for PCM) (or 6.1 DTS-ES Discrete) (24bit optional). Up to 2 channels (2.0) uncompressed PCM and lossy compression surround sound formats DTS 96/24, DTS-ES Discrete, DTS, or Dolby Digital.= Tip: If you have a receiver (input deveice) and/or output device that does not support DTS-HD-MA, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD-HR, or Dolby Digital Plus bitstreams, you can tell your output device to decode it into PCM and then send it over the hdmi cable to the receiver.- Some examples of good low end surround sound speaker brands that I recommend are: Polk Audio, Energy, Monoprice, Klipsch, JBL, M&K.ect- Example of good low end surround sound speakers = Polk Audio Blackstone TL Series TL1600 or TL1900 or TL2600 or TL350; Energy Take Classic or Energy RC Micro; MonoPrice 9774; Klipsch HD Theater! series 300 or 500 or 600 or 1000; M&K Movie; JBL SCS 145.2 or JBL CS480.- Good low end surround sound speakers will cost somewhere around $300-$900 (crappy low end speakers will cost less than $200 and that's when it's not on sale) and mid end surround sound speakers will cost somewhere around $1,000 and high end surround sound speakers will cost more than $1,000.- Note: Klipsch sued Monoprice for copy infringement. Monoprice's 9774 5.1 speakers (they don't have it anymore) copied Klipsch's Energy Take Classic 5.1 speakers. (Monoprice 9774 would have cost about $248-$278 and Energy Take Classic for $399). (I saw the Energy Take Classic 5.1 speakers on sale at crutchfield for $200, but they are not on sale anymore atm).- Some good high end receiver brands that I recommend are: Onkyo, Pioneer, Denon, and Yamaha.- Good low end receivers will cost around $300-$900 (crappy receivers or stereo receivers might cost less than $200 and that's when it's not on sale) and high end rec! eivers will cost more than $1,000.= I recommend a new low end 7.1/7.2 s! ystem, but you have to find one on sale yourself tho. (If your on a budget then just get a low end 5.1/5.2 receiver, a high end 5.1/5.2 receiver is not worth the extra money and you would be better off getting a low end 7.1/7.2 receiver, high end 7.1/7.2 or 9.1/9.2 or 11.1/11.2 .ect receiver is only ok if your rich or if it's on a massive sale)....Show more