kenratboy Posted June 9, 2004 Share Posted June 9, 2004 Is it just me, or are most DVD players (even ones at $100) not coming with optical digital outs? It seems only the most expensive players have optical digital outs, while everything else has coaxial outs on it. Any ideas? Is it just a move to save a dime per unit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damonrpayne Posted June 9, 2004 Share Posted June 9, 2004 I keep reading so many things that say digital coax is better, perhaps it is slowly becoming a defacto standard and low cost gear is only including that conection to save money? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjgeraci Posted June 9, 2004 Share Posted June 9, 2004 ---------------- On 6/9/2004 2:02:07 PM damonrpayne wrote: I keep reading so many things that say digital coax is better, perhaps it is slowly becoming a defacto standard and low cost gear is only including that conection to save money? ---------------- I think that you are right that they are saving money. However, to me, the jury is still out on coax vs. fiberoptic. Yes, I know, the traditional wisdom is that coax is better (less processing), and most of the time, I run movies or music through a nice coax. However, I just recently upgraded my optical run on my Denon 2900 to an Audioquest Optilink 3, and I really like its sound, even for music. With many available digital inputs available on my pre/pro, I run both a coax and an optical out of my 2900 (as well as analogs for SACD,DVD-Audio), then just switch around, depending on my mood. It's a shame that some manufacturers would cut down on available outputs to save money because some receivers/pre-pros have a limited number of digital inputs. After all, its good to have options. Carl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rdmarsiii Posted June 9, 2004 Share Posted June 9, 2004 Im running all my stuff through optical, and I love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted June 9, 2004 Share Posted June 9, 2004 I'm running optical and Firewire where I can and I love it. It certainly cuts down on the "spiders nets" of yesteryear! I could be mistaken, but I swear I read some place about a year ago that there was no difference in the resultant signal quality of digital coaxial and optical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicholtl Posted June 9, 2004 Share Posted June 9, 2004 Ken, funny you mention that. I usually had problems in the past finding DVD players that had coax, not toslink, since I was under the impression that coax was slightly more secure a connection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-MAN Posted June 9, 2004 Share Posted June 9, 2004 It's cheaper that way. Most consumers don't seem to know or care. Why build something in that mostly goes unused? DM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelman Posted June 9, 2004 Share Posted June 9, 2004 I've used both with good results. I think the coax might sound a bit thicker for music though. But then again i might think the optical is better for movies. So it's probally not a big deal. Although i will use coax if i have a choice in the matter. Music>movies imo, but I love and have to have both. Or i will freak out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 -------------------------------------- On 6/9/2004 8:49:29 PM wheelman wrote: I've used both with good results. I think the coax might sound a bit thicker for music though. But then again i might think the optical is better for movies. So it's probally not a big deal. Although i will use coax if i have a choice in the matter. Music>movies imo, but I love and have to have both. Or i will freak out! -------------------------------------- wheelman: Interesting that you would notice a difference as I always believed that because both TosLink and Coax are supossedly passing nothing more than ones and zeros that there would be no coloration. I'll have to set up a little experiment and give your theory a try. (Geez, when do I EVER have time ) D-MAN: I tend to agree with you. The TosLink was probably eliminated as a cost save on the less expensive units without the loss of functionality or sound quality because I would imagine that it costs alot more to provide an optical pipeline than just a simple coaxial connector. This is the same type of cost-save strategy that the auto industry uses: Now you know what happened to those lights that used to flank each side of the vanity mirrors on the sun visors of some cars: The mirror is still there, but in many cases the lights and the protective doors are gone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcoker Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 Most players I have seen come with both. There are one or two that only come with one. As far a some and most people don't know or care I think these people still use analog stereo out and think they are listening to DD 5.1. Iqnorance is not Bliss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the plummer Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 Coax makes sense to me, since only ones or zero's are transmitted through the digital cable. your equipment Recreates the sound once it receives the "road map" of how to do it. The only advantage to optical digital is if your DVD player is in New York and your Processor is in California and zero time delay is a necessity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griffinator Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 ---------------- On 6/10/2004 7:47:35 AM the plummer wrote: Coax makes sense to me, since only ones or zero's are transmitted through the digital cable. your equipment Recreates the sound once it receives the "road map" of how to do it. The only advantage to optical digital is if your DVD player is in New York and your Processor is in California and zero time delay is a necessity. ---------------- Actually Toslink is a terrible choice for such a run. Light intensity would surely fail without numerous repeaters in the chain - Tos is only an acceptable transmission medium for runs up to 4 meters. Coax can go much farther than this without problems. The real issues with either of these formats that plague cheap DVD players all over the place is the lack of isolation between the oscillating crystal and the trasnport mechanism. If that crystal and the DAC chips aren't shielded magnetically, it doesn't matter what you connect to transmit the signal, you've already lost the jitter war inside the box (unless it's one of those units someone mentioned a while back that had a BNC wordclock connection to slave to an external clock) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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