0073735963

I'm fairly new to the surround sound environment and am confused about something I saw at Bestbuy today. I swear I read a "comparison" sign that said Coaxial Digital does not give 5.1 surround sound and Optical was the only thing that would do that. I have a coaxial jack on my dvd player and wonder if that will pump out both Dolby Digital and DTS (the player and receiver support both). Did I read something wrong and/or is Bestbuy trying to get people to buy more expensive cables?

Thank you in advance!

X

Best Buy or your reading is wrong. The type of cable doesn't matter. Your coax jack will work just fine. (I prefer coax myself just for its durability and it passes DTS and DD)

Frank S

I wouldn't put it past BB to post incorrect info like this to get people to buy the more expensive Optical cables! It could backfire if they want to push a particular DVD player that ONLY has Coaxial Digital output.

PrivateJoker

Buy the optical cables at Radio Shack. ~$20 for 1.5m.

That's not cheap, but in my experience, everybody else charges more.

You can get decent cheap coax at RS as well. Just stay away from Monster. Everything they make is overpriced.

renaldow

You can get optical cables for around $9 too at places like Walmart, K-Mart, Fred Meyer's, etc. I used to like optical a lot, but have since been using coax as it seems to be a bit more reliable depending on the cable and the equipment it's being used on.

asabase

I like coax because you can use crappy old video cable instead of having to by optical cable.

Slowpc

Yea , i got mine (DOptical) at Best buy for like 10 bucks and is around 2m. Just since i working on the basement and the the optical cables are out and around ... needed to cover them all up.

Both really there is no real difference in them I think.

Blade

Optical is supposed to break more easily than coax, but unless you're going to be moving your components around a lot, or you're constantly tweaking your system, I think it's just a matter of personal preference and cost. And what your receiver and components support. My receiver has 4 optical ins and 1 optical out, but only 2 coax ins.

PrivateJoker

Fiber has a 'minimum bend radius' that, if exceeded, will cause the fiber to break. The angle is pretty steep though. Some dork at Best Buy once told me that the coax has (cough) greater bandwidth.

In my experience, if you're connect/disconnecting frequently, you're better off w/optical. The quick release is much better than torquing on that RCA jack.

The only RCAs I use are the ones I am forced to- analog audio (damn DVD-A and SACD refuse to use a digital means to transfer data) and component video. And I get nervous each and every time I disconnect them

X

What do you do, pull by the wire?

I can't remember ever having an RCA connector go bad on me. Even the cheapest video cable. But I could pull the wire out if I just pulled on that.

mrhan

I use coaxial cables for some reasons stated above. However, I have to use the optical cable for my HDTV. It didn't have a coaxial out for digital sound.