ds6161

OK here goes
my reciever has only 1 optical audio in .. designated for DVD..

my new Sony TV has optical out, so does my DVD & Playstation..

Do they make an optical audio cable that has 3 inputs & 1 output??
that way no mater what I'm watching I would leave my reciever on dvd sound...

thankz for any info you can get me....

mbs

Why do you want optical out of your TV? My only thought is that you have an ATSC tuner in the TV, otherwise I'm missing the need for digital TV-out.

Anyhow, I think using two two-way splitters MIGHT work, but you'll have to have to ensure that all the other devices are off. Leaving one on will cause problems.

Your best solution is to either get a switcher or upgrade your receiver.

Sanitarium

Get a switch. You can't just "split" it.

ds6161

do they make optical audio switches??
I've only seen video switches & spliters......

Shagrath

I got an optical splitter off eBay to split two optical outs (ps2 & xbox) into my one free optical in on my receiver. I think I just searched for "optical splitter" and a bunch of stuff came up.

The only ones I have seen are Y-splitters, so I don't know if they make any ones that take three inputs to one output, or if you could chain a couple together to get the desired result. I'm not sure if the optical signal would degrade with too many extra "hops", but maybe someone else more technically informed could fill that in for me.

JM

Yes, they do. RadioShack had some at one point. They were on clearance, so I am not sure they still carry them.

BobDole42

A switch is the best way to go. I'm still not sure why you need optical out from your tv - do you have an hd cable box? Those usually have coax digital outputs as well as optical (it's probably labeld S/PDIF).

A few years ago, I tried using two splitter to get three optical outs into one input (2 sources into 1 splitter, and then the output of that splitter into a second splitter along with a third source). It didn't work, even with a signal amp.

Does your receiver not have any coaxial digital inputs?

ds6161

my cable box has red & white audio out ...
tv has red & white --- and optical oudio out...

right now I have the cable box wired to my reciever...
but since my new tv has optical out why not use it ...its better than the rest right??

BobDole42

If you are sending audio to your tv via the analog L/R (the red and white cables) then you aren't getting anything better out of the optical output - the tv is just converting that signal. You should use one splitter to send optical outs from your PS2 and DVD player to the receiver. I would try to get a new cable box with a digital output - it's the only way to get 5.1 sound from tv. Do you have an HDTV?

Mr. Salty

I would be careful searching for "optical splitter," because, despite the thread title, the OP doesn't want to split a signal, he wants to combine. A switch would be the way to go.

BobDole42

If he only needs to combine 2 signals (as I believe to be the case based on my previous post), then a splitter will work fine used in reverse.