Help understanding compatibility of Optical output.
Hi, Im a newbie and need some help from you guys.
Im looking to buy a Blu-Ray player, The Panasonic BDT110 3D to be precise. I already have a home cinema systemm The Samsung HT-Z310 which has a optical digital output as does the Panansonic B-R player.
I want to play the sound via the home cinema and play the blu-ray, how do I go about wiring these 2 together as I dont want to end up buying a unit that wont do as I intend.
Thanks
Kev.
You can only do it if your home cinema has audio INPUTS. These can either be optical, coaxial or plain old analogue (Red/White sockets like on the back of your CD, Amp, Cassette deck, etc, etc).
If it has an HDMI input so much the better, this is the only way to send HD soundtracks (Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio) from the BD player.
Optical & Coaxial will send the regular surround formats but the analogue option will only send stereo which (if it can) your home cinema will have to add processing to achieve pseudo surround (Most commonly Dolby Pro-Logic II). Use analogue as a last resort*. Double check the rear of your home cinema, or consult the manual to check for inputs. Outputs aren't gonna help you here.
*I'd be surprised if your home cinema system accepts Multi channel analogue (5.1 or 7.1 as opposed to just regular 2.0 stereo), but if it does, this method leapfrogs optical & coax as the best method to send audio....... But it means buying a BD player with multi channel analogue outputs. Not easy to find and they're not cheap.
Your Samsung has an optical IN not an OUT so you could use that.
Hi, Thank you both for that, I just checked the back of the Samsung and its definately got a Optical Input as wll as the old phone inputs.
So If I get either of the players mentioned above, its simply just a matter of using the output from the player to the input on the Samsung? Any idea which would be the better of the 2 players as the review section rates them both 5*.
Also, how much would the optical lead cost roughly?
Does not really matter much as you will only really be using half of the player as you will not be using the HD sound. Just the core DD or DTS.
So on picture quality ... It also depends on what you will be showing it on.
Optical leads can vary wildly from a couple of quid upwards.
Years ago I used a Chord Optichord in much the same setup as you, and found it produced good results.
Thanks all. Much appriciated.
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** or Sony BDP S480 BR player