Need a little advice before I buy the wrong cables and waste my money. I'm moving from analogue to digital and to be honest, the cables are a little confusing. I play in a band, you need to know about XLR or TRS and I'm your man, but home hifi is not my arena. I would like to connect my computer: And my TV: To my speakers: I think the pc is straightforward (famous last words), do I just need a plain optical cable? But what about the TV? To me, a coaxial cable is like a TV aerial cable, that's not right is it? What kind of cable do I need? The connectors looks the same as each other, but they're labelled differently. Thanks!
Optical on TV's is usually an output. For me I'd go HDMI from my PC (assuming you've got HDMI on your graphics card) to the HDMI IN on your speakers (as it looks like an amp to me) then HDMI OUT to HDMI on your TV. Or HDMI from PC to HDMI on TV then SPDIF on TV to coaxial on your speakers/amp (which gives the option of playing the TV through the speakers assuming you've not got audio-return on both)
Hi saspro, Maybe I didn't explain myself too well. Yes, I was hoping the optical on the TV was an output. I don't need both together, and there's no need to connect the pc to the TV. I just want to be able to hear what’s on the Tv through my speakers OR turn the TV off and use the speakers for the pc.
The co-axial audio output (Sony-Phillips Digital Interface, or SPDIF) on the TV will go happily into the co-axial audio input on your speakers with nothing more than a cheap co-axial cable. You can even use a cheap, thin RCA cable if you've got one lying around - you know, the red-and-white analogue audio cables (and yellow video, if it's a three-fer) you get free with cheap video players and TVs. If your speakers don't have a button for switching between digital inputs - expecting only optical or co-axial to be used, not both - then it'll all still work, so long as both devices aren't powered on at the same time. Be aware that some devices are powered on when they're supposed to be powered off: my Sky+ HD box keeps its optical output switched on but broadcasting silence when the box is 'off', which prevents my amp from auto-switching to a different source. And yes: the PC just needs a cheap optical cable. Don't spend real money: digital audio is zeroes and ones, there is absolutely zero difference in quality between a £2 cable and a £200 cable in terms of audio reproduction: if the zeroes and ones are getting there, you're getting the top quality already. (If the audio keeps dropping out or FZZZZZTING with interference, though, that could be a sign your cheap cable is *too* cheap and the zeroes and ones are getting lost along the way.)
Looks like your TV is coaxial SPDIF and your computer *might* support both (orange plug + a TRSS > RCA adapter if you want coax). If all your HDMI devices are 1.3 or newer, then an audio return channel is also supported, although OTA tv would still need the SPDIF connection (HDCP is stupid).
Could you not send an HDMI from the graphics card (if there is one) to the speakers and then to the TV?
Thanks all, Optical and Coaxial cables bought and installed. TV and computer both make sounds through the speakers. This has stopped my previous solution of using the TV's headphone socket which, whilst great for the speakers, meant I couldn't use the TV's internal speakers. Now I can use the TV if it's just like Countdown or whatever and then use the speakers for movies or games. Brilliant, thanks again everyone.
Nope, HDCP at it's most retardedness. The whole encrypted stream is passed through to the TV (the amp is just a dumb switch/pass-through) and then the TV sends the audio stream back to the amplifier over the HDMI audio return channel.
