Your Experience With Digital Optical Cables And Plugs For DVD, PS2, PS3 (etc)

[oldgamerz]

I was curious once and plugged in a digital optical cable into my old flat screen TV and PlayStation 2. I just learned now from a google search, that this cable and plug on many devices is supposed to makes the sound better? (not the video quality) But I never noticed the difference in sound or video. But (at that time in my life)  I was actually expecting better video, in which I guess it what a component cable is for instead

I also setup my PlayStation 2 to use this cord but nothing noticeable happened. But like I said I was looking at the video quality and not paying attention to the sound, but as far as I can tell this cord is pretty much useless on PS2, from my experience

What is your experience with a Digital Optical Cable? did it make any difference in your own PlayStation 2 or any of your devices? Me? no

in case you don't know what I'm talking about. it's what that weird little red lit plug, usually on the back of a DVD player or a flat screen television is for

and the optical plug hole lights up red when your device is turned on. even when nothing is plugged into it.

[emporerdragon]

The reason you're not hearing a difference is because you're plugging an output into an output. You need to have the cable running from the out on the playstation into the in on a sound bar or surround sound system.

[tripredacus]

You would use the TOSLink (optical) on a PS3 when your AVR doesn't have an HDMI switcher in it. Otherwise you would use the HDMI audio to handle the surround sound on Bitstream setting.

My PS3 used to be in this configuration:
- HDMI to TV
- TOSLink (optical) to AVR

Since I have upgrade my AVR to one with an HDMI switcher, I do not need to use the optical cable any longer.

Currently, the only TOSLink cables I run on anything are:
- TOSLink (coaxial) from TV to AVR (for OTA sound)
- TOSLink (optical) from HD-DVD player to AVR (because it doesn't support bitstream over HDMI)

For a PS2 or anything else, your sound configuration takes key. You would only use it for DVD/BD or SA-CD playback purposes, or if required due to lack of available hookups.

[retromangia]

Honestly I've used optical cables for many devices over the years, and I've never heard any difference between it vs regular old RCA cables. It's really not worth it. I think it's all a Placebo effect 

[tripredacus]

The audio quality claim is based on the capabilities. Does Dolby 5.1 sound better than stereo for movies? Many people think so. Stereo is Stereo, you aren't going to see an increase in quality on stereo sources using TOSLink over composite/analog.