Did you buy a new Samsung TV and are looking for better sound? While Samsung TV’s are great, unless you are buying some of the higher-end models, you might want to take a look at getting better sound. If you love playing games or watching movies, good sound makes all the difference – and you may want to invest in an external sound system. With a digital audio out optical cable, it’s both easy and convenient.
The optical cable is a great cable to connect your Samsung TV to an external audio system - like a stereo speaker or a home theatre.
Why do I say that?
The optical cable is a fiber optics cable which means that it is made out of plastic and glass. It uses red light to transfer audio signals. The transmission module of the optical cable converts digital signals to light signals. When it reaches the receiver at the other end‚ the light reception module converts the signal back to a digital signal.
Optical cable looks like a little door that gets pushed away when you plug in the cable to your computer. You can also see a red glow from this port if the computer is powered on. The optical audio cable has been around for almost 30 years now. It dates back to the ‘80s when it was made by Toshiba and named TOSLINK (short form for Toshiba Link). This was originally meant to connect Toshiba’s CD players to their receivers. Since then‚ optical audio cable has come a long way.
The optical cable sounds great and all‚ but why should you use it over other digital audio cables? What’s in it for you?
When you use audio devices‚ one issue you may face is the ground loop. Ground loop or earth loop happens where there is more than one path through which the electricity is grounded. This forms an electromagnetic interference and is picked up by wires‚ resulting in a hum coming from your audio devices. This can potentially damage your equipment.
To stop this‚ you need to hunt down the second ground path and get rid of it. It may not be as easy as it sounds‚ especially if you live in an apartment complex or something of that sort. This is where the optical cable comes to save the day. Simply isolate the device using the optical cable instead of your copper-based wire. That annoying hum will disappear like magic.
Actually‚ it’s not magic. Optical cables are made of plastic and glass. There is no conductor in the cable to pick up the noise.
The optical wire is also going to be useful if you need longer wires. HDMI is for short distances. The core of HDMI is copper meaning that it’s a victim of attenuation. HDMI can only run up to 15-25ft before it starts to lose the signal. With HDMI‚ longer length means lesser quality.
Now‚ why would you want that when you can perfectly go for an optical cable? As light is not susceptible to depletion‚ optical wire can carry lossless signals for a distance of up to 33ft.
It can also support multichannel audio formats like the Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 that are used for surround sound systems. However‚ optical cable does not support high definition audio formats like Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio. But‚ optical cable is still a great way to transfer quality audio between devices.
Why should you use an external audio device for your TV?
The answer to this is very simple. I’m sure you already know. All TVs have built-in speakers. But‚ although the visual quality of TVs has seen drastic improvements over the years‚ the sound quality is still… meh. That’s why it makes sense to use an external audio device with your TV to get the full audio experience along with the visuals. When you connect to an external device‚ you can use either HDMI‚ a coaxial cable‚ or an optical cable.
Using optical cable for digital audio out for Samsung TV
In Samsung TV‚ you can find the optical audio port in the back. You can use this port to transmit your TV’s sound to an external device like a stereo or home theater. What you have to do is take the optical cable and plug it in the optical audio out port on your TV. Then plug the other end to your receiver in the optical audio-in port and you are good to go!
Here’s a step by step guide on how to connect an optical audio cable to your Samsung TV.
First‚ plug in the optical cable to the ‘optical audio out’ port of your TV. This port is right beneath the ‘USB’ and ‘AUX IN’ port.
Then plug the cable to your receiver in the ‘optical audio in’ port.
When you are all plugged in‚ take your TV remote and go to the settings of your Samsung TV.
Navigate to ‘Sound’ settings.
Here‚ you’ll see a setting called ‘Sound Output’.
Change this setting from ‘TV Speaker’ to ‘Optical’.
At this point‚ you should hear the sound coming from your external device.
The process of connecting the optical cable is all very simple and straightforward.
Conclusion
Optical cables are an affordable option you can use to connect your Samsung TV to an external audio device. Almost every audio device used in home theatres like stereos and soundbars has this port. The cable itself is extra useful in avoiding noise that may affect copper-based audio cables like HDMI or the coaxial cable.
As a digital audio out cable for Samsung TV, it does work great.
Photodisc/Thinkstock
The name might be an oxymoron, like the jazz waltz "Ugly Beauty," but there's nothing off-key about transposing electrical signals to light waves to deliver powerful, high-quality sound. It's simply another interval in the evolution of audio, as progressive as Thelonious Monk's compositions. From mono to stereo to surround sound, or from analog to digital to high-def, the beat goes on.
Once upon a time, TVs and stereos were just heavy pieces of wooden furniture. They were self-contained, and their inputs or outputs were limited to antenna hookups and speaker jacks. Today, we face a wall's worth of tuners, amplifiers, game consoles, DVRs, VCRs, DVDs, Blu-rays and moribund VHS machines, to say nothing of the cassette player you keep moving but probably haven't even bothered to hook up.
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What are all those jacks for, anyway?
Just as you wouldn't pipe Pellegrino through rusty municipal plumbing, there's no point in sending high-fi audio through low-fi jacks, wires and electronics. So, as companies dream up better audio and video standards and storage media, they also add new ways to send it crisply from your gear to your ear, which is why the backs of our entertainment systems resemble a 1960s Manhattan switchboard.
It's an apt comparison, considering that the first analog audio jack, the triple contact plug, or TRS connector, was adapted from the jack first used in telephone exchanges. The tip, ring and sleeve design, in which three insulated sections of the prong handled left channel, right channel and ground, respectively, was so successful that it is still widely used today [sources: International Textbook Company; Modern Home Theater].
The Radio Corporation of America debuted its eponymous RCA jacks in the late 1940s, but the format didn't climb to the top of the charts until the early '70s. Like the Supremes, these plugs come in groups of three -- typically red, white and yellow -- each consisting of a signal-carrying pin encircled by a ground ring [source: Modern Home Theater]. Other versions of RCA jacks carry composite and component video, as well as digital audio.
Component and composite cables carry video signals but no audio. Composite cables, usually designated by a yellow RCA jack, pack all of the video info into one signal, whereas component ones split it into three channels across three plugs [source: Maxim Integrated Products].
Both require a separate cable to handle audio, which brings us back to RCA jacks and other copper-wire solutions -- and an alternative, optical audio.
Copper-based wires contend with two problems to varying degrees, depending on their shielding and quality: external electromagnetic noise interfering with the signal and resistance in the wires degrading the signal over distance.
Optical audio is immune to the first and can be free of the second if the cable quality is high enough, but it also has its own share of problems.
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