Solved! HDMI vs Optical

[kjvadas]

Review of Roku Ultra on this site claims optical audio is better than HDMI. This contradicts what I've been reading. Rather, HDMI audio can handle higher bandwidth audio formats. What gives?

 

[americanaudiophile]

HDMI will handle lossless audio codecs like Dolby TrueHD. Optical can't.
If there is any actual difference to you will depend on whether your audio system can reproduce those codecs and if your content has them.
There is no difference if you compare using HDMI-ARC to optical when you are connecting to a TV for a soundbar or surround sound system. This will change as eARC is rolled out. That can handle lossless audio.

 

[kjvadas]

HDMI will handle lossless audio codecs like Dolby TrueHD. Optical can't.
If there is any actual difference to you will depend on whether your audio system can reproduce those codecs and if your content has them.
There is no difference if you compare using HDMI-ARC to optical when you are connecting to a TV for a soundbar or surround sound system. This will change as eARC is rolled out. That can handle lossless audio.

Thanks for responding. I agree with you. I'm hoping someone from Toms responds since they wrote a Roku Ultra review and expressed the merits of an optical link which was removed from the 2017 Ultra. They indicated that the optical port would have been superior which seems contrary to what I've been reading.

 

[jsmithepa]

^What he says, if optical can't do high definition audio, does it matter if it's "better?"