coax, optical, both? (1 Viewer)

[Shana]

I have been playing with the activebuyersguide.com for DVD players and one of the options is the coax, optical or both.

Can anyone tell me what that is all about. oye vey!

Thanks,
Shana

 

[Justin Lane]

Shana,

That is the flavor of the digital audio output coming from your player. Alot of players now have both optical and digitial outputs, but you will still run into some lower priced models which have one or the other. In functionality there is really not any difference between either output. If you get a player that has both you will not have to choose, but if you do have to choose make sure your receiver will have an available input in the connection of your choice.

J

 

[Shana]

So if your receiver has both, you only need to have one of them?

How would having both be on the DVD player advantageous?

Thanks,
Shana

 

[Justin Lane]

How would having both be on the DVD player advantageous?

Depending on what you already have hooked up to your receiver (CD player, Digital cable/satellite box, Minidisc player, etc.) you may run out of one type of digital input. Having both really just gives you more flexibility which is not a bad thing.

J

 

[BrentPollard]

No real advantage, but it nice to have choice. You could run the coax to your receiver and the optical to a Minidisc recorder or DAT deck.

 

[Tina_H_V]

Shana
One advantage would be in having both coaxial and TOSLINK optical digital audio outputs on your DVD player, then you woudl be covered pending the options on your receiver/preamplifier/processor. For instance, say you had on your receiver only two digital audio inputs which were one of each. Your DVD player has one output each, whereas you had another source component you would be using had only one of the two and you were making that connection into your receiver. That way, with the other component source already occupying one of the digital audio inputs, then the one which was not in use could be used to connect your DVD digital audio output into the unit. When shopping for DVD players, as a rule of thumb, I always check the back of the unit for available digital audio outputs and how I would be able to integrate the particular DVD player into the rest of my system. Be it that, of course, I am going for digital audio in an attempt to maximize my DVD playback experience, then, yes, IMHO, having a selection of digital audio outputs would factor in whatever decision I would make.

 

[Shana]

Thanks for the info. guys and gals, following is what my receiver has for inputs and outputs. I will have at the least DirecTv with Tivo, DVD player, and VCR hooked up to it. So, it would be better to have both?

VERSATILE VIDEO INPUTS AND OUTPUTS*The HTR-5550 has 5 video inputs and 1 video output. Four of the inputs have S-video connections in addition to standard RCA jacks. Two component video inputs and a component video output assure the best possible video signal transmission.

AUDIO INPUTS AND OUTPUTS*The HTR-5550 has two audio-only inputs and one audio-only output. The receiver provides 3 optical and 1 coaxial digital inputs including the audio portion of A/V source inputs. It also provides a digital audio output

 

[MancusoB]

I would opt for both types of outputs, as long as all the other features I wanted were included in the DVD player.
I have been shopping for DVD players, and it seems most have optical only. This leaves me in a minor dilemma, since I have filled up the two back panel optical inputs on my receiver. Though there's a third up front, I don't want to use it because I don't want a cable hanging out the front of my rack. Therefore, I should probably buy a player with a coax output to use the one coax input on the receiver.
HOWEVER, this device promises to convert optical to coaxial. Or something like this other device may be used to combine two optical outputs into one input.

 

[Shana]

Thanks for the info, Mancuso.