Return to the CurtPalme.com main site CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum
A forum with a sense of fun and community for Home Theater enthusiasts!
Products for Sale ] [ FAQ: Hooking it all up ] [ CRT Primer/FAQ ] [ Best/Worst CRT Projectors List ] [ Setup Tips & Manuals ] [ Advanced Procedures ] [ Newsletters ]

 
Forum FAQForum FAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist  Photo AlbumsPhoto Albums  RegisterRegister 
 MembershipClub Membership   ProfileProfile   Private MessagesPrivate Messages   Log inLog in 
Blu-ray disc release list and must-have titles. Buy the latest and best Blu-ray titles to show off in your home theater!

HDMI to Optical converter

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic   Printer-friendly view    CurtPalme.com Forum Index -> Audio
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
draganm




Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 8990
Location: Colorado


PostLink    Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2022 3:38 pm    Post subject: HDMI to Optical converter Reply with quote


        Register to remove this ad. It's free!
so my apple TV downstairs has optical audio out, yes it's old. Sadly, Apple TV ended their contract with HBO and HBO is no longer offered

I don't want to buy a new receiver, my old 50 pound Denon is still better than any of the consumer crap they make today.

Choices-
1)buy an older, used Roku with optical audio output, might be hard to find , not sure when the last one came out?

2) Buy a converter box off amazon, they're 20 bucks but really hit and miss on quality. approx. 10% of reviews are negative, which i guess isn't really that bad.

3)another option I haven't considered?

thanks for any advice

https://amzn.to/3KkyoBr
Back to top
View user's photo album (2 photos)
kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 17850
Location: Ottawa, Canada

TV/Projector: JVC DLA-NZ7


PostLink    Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2022 6:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'd take a change on a $20 audio extractor box. In fact, I did exactly that a couple of years ago. This one worked fine for me to extract audio from HDMI:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XW7HYBP?ie=UTF8&th=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=curtpalmecrtp-20&linkId=7b790aca8296c61dd682525737a2d4a3&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

The one you linked to above may work too of course. This sort of stuff isn't rocket science.

Kal

_________________

Support our site by using our affiliate links. We thank you!
My basement/HT/bar/brewery build 2.0
Back to top
View user's photo album (18 photos)
draganm




Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 8990
Location: Colorado


PostLink    Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2022 6:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

thanks , what i find interesting is that they continue to sell so many of these things years and years after HDMI became the single wire ot solve all your problems. if you look at the reviews they are not very old. So many people are not rushing headlong into the " latest AV standard", at least for their Audio section.

I guess there's a limit to how man times you can sell the same people the same bridge Wink

what does bother me is the reviews are saying these things don't output true 5.1 channel but 2 channel

I have t oconfess i don't understand all of this
Quote:

- It does not transcode audio. If your source sends 5.1 LPCM, 2 channel LPCM is sent via optical. It doesn't re-encode to AC-3 or DTS, but I suppose that's reasonable for an inexpensive device. The source device must use bitstream output for surround sound.
- It does not pass all codecs through the HDMI output. If you have DTS-HD MA coming in, you'll only get DTS going out. I'm not sure what happens with TrueHD or E-AC-3. It's not an issue for me, because 5.1 LPCM seems to work fine.
- The HDMI output does not support more than 5.1 LPCM. If you've got a 7.1 or 9.1 system, it won't work.
Back to top
View user's photo album (2 photos)
draganm




Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 8990
Location: Colorado


PostLink    Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2022 6:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

someone actually wrote an article on this, which is even more confusing, they list different boxes depending on which box your using to output HDMI signal

this is nuts

https://headphonesproreview.com/best-hdmi-audio-extractor/

for 20 bucks it looks like your buying a lot of potential problems. Why can't someone make a $40 option to do everything?
Back to top
View user's photo album (2 photos)
kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 17850
Location: Ottawa, Canada

TV/Projector: JVC DLA-NZ7


PostLink    Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2022 7:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

draganm wrote:
what does bother me is the reviews are saying these things don't output true 5.1 channel but 2 channel

Mine outputs true 5.1 as long as I feed it an AC-3/DTS bitstream.
You can google differences between Linear PCM and bitstream. Wink

You certainly can't do lossless like DTS-HD MA or DolbyHD TrueHD as toslink doesn't support that sort of bandwidth. Base 5.1 only.

Kal

_________________

Support our site by using our affiliate links. We thank you!
My basement/HT/bar/brewery build 2.0
Back to top
View user's photo album (18 photos)
kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 17850
Location: Ottawa, Canada

TV/Projector: JVC DLA-NZ7


PostLink    Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2022 7:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

draganm wrote:
for 20 bucks it looks like your buying a lot of potential problems. Why can't someone make a $40 option to do everything?

Because you can't. You can't use the lossless formats with optical. HDMI only.

Kal

_________________

Support our site by using our affiliate links. We thank you!
My basement/HT/bar/brewery build 2.0
Back to top
View user's photo album (18 photos)
draganm




Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 8990
Location: Colorado


PostLink    Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2022 8:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

thanks Kal, i do seem to recall that optical doesn't support the full 192khz/24 bit. I don't need it anyway, it's just a movie, not music. I don't need to hear someones PC generated sound effects in their fully glory Wink

I did find out that the last Roku to have SPDIF out was the Ultra 4640, should bought one when it was available, now they sell for more than new ones Sad

so it's either new Roku, i guess you have to turnoff the DTS output on the Roku?, + a converter
or used 4640 ,
probably the same overall cost

all this just to watch House of the Dragon , What a PITA
Back to top
View user's photo album (2 photos)
kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 17850
Location: Ottawa, Canada

TV/Projector: JVC DLA-NZ7


PostLink    Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2022 8:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You can certainly do DTS. Just not lossless DTS.

Kal

_________________

Support our site by using our affiliate links. We thank you!
My basement/HT/bar/brewery build 2.0
Back to top
View user's photo album (18 photos)
draganm




Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 8990
Location: Colorado


PostLink    Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2022 5:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It would be nice if they even surveyed their customers before getting rid of features.

A new, old stock sealed in box 4640 with optical audio out is selling for more on e-bay than a brand new equivalent model from Roku

at least they support their legacy stuff for very long time with updates, but their website sucks, doesn't even have a search feature.
Back to top
View user's photo album (2 photos)
kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 17850
Location: Ottawa, Canada

TV/Projector: JVC DLA-NZ7


PostLink    Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2022 5:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

draganm wrote:
It would be nice if they even surveyed their customers before getting rid of features.

What makes you think they do not? They most certainly build what people want, and they most certainly would have dropped SPDIF/Toslink on their boxes because they found that *most* people didn't want them. So why include them?
Same goes with lots of other features in receivers, computers, you name it. There may be a minority of people who want them but these companies run the numbers to see if it's worth including or having a different model that does, and if it comes back not being worth it for them from a profit perspective, it's gone.

Quote:
A new, old stock sealed in box 4640 with optical audio out is selling for more on e-bay than a brand new equivalent model from Roku

Irrelevant. It's a single unit. Not like that means that they could sell these in volume for more money. They could make a version with all the extra outputs and sell for x2 the cost, but it probably wouldn't be worth it to them. See my point above.

Never mind that you can just buy a $20 extractor as you're doing. There's no point for the company to continue to support something that 0.1% of the population uses. 99.9% of people end up paying for something they don't need. Like including MC/MM phono inputs on receivers. That's silly too. The 0.1% of people who want that can buy a $20 MC/MM preamp to feed into their receiver. Anyone who's serious about that probably wants a good phono preamp anyway, so paying for the manufacturer to put a crappy one in the receiver is just wasting money for them, wasting money for most customers. The manufacturer's not going to put in a GOOD one since 0.1% of people want it.

Kal

_________________

Support our site by using our affiliate links. We thank you!
My basement/HT/bar/brewery build 2.0
Back to top
View user's photo album (18 photos)
draganm




Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 8990
Location: Colorado


PostLink    Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2022 6:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wound up buying a used 4640, the last Roku with optical out, for $30. delivered. I think this is the best choice until these units start failing electrically or Roku stops supporting them with updates, which they seem to do a very good job of with many years of support.
At that point, it will need to be a new Roku + a China converter + whatever issues that can cause

kal wrote:
Like including MC/MM phono inputs on receivers. That's silly too. The 0.1% of people who want that can buy a $20 MC/MM preamp to feed into their receiver. Anyone who's serious about that probably wants a good phono preamp anyway, so paying for the manufacturer to put a crappy one in the receiver is just wasting money for them, wasting money for most customers. The manufacturer's not going to put in a GOOD one since 0.1% of people want it.

Kal
AFAIK most new receivers once again have a phono input now, sorry to disappoint Wink
Back to top
View user's photo album (2 photos)
kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 17850
Location: Ottawa, Canada

TV/Projector: JVC DLA-NZ7


PostLink    Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2022 6:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

draganm wrote:
AFAIK most new receivers once again have a phono input now, sorry to disappoint Wink

Seems that way! A quick/cursory look a BestBuy.com shows 55 receivers listed, 34 of which have phono inputs. Prices range from $150 to $4600. Vinyl's definitely making a comeback.

Kal

_________________

Support our site by using our affiliate links. We thank you!
My basement/HT/bar/brewery build 2.0
Back to top
View user's photo album (18 photos)
draganm




Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 8990
Location: Colorado


PostLink    Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2022 11:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kal wrote:
draganm wrote:
AFAIK most new receivers once again have a phono input now, sorry to disappoint Wink

Seems that way! A quick/cursory look a BestBuy.com shows 55 receivers listed, 34 of which have phono inputs. Prices range from $150 to $4600. Vinyl's definitely making a comeback.

Kal
yeah they sell records too, who would have ever though that

Last night i watched the new Roku, work perfectly. The unit i got look like it was used very little if at all. Really sweet solution for 30 bucks

Looks better than the old Apple TV , quite a bit better, even though I'm still down-scaling down to 720P using the roku output
a little sharper, better color saturation
Back to top
View user's photo album (2 photos)
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic   Printer-friendly view    CurtPalme.com Forum Index -> Audio All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum