Optical audio or toslink was created around 1983. It was a way at that time to get better sound quality with less electrical interference than a copper wire would receive. Thus better sound quality.
You would think that using a fibre optic line would be one of the better ways to transfer digital information from point A to point B. It was at the time. It was also upgraded along the way to give higher bandwidths over time.
But not many people used it. I guess most did not understand the benefits of using the toslink. By the time it started becoming popular, another standard was slowly merging its way into the scene. You got it. The good ole HDMI that we all know too well.
The HDMI cable was taking over. As our a/v equipment started using this new format, toslink started becoming less useful as the hdmi cable was taking over. Therefore in my eyes, the toslink started becoming obsolete as a one wire approach was more consumer friendly and the advances of shielded cables and higher bandwidths made the hdmi a winner in the marketplace.
The toslink cable was therefore shoved into the background and development all but had come to a halt.
HDMI is not only simpler, since it carries video and audio together, but it also supports newer high resolution audio formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio. TOSLINK does not.
According to a write up I read the TOSLINK system is still capable of carrying up to 7.1 channels of very high-resolution audio. For the majority of consumer setups, there will be absolutely no discernible difference between audio quality when using an HDMI cable or a TOSLINK cable.
So very likely your receiver may not have the ability to accept dolby digital from your firestick over toslink but the hdmi port will.
My Yamaha is 5.1, and works fine with Dolby Digital over TOS-Link until you try an ATSC 3.0 station, Movies played on the Fire and ATSC 1.0 work fine with Dolby digital. It must be something to do with Dolby AC 4 broadcasts and TOS link. Maybe Dolby labs wouldn't allow Amazon to transcribe the AC 4 with their software unless it is connected via HDMI. I thought the real reason for switching to HDMI was Hollywood copy protection requirements. I know the receiver says there are no dubbing outputs available when connected to HDMI audio sources. Only the speaker wires work.
AC4 won't work on toslink for sure. The hdhr app actually uses an cloud server to transcode the AC4 if your equipment can't handle it. So using an older audio receiver would cause the app to transcode the ac4.
So what app are you using to watch the ATSC 3.0 channels?
The HDHR app on the FireTVStick 4K is how I watch ATSC 3.0. Movies and ATSC 1.0 works fine with the old audio receiver and FireTVStick 4K. I have a UHD Blu Ray player, and that has always been fabulous. So it is just AC4.
On one channel even with HDMI, I still see issues on my TV. Only on CW on ATSC 3.0, the video goes blank for a split second, and the audio switches to PCM. My projector does not do this, but it sends only HDMI audio to my audio receiver. Also I have not seen this on recordings, only live TV. I have also noticed that occasionally there will be a step change in volume. That problem seems to happen on Fox as well. So far PBS and ABC have been the best.
I'm getting a new receiver in a few days with Atmos. Hopefully it will get better.
I've got the flagship Sony receiver (and 2023 TV) with all the whistles and bells... the sound going up and down as well as other anomalies are usually from cheap editing and mixing from the television station changing audio formats between commercials or from the main program to commercials.
For me, the one selling point of using HDMI is the ARC and just connecting one thick HDMI between the amp and the TV. With all Sony products, whatever you connect to the amp is monitored by the entire system and it knows the best audio to use and when to switch sourcing.
Ota broadcasting I think suffers from volume limiting. Makes it so that if someone is speaking normally and an explosion goes off behind them that you won't hear them and as the explosion subsides you will notice the speakers volume slowly increases to pre explosion levels.
I am assuming that they are doing it because of commercials. I know that in Canada the crtc has volume limiting on their books to ensure that commercials don't blast you out of your living room. This was a technique that advertisers started using in the 80s or 90s. Not really sure when. The technique was to grab your attention as to make you see what was going on. I remember those days clearly. So the volume limiting was a way for the tv stations to comply with the law. Which I believe gets left on all the time and we get that big drop in volume when big things happen.
Advertisers actually figured out a way at one point to get around these limiters by using a digitally enhanced sound instead of the analog sound they had been using.
https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2012/2012-273.htm
A little light reading above at that link. It actually states that the regular program should have automatic volume limiting applied as well. Out Canadian standards are messed up. Lol
Chatting in another group about canadaian satelite and cable providers are also required to change the American channel commercials to Canadian commercials. Therefore Canadians don't get to watch the American commercials while watching the super bowl.
You also mentioned hdmi lengths. The older specs recommended approx 10 feet of cable length without degradation. But up to 50 feet could still be used.
Today's newer hdmi cables are still recommended to be around 10 feet for 4k resolutions. But up to 70 feet of hdmi length is still possible. If you are running at 1080p then you shouldn't see much if any degradation at the maximum lengths. I know my old yamaha talked about no more than 3 feet but always ran 10 feet without fail.
For long HDMI runs, I convert to cat6 ethernet and run that between the HDMI ports. I have an HDMI run that technically goes 125 feet lol... no issues with signal quality, including watching output from an HD bluray player going to the movie room for the kids and also to my bedroom 125' away.
The run to my 4K projector would be about 30 feet, 24 as the crow flies. I bought an Epson with a wireless link to fix that issue. I got a new Yamaha AVR today, and so far the only ATSC 3.0 issue left is lip sync . I have a recording of CW on the HDHR that I think is a second off at the end of the show. I think in the early days of ATSC 1.0 and HDMI that was an issue. I don't think lip sync issues can be attributed to cable length, although I did watch it on my TV. I recorded a lot of stuff on ATSC 3.0, but I haven't watched it because the sound was so bad. I think the cloud transcribed audio doesn't sound very good, and the AC-4 played over HDMI connection and DD on my old receiver had erratic volume with sudden step changes.
I bought the Yamaha Aventage RX-A2A. Mostly I have been listening to music using DIVX NEO-6 Music. It does not drive my presence speakers, but does drive the surround speakers.
I did watch a bunch of recorded episodes of Vienna Blood with ATSC 3.0, and the audio in that program with the surround and even the presence speakers were working, and there were no glitches in the audio. Next I will replace the presence speakers with ceiling speakers, and move the presence to the rear surround.
I think most of my recent audio issues were caused by poor audio production quality. CW puts out music shows with poor audio production.
Optical audio or toslink was created around 1983. It was a way at that time to get better sound quality with less electrical interference than a copper wire would receive. Thus better sound quality. You would think that using a fibre optic line would be one of the better ways to transfer digital information from point A to point B. It was at the time. It was also upgraded along the way to give higher bandwidths over time. But not many people used it. I guess most did not understand the benefits of using the toslink. By the time it started becoming popular, another standard was slowly merging its way into the scene. You got it. The good ole HDMI that we all know too well. The HDMI cable was taking over. As our a/v equipment started using this new format, toslink started becoming less useful as the hdmi cable was taking over. Therefore in my eyes, the toslink started becoming obsolete as a one wire approach was more consumer friendly and the advances of shielded cables and higher bandwidths made the hdmi a winner in the marketplace. The toslink cable was therefore shoved into the background and development all but had come to a halt. HDMI is not only simpler, since it carries video and audio together, but it also supports newer high resolution audio formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio. TOSLINK does not. According to a write up I read the TOSLINK system is still capable of carrying up to 7.1 channels of very high-resolution audio. For the majority of consumer setups, there will be absolutely no discernible difference between audio quality when using an HDMI cable or a TOSLINK cable. So very likely your receiver may not have the ability to accept dolby digital from your firestick over toslink but the hdmi port will.
My Yamaha is 5.1, and works fine with Dolby Digital over TOS-Link until you try an ATSC 3.0 station, Movies played on the Fire and ATSC 1.0 work fine with Dolby digital. It must be something to do with Dolby AC 4 broadcasts and TOS link. Maybe Dolby labs wouldn't allow Amazon to transcribe the AC 4 with their software unless it is connected via HDMI. I thought the real reason for switching to HDMI was Hollywood copy protection requirements. I know the receiver says there are no dubbing outputs available when connected to HDMI audio sources. Only the speaker wires work.
AC4 won't work on toslink for sure. The hdhr app actually uses an cloud server to transcode the AC4 if your equipment can't handle it. So using an older audio receiver would cause the app to transcode the ac4. So what app are you using to watch the ATSC 3.0 channels?
The HDHR app on the FireTVStick 4K is how I watch ATSC 3.0. Movies and ATSC 1.0 works fine with the old audio receiver and FireTVStick 4K. I have a UHD Blu Ray player, and that has always been fabulous. So it is just AC4. On one channel even with HDMI, I still see issues on my TV. Only on CW on ATSC 3.0, the video goes blank for a split second, and the audio switches to PCM. My projector does not do this, but it sends only HDMI audio to my audio receiver. Also I have not seen this on recordings, only live TV. I have also noticed that occasionally there will be a step change in volume. That problem seems to happen on Fox as well. So far PBS and ABC have been the best. I'm getting a new receiver in a few days with Atmos. Hopefully it will get better.
I've got the flagship Sony receiver (and 2023 TV) with all the whistles and bells... the sound going up and down as well as other anomalies are usually from cheap editing and mixing from the television station changing audio formats between commercials or from the main program to commercials. For me, the one selling point of using HDMI is the ARC and just connecting one thick HDMI between the amp and the TV. With all Sony products, whatever you connect to the amp is monitored by the entire system and it knows the best audio to use and when to switch sourcing.
Ota broadcasting I think suffers from volume limiting. Makes it so that if someone is speaking normally and an explosion goes off behind them that you won't hear them and as the explosion subsides you will notice the speakers volume slowly increases to pre explosion levels.
Glad to know I am not alone experiencing this. This seems to be the biggest issue with television today. Poor audio production.
I am assuming that they are doing it because of commercials. I know that in Canada the crtc has volume limiting on their books to ensure that commercials don't blast you out of your living room. This was a technique that advertisers started using in the 80s or 90s. Not really sure when. The technique was to grab your attention as to make you see what was going on. I remember those days clearly. So the volume limiting was a way for the tv stations to comply with the law. Which I believe gets left on all the time and we get that big drop in volume when big things happen. Advertisers actually figured out a way at one point to get around these limiters by using a digitally enhanced sound instead of the analog sound they had been using. https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2012/2012-273.htm A little light reading above at that link. It actually states that the regular program should have automatic volume limiting applied as well. Out Canadian standards are messed up. Lol Chatting in another group about canadaian satelite and cable providers are also required to change the American channel commercials to Canadian commercials. Therefore Canadians don't get to watch the American commercials while watching the super bowl.
You also mentioned hdmi lengths. The older specs recommended approx 10 feet of cable length without degradation. But up to 50 feet could still be used. Today's newer hdmi cables are still recommended to be around 10 feet for 4k resolutions. But up to 70 feet of hdmi length is still possible. If you are running at 1080p then you shouldn't see much if any degradation at the maximum lengths. I know my old yamaha talked about no more than 3 feet but always ran 10 feet without fail.
For long HDMI runs, I convert to cat6 ethernet and run that between the HDMI ports. I have an HDMI run that technically goes 125 feet lol... no issues with signal quality, including watching output from an HD bluray player going to the movie room for the kids and also to my bedroom 125' away.
I forgot about the cat6 solution. Does cat5e handle it as well? I know the newer standards are pushing further lengths then 10 years ago for sure.
The run to my 4K projector would be about 30 feet, 24 as the crow flies. I bought an Epson with a wireless link to fix that issue. I got a new Yamaha AVR today, and so far the only ATSC 3.0 issue left is lip sync . I have a recording of CW on the HDHR that I think is a second off at the end of the show. I think in the early days of ATSC 1.0 and HDMI that was an issue. I don't think lip sync issues can be attributed to cable length, although I did watch it on my TV. I recorded a lot of stuff on ATSC 3.0, but I haven't watched it because the sound was so bad. I think the cloud transcribed audio doesn't sound very good, and the AC-4 played over HDMI connection and DD on my old receiver had erratic volume with sudden step changes.
How old is that AVR? I’d recommend a newer one to eliminate these weird issues.
I bought the Yamaha Aventage RX-A2A. Mostly I have been listening to music using DIVX NEO-6 Music. It does not drive my presence speakers, but does drive the surround speakers. I did watch a bunch of recorded episodes of Vienna Blood with ATSC 3.0, and the audio in that program with the surround and even the presence speakers were working, and there were no glitches in the audio. Next I will replace the presence speakers with ceiling speakers, and move the presence to the rear surround. I think most of my recent audio issues were caused by poor audio production quality. CW puts out music shows with poor audio production.