No useless intro. No screaming over excited youtuber. No 10min of filler to go through a simple point. Just precise, clear and concise information. Absolutely great, thank you a lot.

This is how UKposts should have been, no click baits and straight to the point. Thanks for your informative video.

I have been so overwhelmed by all this home theatre setup, thank you SO much for making this AND doing it so well. You are great at explaining things.

I spent an hour on UKposts trying to find fuckin answers and all it takes is a few minutes from this master tech for me to understand the ins and outs, pros and cons of an audio set up.. Good job!

I've kept an older setup all around (2010-ish stuff; if it isn't broke, I don't replace it quickly) and have never paid much mind to pushing the best audio through my Sony surround sound until I moved stuff around and all I heard was hissing from the rear speakers. I had a standard 3.5mm to RCA so was just getting stereo. Went optical and that cleaned up nicely. A port I had all the way back on old PS2 and never used it on anything. Now I'm doing so much research on how to make sure everything in my house works at its best...even at its age

Thank you. You are my hero. I've been replacing aged home theater with newer equipment and have had a lot of confusion. Can't wait to see more of your videos.

Ok, after days of scratching my head, finally a crystal clear video about ARC and also how to properly connect your sound bar and your side stuff. Thank you so much!

Thank you for this video. Because of this I now have my sound bar hooked up using the ARC port on my tv, and now it turns on and off with the TV and I can pare down to just one remote in the living room!

In something of a throwback to the old VHS/Betamax battle, the reason that optical connections are called either TOSLINK or SPDIF, despite being the same, is because they stand for 'TOShiba LINK' and 'Sony/Phillips Digital InterFace'.

That's exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks a lot, Jonah. You've explained everything with perfect visualization. Learned tons of things.

This is how information videos should be. Clear information with no filler or trying to make the video about yourself. Thank you sir.

As someone who just got a new tv and wants to get a soundbar + subwoofer to improve audio clarity - this video REALLY helped clear some technical stuff I was confused about for my setup and what it can or cannot support. Also - great video: simple, to the point, clear, no annoying intro/outro/sponsers all over the place. Grade A+++ quality video.

You speak very clearly and eloquently and explain things very well. I did not even know there was such a thing as HDMI ARC. Thank you so much for taking the time to put this video together. I look forward to watching your other educational videos!!

Great explanation, I liked the scheme shown at the end of the video, very close to my case and it really clarified me how to better connect all of the devices. Good job!

I am older and have been having so much trouble setting up my soundbar to my Fetch and TV. I finally found you and you are my lifesaver. It was so simple and all is working great. Thanks again from Australia

Set for over a year in front of my tv. Happened to bring it up today yours popped up straight to the point. No problem hooking it up. I didn't even finish the whole video 🤯😌👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

Thank you for the clarification! I’m an audio video contractor and I install countless sound bars and had a pretty good understanding but you made it absolutely clear the specifics of both optical and HDMI ARC. Thx! A BIG thumbs up!

Very helpful, and the explanation was easy to understand. Thank you!

Good video! Just a bit of clarification, likely of interest to very few; TOSLINK stands for Toshiba Link, in recognition of the developer of this early optical interface, but it does not describe the interface protocol. That would be SPDIF (Sony Philips Digital Interface), developed at the time of the two industrial giants' collaboration on the development of the Compact Disk, and indeed its data rate and format correspond to those of the CD. You may see the TOSLINK connector labeled "SPDIF", and indeed you may find the SPDIF interface implemented on different connector types (RCA connector). They are identical, but of course you need the corresponding connector at both ends of the connection you are hoping to make, and these days, in consumer devices, the TOSLINK is the most common. By contrast, you will not find TOSLINK connectors on most professional devices, (probably due to tribalism amongst major Japanese manufacturers) and indeed the entire SPDIF standard is obsolescent, but it is worth noting it was never superseded for reasons of higher quality, but lower quality and cost, as well as access to more diverse formats with greater channel counts. Obviously any skepticism you may read into this regarding the success of eArc for high channel counts without compression is purely fortuitous, and not intended by the author.

After all the videos I’ve watched, this is the only video that saved much so much time to get my new tv connected to my surround sound system. Much appreciated!

Great video, you always make these specs easier to understand. Thanks man!

Straight Blast Gym in Buford! I'm a member too

I actually just stumbled on this video as it auto loaded after another video on PCM. But I am glad it played. Thanks for explaining the differences. Right to the point with lots of info. Thanks!

Thank you so much for this, I lost my HDMI sound output yrs ago when I moved the TV, been using the Bluetooth connection, was about to get an optical cable, never new there was a designed ARC port on my TV. Thanks again.

Jonah, watched several of your videos thus far. You do a great job. Love your content and the lack of filler. Keep up the good work. Subscribed.

I was confused asf between using optical or Hdmi ARC for my tv & soundbar until i listen to this dude..now my sound is on point bcause he knows his craft..im a sub now,thanks bruh!! Salute 2 your channel.

Thank you for such a useful and clear video! Have been frustrated figuring out the setup of my new system and it all makes sense now! Thank you!

Thank you for taking us through the differences between the two.

Fam, even though I knew this, I still sat through the whole video, lol. Clear. Concise. And what I'll be referring friends to when they ask me. Keep up the good work.

This was a great video. You gave a ton of information but made it super simple and easy to understand.

Thank you for clarifying the difference between the two formats because there is so much misinformation floating around. This is perfect!

Thank you. I have an Apple TV 4th gen and an old Mac mini 2014. Getting ready to find a soundbar that is starting to look like LG SN7CY or just Y and maybe add the SPK 8S speakers later. I was confused about how to connect the HDMI and 10 videos later, yours was the 1st one to show that. So thank you again

This was a great piece of information! Thanks for that.

This was really dense and informative! Thanks for not wasting any time and explaining it clearly. I think you could have expanded a bit on what CEC is though, I don't actually know and while you mentioned it a bunch in this video, I don't think you said what it is.

Great video! Very informative. Thank you for getting straight to the point!

I love your fast paced info - please make more like this

Also it’s important to note with ARC lip sync is usually matched automatically. Though if it is off there usually isn’t a way to change it. With Toslink there isn’t any adjustment and may need to be manually set. Though with Toslink there are some CEC type of commands that can be sent. My old tv would be able to run my sound bar on or off and the TV remote will send a pulse for the volume. Less issues with sync as the TV always just passes the audio, and with ARC it must handshake first before sending audio.

I knew the 'basics' of this but the finer details were always a grey area for me. Thanks for making it very clear.

Thanks for the great video man. Always enjoy your content! Well done.

Wish all videos were this concise and clear. Thank you so much for the information.

Great explanation, finally some facts and simple info.

One of the best devices I ever invested in was the Sharc adapter that allows you to use a TV that supports eARC with a receiver that does everything but that. One of the most frustrating things is when you get some awesome, powerful A/V receiver and a new HDMI spec pops up that you want to have.

Thanks! Straight and to the point. You cleared up a lot of confusion I had.

Fantastic video. Just bought a Vizio soundbar 5.1 that supports HDMIArc and I had never heard of it. I learned alot just from your video.

Great explanation to the different audio connections to the sound bar. I’m old school 5.1 through a receiver. I need to learn these new connections and codecs. Thanks

Excellent presentation. I’m transitioning from av receiver and wired speakers to soundbar surround systems. So much easier to deal with! I think lots of people are in the same boat.

Many thank Jonah's. I manage to connect my HDMI ARC to my soundbar with your great help & assistance.!

Dude keep it simple like this. You earned subs of people like. This is a no BS Channel. All straight to the point info. Thanks buddy.

Incredibly concise and well structured information. Superb. A refreshing relief from videos with 5 minute introductions playing elevator music or fancy graphics without any information at all. This video removed any anxiety about deciding to use ARC since I probably can't even hear the difference between compressed and uncompressed sound. . . (too many rock concerts 30 years ago!)

I'm impressed to learn that optical home cinema protocol can only carry 6 channels ! In live concert production we use optical cables for up to hundreds of channels (24 bits 192kHz) (I personally never used more than ~40 channels but still, 40 is greater than 6).

Thanks so much. This told me exactly what I had been wondering

So helpful! This is the main question I had for my new build!

You nailed it I never really understood arc and EARC

Great video, thank you. I'm an installer of TV's & hook these up frequently. I prefer HDMI ARC due to the remote control having a communication with the soundbar, therefore controlling the volume. Most TV's just work automatically, but like you said, you may need to go to the settings to switch on CEC. Great advice... Cheers.

Extremely helpful information and excellent delivery. Thank you!!!

This is the best ARC video I've seen on UKposts! Great Job!! Can't wait to see your Trainspotting 3 coming out. Subscribed!

Wow, this is like taking information through a fire hose! Good stuff. I think I need an A/V tech to setup my system up correctly.

Interesting. Knew ARC meant “return channel” - ie audio from tv to receiver, but didn’t realize it functioned like toslink. Never made sense how/why HDMI cable carrying video+audio *to* TV would send audio *from* tv back the other way. Thanks for the explanation!

Nice vid! Thank you for the clarifications! My old TV had no HDMI ARC input, so I had to connect my 2023 JBL soundbar to it with an Optical cable…one way street really..!

Great explanation. Thanks for putting this together!

Nice concise summary, thanks. I have just ditched eARC in favour of optical, as my TV randomly would revert back to it's internal speakers when using HDMI. This is a common problem as I understand it, so it would be nice to have this covered in a similar way, but I guess is a way-more complex topic.

Short answer: in most TVs from 2018 onward, ARC/eARC is better.

Really helps me solving my 2 hours troubleshooting audio keep switching from my Sony KDL-50W800C to my Sony HT-S350. Thanks a lot.

Just wanted to say thank you so very much for the info and it helped tremendously 💯💪

Great explanation! also, as a tip: if your soundbar or home theater is 2.1 (stereo bar and subwoofer speaker), it´s better to output only PCM uncompressed audio via optical, because any other output (i.e. Dolby 5.1 or DTS) will decrease significantly the volume of the audio stream (due to dynamic range and processing). Hence you will have to set the soundbar volume to the MAX and even with that set, the volume will be barely loud. Try it for yourself folks 😉

I'm predicting you will have over 100,000 subscribers by the holiday season. Great information.

Good video. You have it presented where the material is easy to digest. -The HDMI ARC cable will also feed OSD from an AV Receiver. Very handy.

Perfect. Thank you for answering my question!

I tried using ARC with an older sound bar. Worked OK, but sound would cut out every once and a while so I had to go back to optical. Sound bar finally died and upgraded to surround. Using ARC with the new receiver is awesome! Seems easier and opens up additional capabilities with the receiver as well.

One nitpick: when CD players came out, in the early 1980s, there were no receivers with optical inputs. That only came about with the advent of Dolby Digital in the mid 90s. Before then, if you were going to use the optical output, it was either to connect to the input of a digital recorder, or to an external DAC, typically called a digital decoder back then.

Really good clear info, thanks. Getting my Klipsch cinema 400 tomorrow and this helped a lot. Kudos

Thanks , your information certainly clarified a few things for me .

ARC can be a little unreliable on older TV's due to some functions not being implemented or licensed. I found some earlier LG's would constantly drop out the signal with ARC. Also, a lot of TV's don't have ATMOS, even in 2021, so the ARC channel, although supporting it, still may not send the ATMOS channels to the soundbar. This would have to be checked on the TV Specs, not just the soundbar :). The big advantage of HDMI using ARC, for me, is that it can be dual direction Audio if needed. If the Soundbar has multi HDMI inputs, then HDMI using ARC will save you a cable between the TV and Soundbar. This is a great video for understanding the basics, it gives good information without overloading with all the geeky tech talk. Thanks for a great video

*This whole video is amazing.* But 5:57 is one of the most important things you'll see all day.

TY for this information! Really helpful!

Clear information and straight to the point. Great content! Subscribed!

Great breakdown - as someone who deals with this day in and day out I only have a minor correction / comment. Toslink absolutely supports 7.1 (DD+ / Atmos) just not in lossless compressed format. Anytime you see DD+ it implies Atmos too - you certainly get more headroom and better (if not very noticeable) clarity / channel separation.

Is the two channel sound quality superior in one or the other. Or is it the same ?

Very helpful I'm always struggling with these settings. Always run up against these limitations when setting up my entertainment system.

Thanks, man! Such a tremendous explanation in under 7 minutes👏

What I really like about HDMI ARC, is that I can controll my entire setup (tv, soundbar and Shield TV) with one single remote. When I turn on my Shield TV, both my soundbar and tv starts up as well. Same when I want to turn them off.

You nailed it. Thanks

Great video! Helped me make a decision on my bedroom sound system. Thank you!

This was great! Thank you for this!

One thing you didn't mention - at least on my TV, which is nine or ten years old - is that the digital optical volume control is separate from the TV volume control. In fact, there is NO volume control for my digital optical audio. Turning the TV's speaker volume up or down has no effect on the volume of the digital optical audio. My TV's only audio output (other than an HDMI ARC port) is the digital optical port, so I have my headphones connected to the digital optical port through an analog converter. My headphones have their own volume control. When I watch TV late at night, I mute the TV speakers and listen through my headphones, adjusting the headphones' volume control as needed.

Hey! Loved the video! I've been looking for a 5.1 (or better) audio system, but not sure which to buy, mainly because I'm not sure if my TV have ARC and doesn't have Digital Optical, only Digital Coaxial Sound... It's a "SILVER 4k 50" TV" (cheap brand), and none of the HDMI ports are labeled as ARC, but I have CEC and ARC settings on the settings menu, and I know the TV turns on if I turn on PS4 or Mi Box S, and the other way around, when I turn on TV, PS4 turns on automatically. Is it safe to assume that they all have ARC? Do you have any recommendations on a system not very expensive for this tv?

Thanks for the information. It was helpful.

Very clear description. Thanks for you help.

I’m certain you did a fantastic job shooting & explaining this video! I’m also certain that I still have no idea what the hell you’re talking about ! 😂😂😂

I find that with optical, you sometimes need to turn on/off settings on the TV, depending on your setup.

Very good info, clear explanation, nice graphics. Thank you!

Awesome channel, great info! Straight to the point 👉🏽 thank you!

Great vid, informative and a good refresher even if familiar with the difference! Side note, I’m having the hardest time getting my new setup to work. Upgraded to an LG CX and LG SN9YG, I’m pretty handy with this stuff but I cannot get my setup to work correctly. I’ve pretty much narrowed it down to my Directv receiver I believe. If anyone would be willing to reach out via reply I’d really appreciate some help here. Thanks!

They really need to come out with a new optical standard that can put through newer things like Atmos and TrueHD. It shouldn't be that difficult, considering how much optical data transmission rates have increased in the past 35 years. It could even be backward compatible by using different light wavelengths for different standards (red for PCM / DD5.1 & blue for Atmos / TrueHD).

Fantastic video. Thanks for making it short, sweet, and to the point. Def getting a subscribe

Straight to the point and that is how I like it! Great video!

Now I'm more confused. Thanks a lot.

I'd been using optical for decades. I've still got some optical cables from radioshack. With a more recent receiver with arc and a tv with it I have not needed any optical.

Thanks, you've made quite a few things clearer

Thank you for posting the information subscribe and gave you a thumbs up cleared up many questions and I did not understand but now I do thank you very much keep up the great work you are doing