lower net cost, too.

Why is this amazing? Most manufacturers plan for their equipment to sit on a cabinet right under the TV. When Sony makes a tv, they don't really consider that the source equipment may be 100' away in a closet and the video and audio may go to different equipment.

Brent is the only one with the correct solution. I have yet to see an optical cable rated for in wall use. Always converted to coax and ran rug-59 because of this.

If you need to bring video to the remote TV and audio back from that display to the AVR or amp, then our SoloCAT HD MAX kit will resolve your issue over CAT5e/6.

Our device provides HDBT, IR, RS232, 10/100 and audio return path. The audio return capability resides outside of CEC. You can input stereo L/R, S/PDIF or optical in at the receiver then stereo L/R or S/PDIF out at the TX side.

[Link: zektor.com]

Hey Jeff, never knew the SoloCAT could do that. Awesome.

In theory then, with CEC turned off on all devices, one could have a situation where 3-4 sources were going thru an HDMI switcher to a remote TV (thru SoloCAT). Then audio could be extracted back from the TV (thru ARC with SoloCAT) and injected into a small audio amp?

Yes sir, it does exactly that on the MAX version. The design is audio return path NOT audio return channel. It works around ARC regardless if it is on or off.

Audio inputs on the RX and audio outputs on the TX.

Hi,

I was under the impression that some (many?) TVs will only output stereo from the optical connector.

True or false?

Thanks.

Frederick

That's going to depend on the TV. I'm sure there are "some". You'd have to check the specs. Many can only pass Dolby Digital from an internal source such as a ATSC tuner or Netflix, and not from connected sources. Some are more capable and can even pass DTS.

There are a lot of TVs that only get a stereo signal from the source and that is all that will be sent via optical or HDMI ARC. The TV when it authenticates with the source identifies its capabilities. If the TV does not have the capability of decoding a Dolby Digital or DTS then the source only sends a stereo signal. If the TV can only get a stereo signal then that is all that can be transmitted to the optical or ARC connections.

Sony and Vizio are pretty safe bets that they can handle the surround formats, Samsung and LG are a mixed bag, older Samsung and LG models are mostly stereo. Other brands and models definitely check. Unfortunately, it is no always in a given model's literature.

Almost all models will decode Dolby Digital from the OTA tuner or built in apps. This surround or stereo is only for devices connected to the TV via HDMI.