Is old HDMI 1.4a (non-e)ARC audio still superior to optical?
(Fun fact: Yes, this device still phoned home to Yamaha and updated with the Ethernet plugged in, despite being a billion revisions and 13 years behind, flawlessly. Thanks Yamaha)
Hi, I have a very purposely-basic setup of an old 2013 sealed in the box until this month Yamaha RX-V675 amplifier I got for cheap, I took out of the plastic that has been running great and communicating just fine with my TV over ARC (volume, power, audio, etc.) for weeks. I don't have a traditional home theater setup and just running a couple speakers so it does what I need perfectly and it would be silly to buy anything more expensive for my use case. I mostly bought this as an overkill amplifier.
I bought it because it's cool and because it was the same price as a less capable external audio amp and I couldn't control the volume and power with one remote otherwise. I also have several analog video and audio sources to switch (VHS, DVD, retro game consoles), and I *DO* still run these through the AVR because this model supports analog to HDMI and even upscales up to 4K (surprising for 2013 but it's there) if desired. I can plug a 1985 Nintendo straight into it and it just works. So there were a few reasons I opted for this over an external audio amp, a analog video switch, a video converter, a digital video switch, and so on. It just made sense, just for the shelf space alone. I even found an old Amazon Alexa that still had a headphone jack so that's hooked up too. Anything that is before 2013 I'm going to try to run through the receiver just for the sake of wire management and because even older HDMI should be unaffected as it's a digital signal after all.
I realize the HDMI inputs, albeit a passthrough set to be a direct passthrough, will cause newer signals (particularly 4K 120fps) to think it does not support it, so they go direct to the TV. I've read that many people online do this. So I have some video sources using the AVR as intended, and others bypassing it completely for both video and temporarily audio (it enters the TV directly through direct HDMI and then audio out again via a separate HDMI cable to the receiver HDMI *OUT*).
It's all set up perfectly and working great, the ARC is very responsive, has no issues, and works great despite the age gap. The devices entering at the other HDMI inputs, as well as the TV's built in OS (for streaming apps built into the TV), also output through ARC just fine.
Close and shut case, right? Well, I was just curious if this old version of ARC is still superior to running an optical audio cable down from the TV.
I've also read the ARC will go silent on any signals it does not support (I've yet to encounter any), while the optical will simply just strip away the parts it does not, but I'm not sure if there is any truth to that.
Most complaints I've heard about ARC is that it doesn't work. Well, mine does, so that's not an issue. So I'm really just wondering if there is anything to squeeze out of this by using optical instead of this old ARC.
I realize it's a bit picky of a question to ask and from what I'm reading the ARC is still equivalent or superior, but it's a question I had in my mind.