Video:What Is a Digital Optical Cable?
with Curtis BabbittDigital optical cables may be a good choice to use in your home theater set up. Learn the benefits and drawbacks of digital optical cables in this About.com video.See Transcript
Transcript:What Is a Digital Optical Cable?
Hi, I am Curtis Babbitt with Hear No Evil, Westminster, Colorado, here on behalf of About.com to discuss what is a digital optical cable.
How Digital Optical Cables Work
A digital optical cable is basically a glass fiber that goes between a digital source and a audio/video receiver, or a pre-amp processor and it's a way to get a digital binary signal to a device without any electrical interference, or interference from radio frequency, or anything like that. It's a really cool device that uses light to transfer binary code for digital information.
Digital Optical vs. Coaxial Cables
This is a substitute for a S/PDIF cable, which is a coaxial digital cable. Both essentially do the same thing, different schools of thought of which one is the best, or which application you should use. The coaxial cable is a little more common and a little more durable.
The optical cable is prone to a little more prone to damage, but is a little more pure signal because it is an optical signal, and it is interpreting a signal code, from the sending and receiving device. It's a very clean signal through a digital cable.
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