The sound quality offered by televisions Modern devices do not usually shine for their forcefulness in terms of fidelity and sound pressure, which is why many users seek the help of external equipment such as sound bars, home theater kits or receivers plus speakers.
In general, they are devices that connect easily to any modern television, since they have different connection options as we saw in depth back in the day, the main ones currently being the digital coaxial port, digital optical, stereo RCA and of course HDMI.
In fact, the latter HDMI or High-Definition Multimedia Interface (high definition multimedia interface) is now the connector par excellence of a new television. It is a digital input and output port that has grown in number and specifications in the last decade.
Allows input of high-definition digital video, compressed and uncompressed multichannel and stereo PCM digital audio, as well as encoded multichannel formats. Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby Atmos and DTS:X in a single cable, also offering ARC (Audio Return Channel) and eARC (enhanced ARC) functions for sending the audio signal from the TV to external equipment.
It is usually the best option right now. simple and optimal If our equipment is modern and everything works wonderfully, but we may encounter some problems and situations that make us HDMI is not the best option to choosehaving to resort to other options.
We have electromagnetic interference at home
There are times when we have many equipment installed near our TV or multimedia equipment, some of them can produce electromagnetic interference that will affect the image and/or sound quality.
It is a situation that does not usually occur on a daily basis, but it can happen if, for example, we have a very long, low-quality cable, the TV and the sound system are located near a device with motor such as a fan, a non-insulated appliance, a stove with an air distribution system, etc.
In general what we will notice will be small cuts in the soundinterruptions that come and go and that can sometimes block the sound decoder emitting strange noises from the speakers.
In these cases we can try buy a thicker, better insulated HDMI cable than usual, which will mean a greater increase in the price, but it is also possible to resort to other options such as a fiber optic cable with TosLink connector.
This output port from the television to external equipment allows us send a digital audio signal to an AV receiver or sound bar under the S/PDIF protocolbeing capable of transmitting sound signals Compressed stereo and multichannel PCM in formats like Dolby Digital and DTS.
Unlike HDMI, we do not have enough bandwidth to send uncompressed multichannel digital audio signals Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio nor the new object-based sound formats such as Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, but it is more than enough for most users who do not have advanced sound equipment.
Its main advantage is that is immune to electromagnetic interference, since the signal is transmitted by light and not electricity. This can help us avoid interference in homes with a lot of electrical noise that would come through traditional cables and thus not affect us.
It may also be useful in these cases of interference to use an analog cable such as one Stereo RCA or 3.5mm jack in the event that TV allows it. We are not going to avoid electromagnetic interference, but the noise introduced into the cable will be more tolerable than in digital transmission and less annoying.
Software and configuration problems on some of the equipment
Another case that I have suffered firsthand is the one related to the software and configuration issues of some of the equipment, be it the TV or the sound bar, amplifier, multimedia player, blu-ray, bad drivers on the PC sound card, etc.
On some occasions, for the most varied and mysterious reasons, the synchronization in the transmission via the HDMI cable is lost and the receiver’s operating system (for example, the amplifier) does not know very well what to do, so we momentarily lose the coherence of the received signal on external equipment.
This is something that can also happen with optical connectors, although in my case it has almost always been a more common problem that I have observed with hdmi cables. And it’s not that it’s something serious, but it is annoying.
The effect that we will notice can range from a small click in the sound up to an instantaneous microcut or in the most important cases that the receiver stops understanding for a few seconds the digital codec that is being sent to it and as a consequence interprets it as analog audio emitting white noise from the speakers at very high volume.
The solution? If the problem is caused by some type of failure in the equipment software, there is little we can do except update everything we can think of and try changing the connector, for example using a digital optical port instead of HDMI, to see if it is not affected.
It may also happen that the receiver or multimedia player used does not understand a specific sound format that we send via HDMI, such as the newest and most advanced types. Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. In this case we can try to send a simpler sound as the core of these tracks, which are generally more compatible, something that It will be done directly if we opt for a digital optical port instead of HDMI.
Cover image | Patrick Campanale
In Xataka Smart Home | HDMI, coaxial cable or digital optical port: which should I use on my TV to have the best sound quality