[mythtv-users] optical vs coax (was My Ultimate Mythtv?)

[Per Åge Sørvik]

Jarod C. Wilson wrote:

> On Wednesday, Sep 17, 2003, at 23:58 US/Pacific, Per Åge Sørvik wrote:
>
>> Yes, but then you are talking about an error situation. My point here 
>> is that conversion from electrical to optical isn't a lossy operation 
>> in itself, as was implied in your original statement ("is bound to 
>> have a wee bit more loss of signal"). BTW, the signal that goes out 
>> on the coax cable also goes through a translation, albeit not a 
>> change of physical media.
>
>
> I have to admit I started down this road based solely on the comments 
> of an audiophile friend whom I trust (mostly), and he swears coax is 
> better. To me, the difference between the two is indistinguishable. My 
> friend is also the same person that used to do ogg encodings of all 
> his music at something like 512, but stopped and switched to flac, 
> because he was still concerned about loss...

It's a typical audiophile argument, but usually not coming from people 
with an electronics background. Thats why I have to disagree with it ;). 
It's a bit funny really, because I was a little bit into the audiophile 
thing for a while myself, but after some years of education within 
electronics and computer technology, I found most of the claims where 
opposing my education...

>
>>>> and the fact that toslink probably is multimode fiber, not singlemode.
>>>
>>>
>>> Not sure.
>>
>>
>> Well, I'm pretty sure, but I'm to lazy to check it out :)
>
>
> I did a cursory search for info (5 second googler) and didn't find 
> much of anything on the topic.

Guess you'll have to trust me, then :). Singlemode is usually used for 
long distance connections, like 50kms or so, without repeaters.

>
>> I guess the case of availabilty of high quality long optical cables 
>> for toslink is what keeps them out of use. High quality coax cables 
>> are  much more readily available.
>
>
> Price is probably a big factor here...

Definitely

-- 

peraage