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So no optical on these newer systems means my old Home Theater is obsolete...
- Thread starter G Darksoul
- Start date
Sharc - The eArc device that can save you thousands as you prepare for Next Gen/Current PC Gaming
You may be asking...what the hell is a Sharc? Well, this little device can possibly save you thousands of dollars, especially as we approach the next Gen consoles and newer GPU's. Sharc in short is a device that allows you to use an older Audio Receiver that does not have eArc or shaky eArc...
www.resetera.com
I'd argue if there was a point to start using HDMI Arc the next gen consoles would be the point, assuming your TV has the option.
OP
OP
Yeah my receiver doesn't even have HDMI... it's ancient. Probably need a new receiver and the Sharc...
I'm honestly surprised a lot of people keep their receivers for so long, I keep replacing mine every three years lol
It did you well, definitely look into a receiver that offers HDMI 2.1 support IMO, though I do need to see if the ones coming up are actually affordable.
It did you well, definitely look into a receiver that offers HDMI 2.1 support IMO, though I do need to see if the ones coming up are actually affordable.
Yeah... that's what I do! So easy too, just one optical to the receiver for every input to the TV.
Same, I have a wonderful pair of Wharfedale speakers connected to an analog Yamaha from God knows when. I use a optical to analog convertor from my LGB7 to the receiver. It sounds amazing, and if I want sourrond I spring for headphones. I'd love to have a godly HDMI 2.1 receiver with passthrough and a 7.1 Dolby speaker system, but I live in an apartment in NYC and I'd be evicted real quick if I pumped that up.
I think you can't do that with every television set, but it seems like most sets allow you to do that now (does seem like damn near all of them, though lol). From what I remember, you can just CTRL-F on a TV's review on Rtings for "passthrough" and it'll help you find the yes/no if it passes through 5.1 audio through the optical out on a TV.
If not that, then you could always get one of those splitters that goes on the end of the HDMI cable into your TV and has an optical out port on it (astro was recommending some for people with PS4 Slims on their website).
I said this in another thread too but the lack of optical is absolutely devastating to me. I use an external dac/headphone amp with Sennheiser 6XXs with my PS4 currently through optical and the audio is absolutely sublime. The only way I can do this with the new consoles is to passthrough optical from my tv, introducing input delay.
OP
OP
Thanks for all the responses but unless the quality starts to suffer I'm going to keep it. Going to go optical to tv route. Thanks guys.
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I never said I was doing that...I got it from Circuit City...in a store!! It works great...these next gen consoles are the bottleneck...
Yeppp, its why I just upgrade my entire speaker system. It was much needed.
Also ARC for me is garbage, pretty sure it limits it to Stereo sound and eARC limit sit to whatever the output is, but older TVs and receivers dont support it.
I'd recommend hooking it up now for Optical to Reciever (from TV) and see what you think before the PS5 gets here.
Also ARC for me is garbage, pretty sure it limits it to Stereo sound and eARC limit sit to whatever the output is, but older TVs and receivers dont support it.
I'd recommend hooking it up now for Optical to Reciever (from TV) and see what you think before the PS5 gets here.
Circuit city? Yeah you need to get a new one lol didn't they close like back in 08?
I also got that audio shit from Circuit City circa 2006 along with a DLP. Returned the DLP cuz the picture quality was awful.
Three years? That's insane for something that doesn't change too much every three years. I've only had two receivers in my life and my current one is 12 years old. There's just been no reason to change it until now as I wait for HDMI 2.1 receivers to come out. Once there's a good one that supports that on all HDMI inputs, I imagine that's going to last at least another 10 years. I just can't imagine the need to upgrade that frequently for a receiver when the audio formats don't change that fast. Maybe it helps that I also plan to get a high end receiver so it makes it easier to last longer, but damn I can't imagine upgrading that frequently.
I still have my DLP in our basement for the kids to use with old consoles. Picture quality wise it was pretty good despite being 720p.
Oh believe me, were it not for a string of bad luck I would still happily rock an old Yamaha, but all I can say is that I've lost 3 receivers due to lightning storms, a flood, and a TV that, while I really like, won't recognize CEC discovery and therefore makes half of the features on my receiver useless.
Once again I'm looking to replace my current Denon with the new Yamaha receivers that will get VRR and ALLM in a future update. I swear, I won't ever buy a Samsung set again lol
Yea, that's fair, to me the extra money for a good 1080p set at the time was worth it.
That doesn't help someone with an optical system. It only helps someone with a pre-eARC HDMI syetemSharc - The eArc device that can save you thousands as you prepare for Next Gen/Current PC Gaming
You may be asking...what the hell is a Sharc? Well, this little device can possibly save you thousands of dollars, especially as we approach the next Gen consoles and newer GPU's. Sharc in short is a device that allows you to use an older Audio Receiver that does not have eArc or shaky eArc...
Edit: Ignore me. I am incorrect.
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Well, when I bought mine there were no 1080p TVs, they were only 720p/768p/1080i.
That, and I paid almost the same for a 42" 720p DLP as I did for a 55" 4k OLED a few years ago. TV technology sure has advanced in the last 15 years.
Wow, you're right lol. I never even noticed.
Still, you'll be restricted to standard DD 5.1 / DTS 5.2 / PCM 2.0.
I paid $1800+ for a 40 inch Samsung LCD in 2006. You can get such a good TV for that price now. Although that TV had every fucking input you could ever want.
Hdmi in to optical out doesn't add any delay on my LG B7 atleast.
I use this solution for both gaming and movies, never had a problem. Lipsync on movies is identical to taking audio out directly from my computer to dac via USB.
Try it on one of your existing consoles before making judgement.
I use this solution for both gaming and movies, never had a problem. Lipsync on movies is identical to taking audio out directly from my computer to dac via USB.
Try it on one of your existing consoles before making judgement.
I hear you. My 42" DLP was ~$2400 in 2005 (I think), and yes, I can plug everything into it.
It's actually pretty impressive that the DLP is now 15 years old and going strong after one $200 lamp replacement.
That's quite the string of bad luck. Heck, my receiver is so good that it feels weird to be dropping around $1500 just to get 4K/HDR/VRR pass through. I guess the option for Atmos will be a nice perk too and maybe going from 4 to 7 HDMI ports, but that's mostly what I'm getting from upgrading. I'm not gaining anything else of a significance and again this receiver is 12 years old.
OP, does your TV have optical out? If so just hook up all your systems to the TV via HDMI and use the optical out to send sound to the receiver.
This is only good if the TV supports surround sound pass through from the optical port. If not, they could be getting just stereo from that path.
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I haven't been able to settle for optical in ~13 years. PS3 and lossless over hdmi ended that for me
That being said this is part of why VRR on console doesn't matter to me any time soon. I care more about having better quality for movies, would be nice if they had DisplayPort so I could play high refresh on my monitor lol
