Because there is no specification for the optical connection to handle high-res audio, it can't do it. Unlike HDMI, which has expanded its capabilities significantly over the short time it's been available, Toslink has remained largely the same. So limited, it can't even transmit the high-resolution audio formats that came out with Blu-ray more than a decade ago, such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio. But the optical audio connection is far more limited. In theory, optical cables can transmit tremendous amounts of data. So where'd it go? Doesn't optical have the potential for significantly more bandwidth than HDMI? Well… no. The Chromecast Audio uses the mini-Toslink variant which fits inside a 3.5mm analog jack. Of course, on the audio side devices like the Chromecast Audio also use an optical connection and this is as much due to space constraints as anything else. Most soundbars still persist with an optical connection, and they are one of the only thing that keeps the format holding on. It's also disappeared from many smaller TVs, though it lingers on in larger ones, a potentially redundant backup to HDMI with ARC. It's gone completely on the latest Roku and Apple TV 4K, for example.

But now more and more gear are dropping optical. Even in the early days of HDMI, right next to it would be the lowly optical cable, ready in case someone's receiver didn't accept HDMI.

Through the '90s and 2000's, the optical cable was near-ubiquitous: The easiest way to get Dolby Digital and DTS from your cable/satellite box, TiVo, or DVD player to your receiver. This limited their range to in-room use, primarily. Though glass cables were available, for even more money, most optical cables were made from cheap plastic. You've seen standard S/PDIF connections a bunch too they're often called 'coax digital.' Optical had certain benefits over copper cables, but they were also more fragile, and for a long time, more expensive. Developed in the early '80s to connect their CD players to their receivers, it was a red laser optical version of the Sony/Phillips 'Digital Interconnect Format' aka S/PDIF standard. The official term for optical audio cable is ' Toslink,' short for Toshiba Link. This once cool cable is dying a very slow death. More and more products are dropping the optical connection.

And while the optical cable was the digital audio transfer method of choice for decades, it has started to disappear. It was once the most high-tech and futuristic feature you could find: Transmit sound - with light! Lasers! A cable not of copper, but glass!Įxcept, it was almost never glass, and was usually expensive.

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