Report: Nintendo Switch won’t support Optical Audio out

Nintendo Switch would be following the tradition of Wii and Wii U and thus will not have an optical audio port.

[Neonridr]

that's ok. Audio out via HDMI to my TV. ARC from my TV to my home theatre system. Works fine with my PS4, so no reason why it wouldn't work the same with my Switch.

[Summons75]

It seems to be a dying trend. Sony took them out of the PS4s, at least the Slims. Plus Tvs have them so why do all the systems need them and have to switch between them when you can have a clean layout with one from the TV to the Surround Sound, it sounds just as good.

[blady_man]

The ps4 pro still has it

[BizarroUltraman]

Because its not coming from direct source. Your TV could never give you the same sound quality as having the optical coming strait from a PS4.

[indysurfn]

If my PS4 or Xbox one, or Wii U or 400 dollar HDR blu ray player does not have it I would never know. Why would anyone hook it to anything other than a TV or receiver only to have to keep changing it? Just hook it to your TV, unless a person does not have a TV but still has a a stereo. I guess there are someone that is in that situation. But .....hmmmmm lol People are REALLY trying to nick pick. The HDMI connection is better anyway way more data bandwidth.

[rainslacker]

HDMI locks down pass through with Dolby sources. Some TV's are fine passing stuff through, others just pass through stereo. Some of this is licensing, other is just TV makers not really supporting it. Have to jump through a lot of hoops.

On most TV's you can input HDMI sound, and output DTS through optical to your receiver, and you can use optical for smart TV aps and what not. It's not really as required as it used to be though. I've found a use for it, but it's not ideal, and more just something i use so I don't have to buy another expensive receiver so soon.

I'd be surprised if in 5 years optical is even offered anymore except on high end equipment.

That being said, there is no change between a direct digital source if it's just passed through. The only change would be if one of the devices in the chain(likely the TV) changes the source to another format....typically Stereo instead of DTS 5.1/7.1 because of licensing or hardware restrictions.

[FITSniper]

I play on a monitor. Not on a TV. Optical is how my headset works (Astro A40s). All Astro headsets are optical only. Many of the best console headsets use optical.

And my TV only supports stereo through the optical port. I have 6+ year old Panasonic plasma that hasn't died and still works great. So I'm not going to replace it until it needs to be replaced. My receiver used to have HDMI passthrough but it was fried by an electrical surge. And I don't have the money to replace it right now.

[Neonridr]

yep, you need the optical if you want true surround sound. Wireless Golds for example use a USB dongle but only simulates 7.1

technically right now I do have my PS4 connected to my receiver via an optical audio port. But that's only because I upgraded my TV and it wasn't playing nice with my home theater system at first (some settings needed to be tweaked). I will leave it like this for now because my Pro does deserve the best possible sound setup, but I could as easily just go back to ARC via the HDMI now that I figured the TV out. It's how I had my PS4 and Pro set up before I got the new tv a few weeks ago.

@BVFTW - yeah, unfortunately I cannot do that currently. My Receiver is older and is only 1.4 HDMI with no 4K passthrough. So I need to connect my 4K devices directly to my TV. Eventually when I upgrade I will do that, but at the moment this is the best I can do.

[BVFTW]

At Neonridr: The best audio setup would be passing the audio directly to the reciever through the HDMI, it has more bandwith dedicated to audio than the toslink, conect it to your Audio Receiver and then, when you configure your PS4 to pass the audio through the HDMI, you'll see that it will support higher sample rates (up to 24-bit 192kHz) and "uncompressed audio" beyond two channels.

[Amplitude]

absolutely not the same.

Thats how i have the XBox One set up right now and its a noticeable drop in quality. Then again im comparing it to bitstreaming PS4 directly though HDMI, but i know for a fact going directly to the receiver through optical would be much better that using the TV's built-in receiver - which, most dont even support surround

(The Xbox cant go directly into the receiver cause its a 4k tv and a 3D reciever. So annoying how we have to buy all new devices every time theres new hardware... like the HDMI1.4 is there. i dunno)

Anyway im sure this isnt a gigantic issue for Nintendo gamers. Their games arent exactly known for their fantastic audio quite like Uncharted, Tomb Raider, etc etc

[Neonridr]

yeah, right now my PS4 is technically connected via the optical out to my receiver, but again I only did that because my new TV was having issues playing nicely with the receiver. I will test out the quality to see if there is a noticeable drop or not between the ARC via HDMI or straight optical.

[Uken12]

@Axecution I agree with your comment mostly. I don't see it being a huge deal. I have surround sound hooked up through my TV and it still sounds amazing. So I don't see it being a problem for most people.

Your last statement "Their games aren't exactly known for their fantastic audio quite like Uncharted, Tomb Raider, etc etc."? Have you never heard the music in any Nintendo game. Their is a reason so many people love the music. Also if you have played smash bros 4, you'd see the soundtrack is Amazing. Nintendo games do have fantastic audio already.

[Amplitude]

@Uken12

of course! But there's a difference between a good soundtrack and a game having fantastic audio.

The soundtracks are golden but in terms of sound effect recording quality and multichannel effects, theres not many games on WiiU that takes advantage of all the features quite like the other consoles.
That's all i meant haha

[IamTylerDurden1]

Were u among those flipping out about the PS4 Slim not having Optical?

[Neonridr]

Nope, I don't have a Slim I have a Pro. Sucks for Slim owners since they can't have any of the high end surround sound headsets like Astros and Turtle Beaches or be able to have the option for optical audio out..

but it doesn't affect me so I can't really be that angry about it.

[rainslacker]

I tried this with my PS4 for HDR support since my receiver won't pass through HDR. Unfortunately, it only passes through Stereo that way.:(

Ended up using the optical out on the PS4 just to get 5.1 DTS, which kind of sucks since I have a pretty nice 7.1 setup.

Won't be an issue with Switch, since it doesn't support HDR as far as I know.

Oh well. Thought there would be no need for optical out nowadays with HDMI, but these device makers have all these sound and video formats locked down for piracy reasons that it's becoming more of an inconvenience for the consumers than an actual benefit. HDR and 4K is the biggest joke of consumer friendly concepts that it's practically to the point of requiring regulatory committees to step in and do something about it.

Since they won't, I guess I'll be upgraded the receiver I brought not too long ago in preparation of 4K upgrades.

In the meantime, I'm trying to find a way to enable DTS or PCM passthrough through ARC on my TV. Heard it's possible since it's just a setting in the TV's service menu.

[FreeSpeech69]

Can easily convert HDMI to Optical Audio. Non-issue, anyone who cares about this but won't buy the 10-20 dollar converter is just whining. Focus on the more serious flaws. (yes it most likely won't support Optical 5.1 because it won't support bitstream, but you can still get stereo out of it. Otherwise time to buy a new Speaker System if you care enough).

[BVFTW]

HDMI can do bitstream, its better than S/PDIF as it has more bandwith for audio.

[FreeSpeech69]

Nintendo didn't support bitstream audio on the Wii U so I just assume the lack of Optical means they won't have it on Switch so you would have to get a more expensive converter. Might as well just get a new Speaker System. But if you are serious about Audio, Raw Audio is much better than Bit Stream. I can notice the difference on Xbox One.

[BVFTW]

I agree, uncompressed audio is the way to go! A good stereo system using Linear PCM with a high sampling rate is much better than most of the run-of-the-mill home theathers using codecs. It was a shame that the Wii U didn't supported bitstream audio thought, but that wasn't a hardware issue, I hope the switch does.

[rainslacker]

I think it's one of those things that will be where optical is highly dependant on what the person needs. For instance, some older AVR's, or some headphones.

I think optical is dying, although still useful for things like CD players, but I recently found a reason to use it, so was glad it was available. If I didn't have optical on the PS4 to get at least 5.1 I'd likely buy a converter just so I could have the HDR features. But ultimately, if it wasn't available, I'd just be annoyed more that this whole 4K standard, and copyright protection from the device makers is a complete FU to the consumer.

Currently, I'm researching splitters which can output the video and audio from the HDMI, because the ARC on my TV won't pass through LPCM through HDMI.

I don't think HDR will be an issue for switch though(shame considering how colorful Nintendo games are), so likely wouldn't need that workaround there. I haven't used optical for years until that feature was made available on the PS4.

[captainexplosion]

This is HUGE for about 5% of gamers. It's huge for me because I bought a really expensive surround sound system a couple years ago not knowing that it only plays surround sound if it goes directly from the device to the receiver (it can't go through tv). And a lot of gaming headsets only work through digital optical out. I HATED this about the Wii U.

[Fishy Fingers]

A lot of gaming headsets require optical? What, really? I've not seen many (any) and I don't think that's much of an issue anyway considering you needs a stupid bloody mobile phone app to chat on the Switch.

[Utalkin2me]

Any good surround sound headset uses optical is what he meant to say, Astros, Trittons, Turtle Beaches etc.

[Neonridr]

Astros, Turtle Beach, etc usually require Optical if they are 5.1 or 7.1 headsets.

[rainslacker]

I've read that most smart TV's have "hidden" service menus where you can enable passing through LPCM through ARC. Personally haven't been able to figure out how to get into the one for my TV. Hopefully LG customer support can help.

I don't know if a lot of headsets need it nowadays. I know there are a few popular ones that do.

[Zjet]

I dont get why anyone hooks up audio like this anymore....

HDMI Arc works yes. But at the very least run 1 Optical lead OUT of your TV into your Home Theatre or soundbar.... you are done. No switching audio sources between devices anymore.

It baffles me after working in Electronic Retail for over 15 years people are still obcessed with daisy chaining a million optical cables from each device. Mucking around with multiple Audio sources.

Less cables = less quality loss anyway you do it.

[FreeSpeech69]

Yeap honestly I haven't used Optical Audio since the Xbox 360 came out.

[captainexplosion]

A lot of higher end receivers no longer support surround sound if it goes through the tv.

[Nitrowolf2]

Then there wont be an issue other than tv apps not outputting sound to the surround sound, you can just plug the hdmi into the surround sound

[rainslacker]

The receiver will support whatever it gets, if it supports the format. It's more the TV's don't pass through the full spectrum of data that it gets. Most TV's will take most DTS sources and output them in Stereo. They'll only support 5.1 through ARC if the content comes from the TV itself.

This is a copy protection thing, that requires licensing on the part of TV makers, and most don't bother. Many mid-high end range TV's can have it enabled, but it's not always easy, and sometimes impossible.

[AizenSosuke]

That's fine.

[Apex13]

Well it has an hdmi and so you can just connect your Surround sound or sound bar to the TV and just have it running through. It's not that trivia. My ps4, xbox etc all run that way.

[Bronxs15]

I'm sorry but it's off putting how much they're charging for this thing and it lacks a lot of things. Also it doesn't have an Ethernet port in the dock.

I'm not surprised tho. Has any Nintendo system ever had optical audio out?

[Shuckylad]

I'm more interested to see if the switch will have full rgb colour.

[MetroidFREAK21]

Sweet a feature hardly anyone uses anyway is absent.... I'll send you some flowers as a condolence

[redaxis]

Another machine that doesn't let me use the Astro A50, after the ps4 slim.