Which is better sound, HDMI or Optical?

Joel Feagler: UPDATE:When I hook an HDMI cable from the PS3 to my t.v. and then run optical from my t.v. to my receiver, I can only get 2 channel out of my receiver, but then when I run the optical directly from my PS3 to my receiver, I get 5.1 surround. What's the deal with that?My TV is a Samsung 32" Model: LN32A330My Receiver is a Samsung Model: HT-Z310...Show more

Pearlie Medora: If your receiver supports audio via HDMI connection you should use it output from PS3 to receiver input to get 7.1 HD sound from Blu-ray movies such as DTS-HD MA and Dolby True HD. Optical gives you up to 6.1 DTS-ES or 6.1 Dolby Digital EX, it doesn't support HD audio formats.

Keneth Mailhot: HDMI is the most convenient format (i.e. 1 cable plug-n-play) that does it all. So unless your system is not compatible with HDMI, it would be your best choice for convenience as well as functionality. And HDMI cables can be purchased for under $5 (online at least) which eliminates the cos! t issue.Happy Listening!...Show more

Tomeka Hameen: HDMI provides stereo sound, Optical provides 5.1. Optical wins every time.

Sook Hershkowitz: HDMI is capable of sending uncompressed PCM while the optical is limited to lossy formats. This really only matters if you have a surround sound system. If you're sending to the TV there's no reason to have anything but HDMI.With the PS3 you want to send your audio as PCM (not bitstream) from your HDMI. The only time you don't want to do this is if you have a receiver that isn't HDMI compliant or can't handle uncompressed PCM bitrates, in which case you send it via bitstream optical. Or if you don't want to send your video through your receiver you could send it directly via HDMI to the TV and send the audio separately via optical to the receiver.In other words, there's really no reason to *not* use HDMI unless your systems are incapable of handling it. Their is no advantage to optical over HDMI. And HDMI can hand! le not just uncompressed audio, but also 7.1 surround. The op! tical can only do 5.1 surround, so Meilien is wrong.Also, the PS3 decodes HD audio, so it's a moot point whether or not your receiver can handle the decoding. It's already done and sent out as uncompressed audio. So the receiver need not be able to decode HD audio formats, just the ability to handle high bitrates from the uncompresse audio....Show more