Roku with digital audio output
Does any current Roku product support digital audio out so I can connect to my avr
Forum Discussion
As renojim mentions, no current Roku player has an optical output. The last model with one was the Ultra 4640, which is not a 5 year old device.
Yes, you can connect an optical cable from your TV to a receiver to get all audio (TV and any device connected to the TV) to the AVR. However, not every TV will passthrough 5.1 audio from a connected device. I know of no definitive list of such TVs. They will provide 5.1 audio from OTA broadcasts and any internal apps (assuming it's a Smart TV), but not from a connected device. If it won't passthrough 5.1, all you will be able to get is stereo sound. Even if the TV does passthrough the audio from the Roku, it won't passthrough Dolby Digital+ with Atmos (if that's important to you). Some TVs won't pass DD+ at all, and again you'd be stuck with 2 channel stereo since most online streaming providers now use DD+ as their default audio codec.
The best way to use an external audio amplifier is to use one that has HDMI jacks, so you can connect your Roku (and every other playback device) directly to the AVR for best possible audio. By definition an AVR has audio/visual jacks, but depending on its age it might not have HDMI jacks.
Also, if you have a 4K TV and a 4K Roku, you have to make sure your AVR supports 4K and HDR/HLG/Dolby Vision if your TV supports those options. Virtually every new 4K TV supports HDR10, and some also support HLG and DV. LG is one of the best for supporting them all. Samsung does not support DV. I only offer that comment because just because an AVR says it's 4K compatible doesn't mean it supports DV or HLG, and possibly even basic HDR.
Thanks for the comments. I am assisting a friend in the set-up of their new tv service provider. They will be using a fairly old tv (not a smart tv), and using Roku 2 ( I believe) to stream the tv service. They are using Spectrum and will not have a set top box, only using Roku to stream the service by connecting to wi-fi. They want to connect to their avr so they can get surround sound. The avr is also fairly old and does not have HDMI inputs. My thought was to use an optical audio cable to connect from the tv directly to the avr. Hopefully, the tv and the avr have the digital audio ports. Frankly, they would probably be happy with stereo if they could not get 5.1 surround. Thanks for the info and we will try the optical audio cables and hope it will work.
If you have the model right, you might not have the access to need. There are five different versions of a Roku 2, and even the newest version is 8 years old. Many channels no longer work on older devices. We would need the actual model number to know for certain.
It looks like they are using roku express. Just purchased them at best buy a few days ago. They can't find any model number.
Still working on this. Looks like the tv has hdmi inputs but neither one marked ARC. And the tv only has coax digital not optical. Using Roku express which I would connect via hdmi to the avr, my output to the tv would not be arc. If I connect from tv to avr using rca cables for audio, I don’t think it will work because I believe it has to be hdmi or optical. Anybody have any comments or suggestions? Thanks for any input
Gary-kc wrote:Still working on this. Looks like the tv has hdmi inputs but neither one marked ARC. And the tv only has coax digital not optical. Using Roku express which I would connect via hdmi to the avr, my output to the tv would not be arc. If I connect from tv to avr using rca cables for audio, I don’t think it will work because I believe it has to be hdmi or optical. Anybody have any comments or suggestions? Thanks for any input
Very strange there's no optical output. Coaxal audio out really fell out of favor from TV displays a long time ago. However, I see no reason you can't make it work. With the Roku connected to an HDMI audio input on the AVR, the sound never reaches the TV, as the AVR processes it. They only need for audio to come back to the AVR from the TV is for over the air broadcasts. Worst case scenario is you could always just use the TV speakers for that, but if your TV has a coaxal audio in you should be able to use that for the TV audio return.
ARC is only for returning audio from the TV to the AVR. It doesn't do anything for the audio of devices connected directly to the AVR. So feeding the TV audio back to the AVR via coaxal will put all the OTA sound out the AVR. And any other device directly connected to the AVR will also have their sound handled by the AVR. Assuming the AVR has 5.1 audio and you have all five speakers, then you will get surround sound from the Roku. Using a coaxal output, you still get 5.1 from the OTA broadcasts.
But if you use the analog audio out from the TV (the red and white cables), then you are only going to get two channel stereo. Remember coaxal audio is still digital, and only uses a single cable (although it's still an RCA connector). If you have the dual red and white outputs, those are not coaxal, and just analog stereo outputs.
