Hi Roku,
Not sure if this is the correct section.
In recent years we've seen audio outputs of any type, analog or digital, disappearing on video players, and it has caused a lot of grief for audio buffs.
More recently, S/PDIF coaxial and Toslink optical digital outputs are nowhere to be found on newer media players, leaving only a single HDMI. There are no audio outputs.
The thing is, these connector types are not obsolete, so we can't understand why at least one digital audio output is not being prioritized on video streaming devices.
It's factually correct that separate AES/EBU audio connections are still the method used in recording studios for digital audio transmission, and are found on some home audio DACs. The beloved Toslink optical and S/PDIF coaxial digital inputs are of course found on every audio DAC. They are the standard. HDMI, however, is not found on DACs. The reason is, HDMI requires a de-embedding process to extract the digital pass through, LPCM or DSD audio stream from the video data.
This situation causes a headache for audio aficionados that are invested in full audio systems. We typically don't use home theater receivers, because systems primarily oriented for music playback are structured differently than those for home theater.
The common suggestion for this problem is "use the TV's digital audio out" (these are vanishing too), or "use an HDMI-to-I2S/DOP audio extractor box". The problem in either case is more common than not, TV's and black boxes introduce degradation (jitter being one cause) which ruins the audio playback SINAD (signal-to-noise and distortion ratio). Contrasting with common notions, digital is not guaranteed bit perfect, and is not immune to RFI and ground plane noise from other digital circuits.
The point here is we focus much attention on Hi-Res/Master Audio formats and processing like Dolby Atmos, yet we overlook the real world performance at the hardware level which can be degraded to the same empirical level as 1980's CD players.
I don't know a great deal about Roku devices' digital tansmission quality over HDMI, but it would at least be nice to have a digital audio output so I can connect it directly to a DAC in the audio system.
