Is HDMI 1.3 Really Necessary ?

[chris57]

If you are only talking about rips downloaded then they tend to have DTS and not the newer formats. If you dont have DTS decoding facility via an Amp then it takes about 10mins with this converter to create a AC3 track:-
http://www.networkedmediatank.com/viewto...71&start=0

[3p141592654]

There is a big difference between the 8-10 micron diameter single-mode fiber used to transmit 10 Gb/s and more data long haul at 1310 or 1550 nm wavelength, and the cheap 1mm diameter multi-mode fiber and 850nm LEDs used by TOSLINK.

TOSLINK bandwidth is limited both by the awful modal dispersion of the crappy fiber and the cheap LED to about 622Mb/s and 10m length absolute max. To go beyond that requires better fiber, connectors and VCSELs for the optical source.

The connectors for single-mode fiber need to align the fiber ends with micron precision, and that costs real money unlike the cheap JIS F05 connectors of TOSLINK.