Optical audio cables offer exceptional, digital sound quality, much better than your TV's speakers alone. Using an optical audio cable to connect a digital cable converter box to a surround system, for example, is a simple and inexpensive way of enhancing your TV watching experience. You must connect optical audio cables in a slightly different way than other types of audio cables; Taking a moment to properly connect everything is essential to the functioning of your home entertainment system.

Remove dust covers from optical audio cable. Because you can easily damage the optical components inside the connectors of optical audio cables, manufacturers often place plastic covers over the ends of optical audio cables. You can easily remove them by hand.

  • Optical audio cables offer exceptional, digital sound quality, much better than your TV's speakers alone.
  • Because you can easily damage the optical components inside the connectors of optical audio cables, manufacturers often place plastic covers over the ends of optical audio cables.

Remove dust covers from optical audio connections on the devices you want to connect. Manufacturers often place dust covers on optical audio output and input ports as well, particularly on devices like digital cable converter boxes and surround sound system amplifiers. Inspect the devices you plan to connect and remove by hand any dust covers on the optical audio connections.

Connect optical audio cable by inserting one end of the cable into each device that you wish to connect. Optical cables will only connect fully if they are right-side up, so take a moment to verify that you are not holding the optical audio cable upside down.