Connect Laptop to TV Audio via Optical (Toslink)

Your Laptop (Optical Output)

Your TV (Optical Input)

To experience the highest quality audio while transmitting video from your laptop to your TV, you'll need an entirely digital signal. Digital signals send over 1's and 0's from a source to a receiver. Analog signals are sent over in waves. Think of it as a light switch vs an old radio dial. The light switch can either be on or off, while the radio dial can be tweaked in any direction to produce a slightly different result. With digital audio cables, the sound either comes through at crystal clear, 100% quality or it doesn't work at all. Digital audio cables are also the only cables that can carry proper surround sound signals.

There are several ways to transmit a digital signal from your laptop to your TV. One of the earliest, designed in 1983 by Toshiba and still in use today, is the optical (Toslink) audio cable. This cable takes a beam of red light from the source and transmits it via fiber to the receiver. If you have an optical output on your laptop or desktop and an optical input on your TV (seen above), this cable is the only thing you need.

Due to the physical design of these cables they tend to be slightly rigid and sometimes difficult to maneuver. For that reason I recommend getting a cable slightly longer than you would otherwise think you'd need. If you are connecting your laptop to your TV from 5 feet away, I'd recommend going with at least a 10 foot cable instead of 6. That being said, you'll get the same crystal clear signal using an optical cable as you would over HDMI, so if this option is available to you I highly recommend it.