Optical cable abilities

Factual Questions
1

Hi,
I’ve been wanting to look into optical cable as far as uses and abilities go for technology.
When I did a search the “How does optical cable work?” question was answered out the ying-yang and so was the aspect of internet speeds.

But I’m not looking for any of that, what I want to know is in relation to multimedia,
I’ve noticed more and more computers, AV receivers, dvd players, even TVs with and optical cable port on it and I want to know what I can do with it.

For instance, does this port transfer only audio information or video as well
(does it exclude certain elements of the signal?)

I’ve done enough reading to know the basics of how this cable works and that it’s really meant for longer runs, but I’m looking for quality.

Is this cable better or equal quality than the very proprietary HDMI standard?

This technology has been around for quite a while, but I could find no relevant information on the subject in regards to entertainment center connectivity.

What can I do with this medium and what are it’s limits and advantages?

2

AFAIK, optical cables are only used for audio in the A/V arena. If you have the right components, you can run your AC-3 encoded audio over optical cables. You can run optical cables for long distances, but other than that, there’s no particular advantage over standard copper cables (optical is less susceptible to interference, but the signal is digital, so it’s pretty robust anyway).

3

What you’re looking at on that back of home theater gear is most likely Toslink. It carries digital audio only, using a transmission standard called S/PDIF, which is a subset of a broader standard called AES/EBU.

The Toslink standard is actually relatively short-distance - it’s limited to ten meters, or about 30 feet, and the usual limit is only 5 meters / 15 feet. I suspect this is a limitation based on laser safety regulations in consumer equipment.