As many others here, we have our TV connected to the Hifi system, and in our case we use on optical connection. Now I wonder what sort of “data quality” does the TV feed the DAC? Lossy MP3 or CD Quality? We also currently use Berlin Phil’s Digital Concert Hall, for which our “Smart” TV has an app – and again, what data quality is used by these Smart TV apps?
I tried googling this, but wasn’t really successful.
Many thanks, and stay healthy everybody!
From memory when I used optical my Star used to tell me the signal was 48kHz.
I’m using the optical link too, and the quality seems fine, even given that the connection to my Naim Qute is very loose. It is very annoying though that you can’t control the volume and input switching over the optical link. In that respect, I am hoping that Naim and other vendors will provide HDMI/ARC sockets on all their future kit, as they already have, I believe, on Uniti devices. What I’m looking and hoping for though is a streaming preamp.
It seems to me that much of the Naim range is technically (and aesthetically) outdated compared to the all in one Uniti devices and I hope that Naim will address this soon… at a reasonable, at least by Naim standards, price level.
I believe TV optical outputs can have different options dependant on brand.
I have a Sony Bravia & its optical output specs show 2-channel linear PCM, Dolby Digital, DTS.
I connect this to NDX input & it gives an OK sound, better than TV & but not as good as CD (16/44 rips) from NAS
I use coax digital from my freesat player to my dac and its quite good esp as the dac has ifi smps and the dc barrel has been grounded as well, although it cant compare to cd SQ. optical is also used on my ps4/x box gaming console and this is slightly better too but not quite cd quality.
Thanks guys for all the responses — will check my TV’s capabilities. It’s an “elderly” Smart TV — so I fear it might not have the greatest capability.
I don’t know if the set top boxes like Sky Q and Virgin V6 offer better quality than a tv. Been really impressed lately with the sound from the Virgin V6 when watching Netflix content. Also I’ve found the picture quality a step ahead of The BBC who used to have much better quality years before all the multiple platform than they output on now.
I was a Netflix sceptic until the Mrs decided she wanted it. I’m glad she went ahead! 
I use Toslink connectors… most DVB at least carry 48/16 PCM carried as MP2 as well as multichannel formats.
Quality does vary considerably based on the bandwidth assigned to audio.
Films from Sky, Netflix, Apple and Amazon tend to have rather good audio… certainly warrants playing into main audio system.
I have been trying to find out, in my TV’s menu and manual, what bandwidth the optical cable is feeding my DAC – without success. Well, I guess I just enjoy what I have. One doesn’t really need to know – though it would have been nice. Sometime in the not so distant future we will be replacing the TV, and shall then pay attention to the TV’s audio capability. 
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