Digital Optical Out

[acid_burn]

Hi,

I have a Sony DAR-RD100 Home Theatre System. Recently the DVD
recorder has started to go wrong. There is nothing wrong with the
speakers so I thought I'd go out and simply replace the DVD recorder.
I bought a Philips DVDR3480 for £80. Trouble is there is no way to
connect this DVD recorder to the speaker set up. The original sony
DVD recorder has a "Digital Out Optical" port that my replacement
doesn't have. Instead the Philips has a coaxial output.

Does anyone know if the digital out optical port on the Sony recorder is a special "Sony only" port? Would I need to buy another Sony DVD player to
continue using my speakers?

If not, can someone recommend a decent DVD recorder (or maybe just a DVD Player) that I could use
with my current speaker set up?

Thanks

[Fearnot]

Not to hijack the thread but is there any difference in audio quality between optical and coax digital sound? One would not think so but why then use optical?

Wouldnt optical connections be more expensive and have more issues with dirt and misaligned connectors?

Matt

[edDV]

Probably the same Sony/Philips Digital Interface (S/PDIF) found on any DVD player. The digital audio is the same over coax or optical. Optical provides isolation to help prevent ground loops.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIF

S/PDIF can carry PCM uncompressed, Dolby Digital AC3 or DTS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC3