SPDIF vs HDMI + 2.0 Channels

[quickone]

Hi,

Quick question: In System->Audio, is there any difference between selecting SPDIF output and selecting HDMI output + 2.0 channels?
The only difference seems to be that choosing SPDIF hides the Channel Selection (as it only supports 2) and allows to Limit the Sampling Rate (though this option only seems to be used when Output Configuration is set to Fixed according to the hint)

Same question for Audio Passthrough (HDMI vs SPDIF) if we only select AC3 passthrough + transcoding
Here seems to be no difference if we don’t use DD+, DDTrueHD, and DTS-HD

Apparently HDMI/SPDIF receive duplicated output constantly from what I read in this thread: No Spdif device in system settings

My setup is an Odroid N2 connected to the TV (LG OLED C9) via HDMI, and TV connected to the AV system via Toslink/Optical

I have sound and correctly receive DD on my AV system either when choosing SPDIF or HDMI + 2.0 channels (also it doesn’t seem to matter the passthrought output I choose).

Kodi’s Audio Quickstart doesn’t seem to tell the difference and my google-fu is not helping me.

TLDR - I’m curious if it matters whether I choose SPDIF (and Limit the Sampling Rate to my AV’s input-maximum) or go with HDMI + 2.0 channels.

[nd299]

ok i’m not expert enough to answer your question, but i have noticed many times other experts usually recommend to connect the N2 directly to the AVR, not the TV.

[quickone]

Thanks for answering.

Unfortunately the N2 doesn’t have Toslink/Optical output, and I don’t want to invest into a HDMI/Optical splitter now as my AVR is old enough to only support Dolby Digital.

Anyways, you cannot get above DD and DTS over optical/coax