Amazon Basics 4K HDMI to HDMI and Audio Extractor Converter with SPDIF, Stereo Audio Output, Toslink Optical Audio for Apple TV, Fire TV, Fire Stick, Blu-Ray Players, Black

I have been looking for an audio extractor for the Apple TV 4K, for reason that my (old but good) AVR only has HDMI pass through. It does not decode audio. And unlike the previous Apple TV, the latest does not have optical/audio out. There are so many of these audio extractors available, and none have consistently good reviews. I purchased a different one on Amazon which I returned because the video picture was distorted and all snow. In a second attempt I purchased this Amazon Basics extractor. Works great! Picture is no different than without the extractor. And now I have optical out for my AVR. That sound is great as well. Pretty much plug and play device. The only adjustment I made was to the Apple TV audio setting. It did not recognize that Dolby 5.1 was switched on the extractor. However it did allow me to select it. Doing so, surround sound kicked in and the Dolby indicator lit up on my AVR. Sounds great! Even sounds better than the old Apple TV with optical out.

I have a very high end amplifier and speakers, and with our present at home concert requirement (thank you coronavirus), as soon as I projected to a television so my better half could see and hear too, the sound quality was just plain dreadful. I cringed, no matter what I tried. This device fits between the source and the television in the HDMI cable chain and provides "line out" audio from whatever source is sent to the television (note off the air television will not function, although cable will work fine). The impedance match is perfect. For the record every television set I have ever seen has dreadful audio, if you are an audiophile. I use a 4k Chromecast device and my concerts are live quality audio again. This is highly recommended. One misleading aspect of this particular device is that while it does have 3mm stereo out, there is only a single RCA jack, so to the best of my knowledge, there is no way that can carry both channels, slightly misleading specs. That said, a 3mm to RCA output cable performs fine, and my superb quality McIntosh amplifier is now effectively connected to the internet (via Chromecast). This box is trivial to set up. Just plug it in, set your television to whatever HDMI input you plug this box into, and the rest is completely transparent.

I used this to extract Hi-Res (24-bit, 96KHz) Audio from a Panasonic Blu-Ray players HDMI output. I can confirm it works over both the optical and coaxial outputs when connected to a stereo (2-channel) preamp. This got good reviews over at AudioScienceReview. For the price this item worked very well. Do remember that you will need to tweak the settings on the Blu-Ray player. I only tested this on Blu-Ray Audio Disc (Pure Audio). Did not test SACD. Minus 1/2 star for not including a power supply and an other 1/2 star for not retaining the 5.1 setting (necessary to get the Hi-Res) when power is cut and It must be selected manually when powered on.

I used this in an effort to get my fancy soundbar to cooperate with my TV. This component worked well as advertised to separate out the audio but my fancy soundbar let me down in other ways.

Search reviews for this product and Amazon reports this summary, "The product description states it supports ARC. Customers report it works well for extracting audio from the TV's ARC output to an older sound system." Based on my experience, that is not true. At least not with Sony HDMI/ARC. The extractor does not work with my new Sony Bravia X90L TV. I have the extractor connected to HDMI3 (eARC/ARC port) using a high bandwidth cable. And a 3.5mm cord connecting the extractor to my analog stereo amp and speakers. The extractor is set to 2 channel stereo. TV set to output external sound and HDMI/ARC is enabled. There is no sound from the amp / speakers. And more importantly, there is no purple light on the extractor, signifying that it's not successfully communicating TV's HDMI (ARC) port. Sony tech support networked into my TV and confirmed that HDMI3 "sees" the extractor and is trying to communicate with it, but that the extractor is not responding. After hours of troubleshooting, I returned the module.

I have an older receiver with optical and coaxial inputs but not HDMI. I connected my Blu-ray player to this interface via HDMI, and used the interface's coaxial output to the receiver. It was very easy to set up, and worked perfectly. My sound setup is decent but not great speakers, so I can't speak to the resulting sound quality. Then I connected the interface to the HDMI output from my laptop to extract sound from an MKV file (which was playing perfectly over the laptop speakers, and would play perfectly over TV speakers if a TV were connected to HDMI). I got no digital signal at all on the receiver via the component input. I tried 2 different HDMI cables, and also tried the optical output on the interface. No luck.

Worked about as well as could be expected. Split the audio signal nicely out of the 4K Roku's HDMI signal to my cheap projector to let me install a surround sound system for my on a budget theater. Super easy to install, just plug in the HDMI cables and your optical audio cable. Feels like it'll hold up forever with the steel case its wrapped up in. It will function with anything that takes HDMI for video/audio and any stereo that takes optical audio. I also wouldn't consider 30hz a limitation for this device, as most professional movies are filmed at 24fps, so it isn't going to have any noticeable stutter or frame drops on anything filmed in the last 100 years. Does not have a noticeable impact on image quality.

I have a projector home theater setup with an older, non-HDMI compatible surround sound head unit. This wasn't an issue when I was using an old Xbox one as my media player because the Xbox had a "Toslink" is optical audio out option that could go to the stereo. However, every modern streaming device (Roku, Apple TV, etc) re just HDMI out, so when I switched to a Roku Ultra I had no way to get audio. This worked great, and the 5.1 channel DTS/Dolby surround option (press the button, light turns on) is putting out great audio. Saved me from huge expense and effort of upgrading an older home theater projection setup and stereo. Recommend. I've only had it working for a day, so I'll try to update my review if the product stops working in under a year.