That's because most streaming devices that are best for music won't be connected to a TV. The ones made for videos will, so they have the interface. The audio streamers like the MUsucCast aren't made for surround sound, so it's natural that they won't have a video output.
BTW- you seem to be looking at the optical in the direction where the Yamaha is sending something to the TV- it's not, the signal is going TO the Yamaha FROM the TV. Smart TVs should be thought of as a source for audio when their apps are being used.
I have used the TV's optical out before. I have heard that if you are streaming a music app with high resolution/high quality audio, the optical cable will limit the bit rate/resolution/quality etc...That's why I am searching for a streamer/player that can output a higher quality audio signal. Higher than what my ROKU or Chromecast can output. I am also assuming that the Nvidia Shield outputs the same quality of audio as the ROKU, Chromecast.
Maybe the optical cable of my existing set-up out is enough. Not sure. Higher bit rate/digital outputs ould be "audio Tom-Foolery."
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If the optical out matches Redbook, it will do 44.1KHz/16Bit- how much better can you actually hear?
"I have heard...." is heresay and we all know that's not admissable in court, so why should it make us believe something we haven't heard for ourselves? I have heard that fancy cables with spare parts make the sound better but haven't heard the improvements for myself. I had also read that using a green Magic Marker to color the edge of CDs makes them sound better- does that seem logical? I heard an explanation after I mentioned it to an AudioQuest salesman and he offered some BS about it helping the error correction work less, but when I worked at a stereo store that was one of the first 50 Sony CD player dealers in the US, we placed a wedge of black electrical tape on a few CDs, to see if the player would skip or show some effect from it- it started at a point at the innermost track and IIRC, it was about 1/2" wide at the outer track, but it didn't block the Table of Contents. It didn't matter if it was there, or not.
Listen to the sound and equipment, not so much to opinions. Where did you hear this? The CD/DVD/BD disc may be HQ high bit rate, but where is the point that reduces it to what we can hear? You can have a 96KHz or 192KHz sampling rate, but that isn't what we're hearing- that's only used so the filters won't produce as much effect before digital conversion and even then, the 20KHz limit in the original CD format is higher than most people can hear, certainly after they reach middle age and have been exposed to a lot of noise, loud music, etc.
My recommendation- buy a Roku if you don't have one and listen to any channels that provide music. Listen without prejudice and do it with your eyes closed, so you can' see what's producing the sound. If you can honestly say that the sound isn't good enough,
