Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
The Xbox Series X will be missing the optical S/PDIF audio output that was present on the Xbox One and Xbox 360 hardware lines.
[...] The removal will mainly impact players who use a small subset of high-end gaming headsets and audio systems that rely on the optical audio connection instead of audio sent over HDMI or Microsoft's wireless standard. Some users will be able to use S/PDIF passthrough output from their TV-set as a replacement, though. And Windows Central reports that wireless headset makers like Astro are already working on solutions to make existing Xbox One-compatible S/PDIF products work on the Series X.
Microsoft has also confirmed that the Series X will be missing the IR extension port that was present on the back of the Xbox One and the IR blaster that was present on the Xbox One S. Those features were only really useful in extremely limited circumstances, such as for Xbox users who wanted to use the system's TV remote control functions without plugging in a Kinect sensor.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday March 20 2020, @06:24PM
Heck, S/PDIF actually explicitly includes digital transmission over a copper wire with RCA jacks as an option in the spec. Why the expensive, finicky optical toslink variant is the one that became popular is beyond me. Only thing I can think of is that "optical" sounds high tech. Though I could also see consumers using audio-grade RCA cables possibly seeing degraded signals - though I don't think that's so much of a problem with only a single signal wire - not like USB or HDMI where timing issues from different wire lengths can prevent old cables from operating at new speeds.