[mysteria]

Some TVs have a SPDIF output that you can connect to a D/A converter, but that's also an external box which you don't want. The thing here is that modern TVs typically have an integrated Class D amp for their speakers that has a direct I2S input for the DSP. The TV manufacturer doesn't bother adding in a seperate D/A chip on the board as it doesn't need it.

The good thing though is that those cheap $10 HDMI audio extractors work well for this use case if you have a playback device that outputs PCM over HDMI. As a side note those extractors are also a great way of getting 5.1 surround sound from a HTPC running the Dcaenc DTS encoder [1] into an old pre-HDMI AVR.

1. https://gitlab.com/patrakov/dcaenc