For digital formats, an uncompressed format, such as WAVE or AIFF is best.
"WAV" stands for Waveform Audio File Format. It is a standard audio file format used for storing audio data in a digital format. WAV files typically contain high-quality, uncompressed audio data.
The best format is probably digital, especially for churches where you will be taking a lot of recordings.
MP3 = MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3 MPEG = Moving Picture Experts Group, which develops standards for digital video and digital audio compression
MADI stands for Multichannel Audio Digital Interface and is the standard format for which electronic sound signals are defined in their electronic characteristics, and carry multiple channels of digital audio.
Optical otherwise referred to as Alesis Digital Audio Tape (ADAT) is a format used for recording 8 tracks of audio at once.
Similar only in the fact that both can be used to record audio. However, their underlying technology is totally different. A cassette records audio in an analog format while a CD records audio in a digital format.
The optical input on a TV is used for transmission of digital audio, in SPDIF format between devices, only.
Adat, which stands for Alesis Digital Audio Tape is a magnetic tape format that is used for digital recording. There is really only one use for Adat, which is that it allows the user to simultaneously record 8 digital audio tracks at once.
HDMI cables can carry audio but it is in digital format only. Any HDMI connector will be capable of carrying the audio content and any input should be capable of receiving and processing the audio in digital format. There should normally be no need to use analog audio with HDMI but there is one notable exception. HDMI shares the same video interface format as DVI, the digital display output used on computers. However, DVI does not support audio so a cable that links a DVI output to an HDMI input will not carry audio. For this reason, many new televisions have at least one HDMI input that also has an analog audio input associated with the HDMI port. This is specifically provided to cater for DVI + analog audio as delivered by many computers.
DTS is "Digital Theater Systems" (or sometimes just Digital Theater System). It used mainly on DVDs and in movie audio tracks, but was used for short while on the obsolete "Laserdisc" format. DTS is also the audio on many DVD-Audio discs.
analog audioRefers to recording audio in a format of continuous vibrations that are analogous to the original sound waves. Before audio recording became digital, sounds were "carved" into vinyl records or written to tape as magnetic waveforms. Contrast with digital audio