PowerBook video to projector, audio to VCR

They're analog signals... the powerbook has no control over where they go. Are you sure you've got all the cables plugged in correctly? Especially, are you sure you have the audio cable plugged into the right port on the PB and the right port on the VCR? Also are you sure they VCR is turned on, in the correct mode, and supports piping audio in this way with no video signal?

Good luck! Some VCRs I think just stop the signal if there's no video. If that doesn't work, though, I don't see why the PB's audio can't just be plugged into an open port (or pull out the VCR's plugs temporarily) on the surround sound receiver....

aurora borealis said:

It probably would work better to skip the VCR, but the plugs are on the back and that would require moving the entertainment center, which we can't do right now. We are getting a loud buzz, but nothing else.

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How do you have this hooked up exactly? You should have a mini-headphone jack (1/8") to RCA (two RCA plugs) cable. The one end should be plugged into the headphones jack on your PB and the other end should be plugged into the VCR. Is this what you're doing?

The cable you should be using should look something like this:

I don't think you can do that, although I'm not sure. I think you need the specific headphone to dual RCA adapter, although you might be able to play around with the one you have and see if two of the outputs produce audio (it might not be the red and white ones, though). The reason is that, much like the jack on iPhone headphones with a mic is slightly different from the jack on iPod headphones without a mic, the jack on the plug you have is slightly different, to accommodate three channels of information (video, audio left, right). The headphone output on the Powerbook, however, is audio only.

mkrishnan said:

How do you have this hooked up exactly? You should have a mini-headphone jack (1/8") to RCA (two RCA plugs) cable. The one end should be plugged into the headphones jack on your PB and the other end should be plugged into the VCR. Is this what you're doing?

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I agree with mkrishnan. This is almost exactly how I use mine - I send audio directly to the surround sound unit via an auxiliary input, video to the projector via the Apple adapter.

veterator said:

I agree with mkrishnan. This is almost exactly how I use mine - I send audio directly to the surround sound unit via an auxiliary input, video to the projector via the Apple adapter.

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What I used to do when I did this kind of thing a lot was to get that adapter cable, plug it into a pair of inputs on the receiver, and just leave it in the TV stand, bundled up on the side of the receiver. That way, I could always pull it out and jack it into the Mac when I wanted it. Now honestly, I have an EeeBox that lives on the TV, and my surround sound speakers are in a box somewhere, dormant for years now. I just get by on two channel stereo from the TV's speakers.