How to connect Mini to TV/Receiver to get digital surround sound?

Use the SAT Digital In on the receiver to connect to the Mac's optical out.

You will need a TOSLINK to optical Jack adaptor on the Mac side though.

BrittQ said:

Perfect, thanks!

So for video I need an adapter to HDMI - and connect it to the Sat HDMI port in the receiver.

This would be the best solution?

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Yes, DVI to HDMI and you're set.

TVs with HDMI inputs can be connected to Mac mini with a DVI to HDMI adapter.A DVI to HDMI adapter will relay video but not audio from the computer.

Only the new MacBooks will relay audio through the Mini DisplayPort connector. Unless your Receiver can be configured to accept a different audio input to the input video then you will need to connect the computer to the TV, then the optical to the Receiver.

I have a Yamaha and with it you can specify an audio source other than the input video, but not when the input video is HDMI.

faithhevans said:

TVs with HDMI inputs can be connected to Mac mini with a DVI to HDMI adapter. A DVI to HDMI adapter will relay video but not audio from the computer.

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An adapter such as this would allow you to connect the audio and video to the receiver:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10114&cs_id=1011405&p_id=5369&seq=1&format=2

Digital surround sound isn't guaranteed to work just because you connect using your Mac's digital optical audio port. The software on your Mac also has to enable surround sound output and I'm fairly certain that the only Apple application that supports surround sound is Apple's own DVD player. However, there are "hacks" that enable AC3 passthrough via QuickTime. Here is a step-by-step guide on doing so:

http://www.cod3r.com/2008/02/the-correct-way-to-enable-ac3-passthrough-with-quicktime/

This works great for me!

I would convert the signal to HDMI, then go HDMI into your receiver, assuming you're using that single HDMI out to your TV. Below are two solutions from monoprice. I use the first one all the time!

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10428&cs_id=1042802&p_id=5969&seq=1&format=2

It says it will only support 2 channel stereo, but mine does full 7.1 Dolby PlIIx when I'm catching up on Lost. I dunno? Anyone else using this one?

They also have this one, which has the optical input.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10428&cs_id=1042802&p_id=6331&seq=1&format=2

Also, I'm going from my MacBook Pro to my Denon receiver. I'm guessing it would be the same from a Mac Mini.

Islander214 said:

...It says it will only support 2 channel stereo, but mine does full 7.1 Dolby PlIIx when I'm catching up on Lost. I dunno? Anyone else using this one?...

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Are you really sure you are getting multi-channel audio using that HDMI/USB adapter from Monoprice (or is your receiver just synthesizing surround sound from a stereo input)? Most receivers will happily switch into multi-channel Dolby and enable the surround sound speakers even with a plain stereo input. Does your receiver have indicators for both input and output audio signal states (indicating when you actually have multi-channel input as opposed to simply indicating multi-channel output)? Are you using a third-party extension or driver to enable such output? What application are you using to get multi-channel playback? AFAIK, multi-channel audio support on the Mac has been pretty weak unless you use third-party extensions and/or drivers. About the only built-in support comes with Apple's DVD player application (but that only works with DVDs and getting it to actually switch on is kind of a chore -- it's not enabled by default).

Lastly, I noticed just yesterday that this thread was started over one year ago (don't know why it was resurrected by faithhevans on May 16). Thus, I'd assume that the OP is long gone.