I think my setup is fairly uncommon, but I wanted to see if anyone else has run into this problem or if things are working correctly and it's just me.
I use a 2010 Mac Mini as a media box, it's hooked to my TV via a surround sound receiver over HDMI. I occasionally use it to watch TV and Movies that I've purchased from iTunes, but after updating to macOS 10.13.3 it seems to not be able to play those anymore. (AC3 Passthrough in enabled in iTunes so that surround sound works with purchased content.) Playing any video content purchased from iTunes results in a black screen and the player doesn't move. If I scrub through the video, or use the fast forward / rewind buttons, I can see the video is fine, just at normal playback it doesn't move. If I disable AC3 Passthrough, the video plays but is completely silent. Outside of iTunes videos, audio still works fine. I can play music in iTunes and that works, and the Audio MIDI setup app can still play the test tone to each individual speaker.
I re-installed macOS 10.13.0 and everything plays back correctly again. What I'm trying to figure out is:
1. Does anyone else connect a mac over HDMI to a surround receiver and watch iTunes videos with AC3 Passthrough enabled?
2. Does it work fine for you under 10.13.3?
I haven't re-attempted the 10.13.3 upgrade yet, but I'm curious to see if the problem is just specific to my hardware, a bad upgrade caused by upgrading through multiple OS's for years, or a general problem that affects everyone and I should file a radar for it. It was fine on 10.13.2.
On the topic of hardware, I know the machine is pretty old and Apple will probably drop support for it in the next major OS. At the time I bought it, Front Row was still a thing and Hulu was still free, so the advantages of having an actual Mac hooked to my TV outweighed those of getting an older Apple TV. It's still good for video playback and basic games despite being a bit slow. I'd replace it with a newer mini, but since the last refresh was in 2014 I might as well wait until 2019 to see if Apple finally refreshes it after they're done with the new Pro.
I use a 2010 Mac Mini as a media box, it's hooked to my TV via a surround sound receiver over HDMI. I occasionally use it to watch TV and Movies that I've purchased from iTunes, but after updating to macOS 10.13.3 it seems to not be able to play those anymore. (AC3 Passthrough in enabled in iTunes so that surround sound works with purchased content.) Playing any video content purchased from iTunes results in a black screen and the player doesn't move. If I scrub through the video, or use the fast forward / rewind buttons, I can see the video is fine, just at normal playback it doesn't move. If I disable AC3 Passthrough, the video plays but is completely silent. Outside of iTunes videos, audio still works fine. I can play music in iTunes and that works, and the Audio MIDI setup app can still play the test tone to each individual speaker.
I re-installed macOS 10.13.0 and everything plays back correctly again. What I'm trying to figure out is:
1. Does anyone else connect a mac over HDMI to a surround receiver and watch iTunes videos with AC3 Passthrough enabled?
2. Does it work fine for you under 10.13.3?
I haven't re-attempted the 10.13.3 upgrade yet, but I'm curious to see if the problem is just specific to my hardware, a bad upgrade caused by upgrading through multiple OS's for years, or a general problem that affects everyone and I should file a radar for it. It was fine on 10.13.2.
On the topic of hardware, I know the machine is pretty old and Apple will probably drop support for it in the next major OS. At the time I bought it, Front Row was still a thing and Hulu was still free, so the advantages of having an actual Mac hooked to my TV outweighed those of getting an older Apple TV. It's still good for video playback and basic games despite being a bit slow. I'd replace it with a newer mini, but since the last refresh was in 2014 I might as well wait until 2019 to see if Apple finally refreshes it after they're done with the new Pro.