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nateo200

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Feb 4, 2009
2,906
42
Upstate NY
I want to play my high quality BluRay rips from my MacBook Pro to my TV hooked to surround. I have no idea what is going on but my Toshiba 46" LCD will NOT accept sound from my MacBook Pro at all via HDMI, PCM or any line I can get...its weird...doesn't matter the format either yet every other TV I connect it to does...yes I've read the manual. Anyways I want to just go straight to the surround sound system. I've tried using the MBP's regular audio headphone jack to connect to the surround sound via a component adapter which is what is connected to the end of the blue monster cables but I highly doubt the MBP will out put some of these video files audio.

I want to play DTS 6 channel discrete 640kb/s whilst watching my movies in 1080p but when I connect it via the regular audio port it only does stereo, in fact it only plays on the center speaker, the sub and the right speaker which is interesting probably has to do with the MBP outputting Dolby digital. Is this unreasonable?! I mean I am so impressed with my computers ability to play high res stuff and always have been but recently I've come to appreciate audio as being half of the quality and crappy stereo just does not cut it....
IMG_0936.jpg

IMG_0882.jpg

That's "my set up" well not mine really my parents I have my own 5.1 set up in my room which again my MBP does not like because I have no way of really outputting it. VLC gives me the option to output the audio via HDMI decoded but it does nothing....help?

EDIT: BTW I use optical with the surround sound system I have no clue if my MBP supports optical I thought the old white ones did though...
 
Last edited by a moderator:

ChrisA

macrumors G5
Jan 5, 2006
12,537
1,644
Redondo Beach, California
Use the Mac's optical fiber output. The audio out is a dual use jack and and s/pdif fiber cable fits. That is about the only way to get anything more than stereo out, well other then buying a 7 channel audio interface.
 

nateo200

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Feb 4, 2009
2,906
42
Upstate NY
Use the Mac's optical fiber output. The audio out is a dual use jack and and s/pdif fiber cable fits. That is about the only way to get anything more than stereo out, well other then buying a 7 channel audio interface.
I was thinking of buying a 7 channel audio interface but not looking to spend the dough on that...glad to know my MacBook supports fiber optic output though...I vaguely remembered that...also would a USB interface be fast enough...?...I know nothing about audio compared to video.

I'm not 100% sure on this but I believe the optical out on macs is still only stereo.

Edit : See this page http://www.thismuchiknow.co.uk/?p=24
Hmm that is confusing I did just run accross that as well...weird how they make outputting the highest quality audio so hard....I always thought HDMI was the end all to that... :/
 

unixperience

macrumors regular
Jul 21, 2010
235
5
my guess is there is an issue with your adapter (especially if its not from apple, no i'm not saying it has to be apple to work, but some 3rd party ones don't work well).

As the other poster said, the easiest way to get surround sound is using the spdif, i know its 5.1 for sure, not sure about 7.1 though..... never tried. but you just need a mini toslink (headphone jack sized) to toslink http://www.amazon.com/Recoton-Fiber-Optic-Toslink-Adapter/dp/B0002MQGRM


EDIT: as a side note, does your lg get audio over hdmi with other devices? did you try different hdmi cables? different hdmi ports as well? just a thought
 
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nateo200

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Feb 4, 2009
2,906
42
Upstate NY
my guess is there is an issue with your adapter (especially if its not from apple, no i'm not saying it has to be apple to work, but some 3rd party ones don't work well).

As the other poster said, the easiest way to get surround sound is using the spdif, i know its 5.1 for sure, not sure about 7.1 though..... never tried. but you just need a mini toslink (headphone jack sized) to toslink http://www.amazon.com/Recoton-Fiber-Optic-Toslink-Adapter/dp/B0002MQGRM
Thanks thats good to know 5.1 is good enough I guess I will find out what my rig can do soon enough! Of course my family doesn't notice much of a difference between 5.1, 6 discrete and stero but I'm a fiend for maximum quality! Hell I'd buy movies in there original 2k and 4k formats if possible!

EDIT: as a side note, does your lg get audio over hdmi with other devices? did you try different hdmi cables? different hdmi ports as well? just a thought
You mean my Toshiba? yeah I have enough HDMI cables to start a business and set up AT&T long lines in HD! Lol yes I've tried different cables and even adapters. Like I posted it works on every other TV except the one that matters :( (Yes even the 32" re-branded Sansui which can only handle Dolbly digital II)
Bold Bold Bold haha
 

nateo200

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Feb 4, 2009
2,906
42
Upstate NY
Here's the deal;

Playing The Dark Knight BluRay rip on my Sony surround sound system via my MacBook Pro using VLC. I have the Audio outputting via my MBP's optical out and directly into the surround sound since my Toshiba 46" LCD for whatever reason will never play sound under any circumstances when plugged into my mac. I have the surround sound hooked up to a front center, front right, front left, surround right, surround left and a sub but it will only play over front left, right and center and the sub. I have screen shots below regarding what it displays....
IMG_1087.jpg

IMG_1091.jpg

ScreenShot2011-08-25at11019PM.png

ScreenShot2011-08-25at11115PM.png

456456.png

Really don't understand I've seen older MacBook's play this kind of stuff...help? I've tried both encoded settings as well as non-encoded settings.....I want full 5.1 surround at minimum :/
 
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Jmouse

macrumors 6502
Mar 14, 2011
336
0
You said it's a rip off blue ray, any chance you left out some of the surround sound settings?
 

nateo200

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Feb 4, 2009
2,906
42
Upstate NY
You said it's a rip off blue ray, any chance you left out some of the surround sound settings?

I don't think so...?...Look at my screen shot attachment...it looks pretty solid to me...besides I tried other content that was specifically labeled like "5.1 surround sound test" "7.1 surround sound test" and got the same results.... :/
 

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