Audio Output as "Headphones" instead of "Digital"

[JeremyMacGregor]

Hey Guys,
I recently bought a Sony component home theatre system for my new iMac.
5.1 surround was working great (albeit after a bit of a work-around) for about a week, until I moved my Mac downstairs. When reconnecting it upstairs in my room, I can't seem to get the Optical cable to show up as Digital audio out in either Sound Preferences or Audio/Midi Setup, they simply appear as "Headphones".... meaning I get no sound at all.

I can't work out why this is, I have everything on my amp set up correctly, and I am using the right kind of cable. This is really frustrating because I had the mac set up with all my 5.1 movies and now it is useless.

Any ideas?

I am using an iMac 2.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, Sony home theatre HT-DDW785, and mini-opt to optical cable (if that helps)

Thanks for your time.

 

[mschuhma]

I have the same problem. The digital out of my iMac (Intel) suddenly stopped working. It was working for over a year without problems. Now when I plug in the optical cable (with a mini toslink adapter) i see "Headphones" in my Sound/Output preference pane - which doesn't obviously produce anything my receiver would like

My macbook by the way has no problem sending digital out to through the same cable - so I'm guessing it could either be a hardware problem or may be related to some recent software update.

I'm really relying on this to work as the iMac acts as the media center of my living room - so any ideas would be much appreciated!

 

[DannyB]

YOU should connect the person who sold them to u cause it was the production bag

 

[mschuhma]

I found a "solution" for the problem. I bought an m-audio transit usb audio interface (http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit-main.html).
It's quite small, works perfectly and does not need a mini toslink adapter.

Now I can even quickly change the output between the internal speaker and my receiver without plugging/unplugging cables