Okay so I'm looking at purchasing a home theater system and was wanting to know the best way to connect my mid 2012 MacBook Pro to the home theater system and TV. I am wanting to play both movies (Netflix etc) and music. Will my MacBook play 5.1 surround sound to the home theater system? Whats the best way to connect this all up? MacBook audio to the home theater system via Digital Optical from the headphone port with a 3.5mm to toslink adapter and then video to the TV via HDMI cable from the thunderbolt port with thunderbolt to HDMI adapter? My thinking was to separate the video and audio to get the best picture and sound. Also i'm running both Mac and Windows OS (through bootcamp). Any help/advice on this or any issues would be greatly appreciated.
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Connecting MacBook Pro to home theater system
- Thread starter Kiwipatch
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Use a Minidisplay port to HDMI adapter and a HDMI cable. Plug into a HDMI in port on your receiver and you're done.
You simply need to make sure your adapter passes through audio, not all of them do.
No need to split the audio and video if your receiver has HDMI inputs. Just one HDMI cable to the receiver will handle both, audio and video.
You won't get 5.1 sound from Netflix since you'll be using Netflix from a browser.
Also, do you have movies ripped from Blurays with HD audio (DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD)?
If yes, then you need to use Windows for those because OSX can't pass thru the HD audio signals.
If all you need is Netflix and play music from your itunes, then just forget the idea of connecting your MBP and get the $69 Apple TV. Much simpler, has Netflix with 5.1, and has a remote.
Okay thanks, one HDMI cable to the receiver was my initial thinking, but then saw somewhere online that mentioned going to the tv first and then to the receiver would give better picture quality. So would the apple tv just plug straight into receiver? And yes I would be playing the occasional ripped bluray with HD audio. Is it easy enough to setup 5.1 on the MacBook when playing DTS-HD movies?
Yes, the Apple TV would connect to the receiver with a HDMI cable just like your MBP would.
If you need HD audio then you need to use your MBP with Windows.
I use Kodi (formerly XBMC) for my bluray rips but there are others that can do the same thing. Plex Home Theater and MediaBrowser3 are popular too.
If you need HD audio then you need to use your MBP with Windows.
I use Kodi (formerly XBMC) for my bluray rips but there are others that can do the same thing. Plex Home Theater and MediaBrowser3 are popular too.
If you're going to use it for video playback/streaming, you're better off using either Apple TV or even a bluray player that can stream Netflix. Having to connect your MBP anytime you wanna watch something will just be a hassle, not to mention placement. Sony bluray players have Netflix/Hulu/Amazon/etc on the player and they stream in 5.1 Dolby digital. Don't think they'll stream HD audio as that takes a lot more bandwidth. Or get a Mac mini if you want to have access to a computer on your AV system.