Controlling Sound From Keyboard Using a Mini Toslink Cable

[JGuez]

Hey.

I have a 2009 (early) iMac and was pretty bummed when I found out (the hard way) that sound will not work through an HDMI cable.

That said, I did some research before I bought a cable this time and found that I needed to purchase a Mini Toslink cable in order to get sound from my iMac to my receiver, to use my surround speakers.

I ordered the cable and am listening to music through it as I type. The sound is terrific.

My main gripe that may not have a solution is I would like to control the sound from the keyboard shortcuts, but when you plug in with the mini toslink cable, it seems that the sound can only be controlled by the receiver.

It's not really the end of the world, but I did want to know if there's some sort of work around to this.

TLDR: When plugged in through a mini toslink cable, can you control sound from the keyboard shortcuts?

Thank you.

 

[iSayuSay]

As far as I know you can't control digital audio volume from the source.

Not only happens on iMac actually, it also happens for DVD/BD/PS3/NMT player with audio bitstream output (coax/optical/HDMI). System volume can only be controlled by your receiver since D/A conversion done by it, not the source.

So, yes it's a tradeoff if you want to utilize iMac mini TOSLINK. You can no longer control the system volume from the iMac/keyboard itself.