HDMI Dolby Digital from iMac (late 2009)

[Hand of Ike]

Hi,

I want to get Dolby Digital from my iMac I know I can get a mini display to HDMI adapter, but will it output Dolby Digital 5.1 through the HDMI cable?

Currently running Yoesmite 10.10.4

Thanks for your time.

 

[matreya]

It's a mini DISPLAY port - it doesn't output audio... only pro machines from the period (MacBook Pro and Mac Pro) had optical audio out and could output dolby digital.

 

[Hand of Ike]

Okay but HDMI cables do take audio so I wanted to check.

How would I go about getting 5.1 from my iMac? My iMac does have optical audio out though, through the 3.5 jack at the back through TOSLINK, but I've only ever managed to get Dolby ProLogic surround from that.

 

[matreya]

Okay but HDMI cables do take audio so I wanted to check.

How would I go about getting 5.1 from my iMac? My iMac does have optical audio out though, through the 3.5 jack at the back through TOSLINK, but I've only ever managed to get Dolby ProLogic surround from that.

I think you need something like this then:

http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=6331

 

[Hand of Ike]

Thanks,

But I'm confused, wouldn't that just be the same signal as my 3.5 optical output was giving out? How is that going to go to 5.1? It would need the optical out to be Dolby Digital and if that was the case I wouldn't have this issue. Am I missing something?

I found some threads that said that through the midi setup it is possible to output audio over HDMI via the Mini Display port, so I'm doubly confused!! I think I just want to see a working setup and then I can piece together what I need from that.

 

[matreya]

Your mac can only output dolby digital via optical digital out if the video is properly encoded with dolby digital... what video is it? an mkv from the internet or an itunes video?

 

[Hand of Ike]

Your mac can only output dolby digital via optical digital out if the video is properly encoded with dolby digital... what video is it? an mkv from the internet or an itunes video?

Thanks for persevering with me on this.

I'm outputting from a DVD, I thought that would be DD. Do I need to use iTunes video or get it converted to an mkv file....?

 

[matreya]

I haven't used a DVD in a while, so forgot to mention that.. are you using DVD Player.app to watch it?

 

[Hand of Ike]

Yeah using the standard DVD Player that comes with OS X....