Mac Mini HTPC Setup???

[MWillis561]

Okay, so I've got a little bit of a problem/inquiring.

Right now I'm running an Apple TV into an HDMI switcher and then running that straight to my Vizio TV through HDMI. Everything works great (sound/audio).

So I'm looking to run my Mac Mini straight to my TV also so I can run a little more complex HTPC with Plex and other things. My problem occurs when trying to get the audio to my TV. On my Vizio I do not have any audio ports associated with a HDMI input. Basically if I want my video to come in through the HDMI port, audio will need to come in through that as well. I know that the mac mini can't output audio through the DVI since it doesn't support audio.

My question is, is there a device or receiver that will take a HDMI signal and optical audio signal, combine them, and output them into 1 HDMI signal which will go straight to the TV, both Audio and Video?

Please ask questions if you need more info.

 

[jbcandkc]

I found this by searching google "dvi to hdmi converter optical audio"

and got...

http://www.supermediastore.com/apog...dif-optical-toslink-coaxial-input-output.html

and

http://www.amazon.com/Audio-SPDIF-Toslink-Converter-Adapter/dp/B0015YYOQQ

among others.

READ THE REVIEWS, not very promising.

 

[MWillis561]

Yeah it looks like from the reviews that it doesn't work with mac's too well. Obviously with wanting to make this an HTPC setup I will need to find a solution that will work with a non compliant HDCP setup.

 

[jbcandkc]

I have a 40" Sony LCD and an old G4 Mac Mini. I have a Directv DVR plugged in via HDMI but I use a DVI to VGA adapter and a VGA cable to connect the Mini and a 1/8" mini plug for stereo audio. Works pretty good for what I use it for. Does your Vizio have any other inputs?

 

[MWillis561]

It has 2 composite, 2 component, 2 hdmi and 1 vga. The problem is, that it doesn't have any audio inputs that work with the hdmi inputs (which I would like to use do to the quality of HDMI.

Since it looks like I would have to spend some money on a box that converts DVI and toslink --> HDMI (and it doesn't even do a good job at that). I figure I might as well buy a cheap home theater speaker setup which should work perfectly with what I'm trying to do. I found the Sony CT100 which is has a small enough profile, good sound and a low price tag which should work perfectly.

If anybody else has any other good solutions I would love to hear about them. Thanks.

 

[srexy]

It has 2 composite, 2 component, 2 hdmi and 1 vga. The problem is, that it doesn't have any audio inputs that work with the hdmi inputs (which I would like to use do to the quality of HDMI.

Since it looks like I would have to spend some money on a box that converts DVI and toslink --> HDMI (and it doesn't even do a good job at that). I figure I might as well buy a cheap home theater speaker setup which should work perfectly with what I'm trying to do. I found the Sony CT100 which is has a small enough profile, good sound and a low price tag which should work perfectly.

If anybody else has any other good solutions I would love to hear about them. Thanks.

I think you've come up with the best solution right there.